Coco Loco in Acapulco

Last Saturday, we drove out of the D.F. and headed to the beach. Just 4 hours south of us lies Acapulco--the road is new and fast, without much traffic, but lots of toll fees. Before we knew it, we were pulling into the biggest baddest city on the beach.


Acapulco has a million people, glamorous beach resorts, a thriving night life and a very busy system of criminal syndicates. Basically, it's a Mexican Miami.

We had planned to stay out of the center of the city because our trip's purpose was centered around relaxing, not dodging beach vendors and hanging out at "the world famous" Carlos 'n Charlie's. We drove about 15 minutes past downtown to a small bay called Diamante where our hotel was hidden in a gated community of vacation villas.

Sergio managed the incredibly slow check-in at the hotel while Sasha gaped at the open-air lobby.


Perfect! It got even better as we strolled outside to find our room and saw how quiet our corner of the bay was. Soon enough we realized, hey, its hot outside. Awesome!

We heard something about it being cold in the U.S.?

Our room was big and sunny and simply furnished.


With a great view from the balcony:

After eating some lunch, we hopped to it and headed down to the little slice of private beach that would be our home for the weekend.


We spent the rest of the afternoon reading our books in the shade, poking our heads out from under the canopy to get some sun and take a dip every once in a while. Our biggest effort of the day turned out to be taking a ridiculously overpriced taxi up the mountain to a "Mex-Thai" restaurant -- Sergio made the mistake of calling it "Thai-Mex" and was quickly admonished. The place featured over-the-top decor and over-the-top Eastern European call girls at the table next to us. See, this town is totally Miami!

On Sunday we drove to Pie de la Cuesta, a beach town that had come highly recommended by our neighbors Joe and Lisa. He's Australian so we suspect he liked the place for its gnarly waves and expansive sandy beach. We liked it because there were dudes like this waiting to greet us:

"My horse's mane is too beautiful for you. Or is it just beautiful enough?"

Other than the beach cowboys, there weren't many people at all and we enjoyed ourselves in relative solitude.


It was crazy hot outside, and we attempted to cool off with one of the local beverages:

Lukewarm coconut milk = not refreshing.

Sergio ventured into the water while Sasha watched nervously, mumbling about riptides.

He managed the water okay, but Sasha was somewhat vindicated when we returned to work on Tuesday to find our colleague with a giant black eye he sustained from bodysurfing in this exact location. Yep, the Pacific Ocean will totally punch you in the eye. Sergio was lucky.

Lucky? I punch back.

We spent the rest of Sunday looking fruitlessly for a place to buy what we have termed "acapulco chairs," these patio chairs that we covet but which are apparently not found in say, Acapulco. Sigh. (Note: one of Sasha's favorite pastimes is to shop for things that might not actually exist in reality. She's passed this on to Sergio.) Mission aborted, we lounged around in defeat by the swimming pool back at the hotel.


Monday morning we raced down to the beach at the hotel to squeeze in some more relaxing before check-out. We were the first folks down there other than some fishermen.


Well, fishermen who also offer water skiing (repeatedly). We passed.

Who needs watersports?

We were too busy frolicking in the surf and reading our enormous books about LBJ's early career in Washington and turn of the century Chicago labor radicals.

Nerds.

All in all, we left Acapulco on Monday rested and rejuvenated, just like they say you're supposed to feel after a beach vacation.

We enjoyed a very pleasant drive back home and even enjoyed a stop at McDonald's for something called a McFlurry. (Do you know they don't sell those hot fudge sundaes anymore? Or at least not in Mexico? Major bummer.) We could have parked in this spot:



That's because Sasha's pregnant. To sum up, it has been a blessedly uneventful 5 months or so of "expecting" and we're either having the baby on May 30th or June 3rd (or more likely neither one since the range of dates we've heard for the due dates suggests the fruitlessness of predicting this kind of thing). We know the sex but we can't tell you on here cos Sergio's mom wants to be surprised.

Sasha trying really hard to look like a pregnant lady.

So keep the soon-to-be-three Morenos in your thoughts and prayers. And if you can, send Sasha some new pants.