The drive there was reasonably long. It was 3 hours away, and there is nothing on the roads. It was very cool riding along the Mexican interstate and seeing what it was like. The roads were very deserted and there were no exit points like in the US. Occasionally, like once an hour, we would come along a toll area. The toll areas were very nice and there would be a rest stop area with bathrooms and people selling food and drinks and stuff. After you left that, that was pretty much it until the next toll.
Besides the fact that it was deserted, it was very, very beautiful. There were a lot of mountains and hills. I saw cactus plants growing wild! Yes, I know,this is silly, but I�ver never seen those before! No, let me tell you. I had no idea that the big cactus plants are more like trees than they are plants. They are very big and have a whole lot, like maybe 25 big cactus stems growing out of them. they are very big and this suprised me. Someone who lives in the midwest area might have already seen these, but we do not have them in the southeast. Anyway, I really liked the view of the countryside while we were heading over.
As far as Acapulco, it was nice. It was not very busy, but there was still a significant amount of people there, especially for the off season. The hotel we stayed in was modest, but it was nice. The first night, the hot water ran out, so I took a really fast shower in the cold water. We went to the beach on the second day. Something that I found interesting was the massive amounts of people coming up and asking us to buy things. Mostly braids- they were offering to braid hair. There were also several people walking around offering massages. This one lady (after I showed interest), came up and started giving me a massage with oil. She said the first 2 minutes were free. It was really nice! I told her that I didn�t have my money at the time, but that I would like to have one later on.
That night we went to visit my housemother�s aunt. She was really cool! She is a twin of her (my housemother�s) mother and was very lively. She was in her late fifties, I think. I enjoyed listening to her talk. As usual, I don�t understand everything, but I still liked listening.
The next morning she came with us to the beach. The beach had all kinds of things going on, including parasailing. I was excited, though, because I had been saving my money for the massage. I kept looking for Reina (the lady who had offered me the massage), because I wanted to buy it from her. I couldn�t find her, though. Anyhow, right beside us was parasailing. A little girl (maybe 10 years old) had just taken off. My housefather kept picking at me about me doing it. He was like, "come on, you gotta live once...!" He had already done it one time before. It looked kind of fun, and so I found out that it was only $20. You got a 7 minute circle around the bay. So, I figured, whatever, and went over to do it. It was so fast! They put all the stuff on me, hooked me up and next thing I know, the guy was like, okay, "RUN!" So I started running and took off in the air! It was so cool!
(continued on next page)
