Faded Glory

I traded an arid, hyper polluted yet cultural mecca, for humidity, giant ants and the territory of one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico: Welcome to Acapulco. What used to be the IT spot in Mexico for natives and foreigners alike (Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor were reported to visit) has slowly deteriorated to a shadow of it's former splendor. It still hosts record amounts of tourists each year, but more increasingly has grown partisan in an insipid drug war between cartels that has permeated the country within the last decade to make parts of Mexico more dangerous than its Latin American neighbors, it's only dangerous if you get caught in the crossfire a local assured me, "I'll take a grenade with that margarita, no thanks, the salt makes the shrapnel too 'tinny'."

We arrived by car, after paying entirely too much in highway tolls. You could feed a family for a week on the amount of pesos we dropped for a better maintained road and a "safer passage" to Acapulco (next time, I'm opting for a few potholes and some stray bullets). I caught a ride with a fella I contacted via Craigslist who was heading to Acapulco at the exact time that I was itching for some coast (literally, the dry air in Mexico City made me itch). We decided to team up and take on a 4 or so hour drive and land at the house of a couchsurfing member by the name of Eduardo. Eduardo is a gracious host that has offered us anything we could want, including an endless supply of giant ants he calls "gueras" (blondies) which he claims are harmless. We stopped in to put down our bags, then we went off for tacos and beer and to sit at the Zócalo (town square). I was a bit amazed at how many stray cats/kittens there were just perched along the boats, waiting for fishermen scraps I guess. We kicked it there for a minute then headed back to Eduardo's place to catch some soccer and internet. I ended up talking to Eduardo about a plethora of culturally related things, For example he says that from his experience, Americans have the capacity for loneliness because they are locked up in their house and no one talks to one another, kids don't play in the streets and neighbors don''t mix it up well into the night. HE also assured me that the neighborhood we were in was safe, but that a couple weeks back there was a big military vs cartel blow out with grenades and guns that lasted a while, but as he says, they are preoccupied with killing each other, not you. (just stay out of the crossfire)

On a side note, I found out that the big military presence I was commenting on in Cuernavaca last weekend was more than usual because they had just killed one of the biggest drug lords in the country. You know where his territory was/is? Yup, Acapulco.

We ended up trading stories for a couple hours and then trading notes on music. He gave me a good tour of Spanish music which started with El Tri, a 40 yr old Mexican Rock band, and ended with Soda Stereo ( Argentinian band oddly similar to Morrisey)

check out some Mexican flavor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4AEuon2ncA

I don't know how long I'll be in Acapulco, or where to go next, but for now I'm enjoying the stickiness and giant ants.