Mexico – Acapulco
Acapulco, for a long time Mexico’s most famous seaside resort, is not for friends of dreamy fishing villages.
Initially, it was the American holidaymakers who discovered the run-down harbour town on the beautiful Horseshoe Bay as a holiday destination for themselves. In the late fifties, the international tourist rush began. A large number of hotel towers have been built between the beach and the green hills. This created a coastal region completely covered in concrete. Today, Acapulco is an ideal place for vacationers who want to be burned black on the twenty different beaches and are looking for nocturnal fun.
Since the 1930s, the famous rock divers of La Quebrada have been attracting large crowds of visitors. With a huge jump from a suicidal height of 45 m, you dive into a narrow pool. A daring undertaking, because the water in which they immerse themselves seems to be only a puddle. Before the jump, a short prayer is performed at a small altar. There is a beautiful view of the divers from the bar of the El Mirador Hotel.
Less crowded beaches can be found at Pie de la Cuesta, 8 km northwest of the city centre. An impressive view over the bay of Acapulco can be found from the road to Puerto Marqués, 16 km southeast of the city. South of the PenÃnsula de las Playas is the Underwater Shrine, a bronze statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe that stands on the bottom of the sea.
In the meantime, however, Cancún is contesting Acapulco’s reputation as Mexico’s most famous and feudal holiday resort. Cancún is a holiday centre with a more modern design. The island off the northeast coast of Yucatán is 21 km long and about 400 m wide. At the northern and southern tip, roads lead to the mainland. In 1970, a maximum of 200 people lived here, but now more than 200,000 people live here. Almost all of them live from tourism. One million holidaymakers flood the area every year. The predominantly North American holidaymakers are offered endlessly long and white Caribbean beaches combined with turquoise lagoons.
You can practice every conceivable sport here. The hotel buildings are designed in a modern way. There are air-conditioned shopping malls with high-end boutiques and plenty of gourmet restaurants. Most things are considerably more expensive than on the mainland. It is always cheaper and less hectic on Isla Mujeres, the “Women’s Island”, a few kilometers to the east. It can be reached either by ferry from Puerto Juaréz or by hydrofoil from Cancún. Here you can still find a little of the idyll of the Caribbean, as it still hovers in people’s heads, with simple hotels on the white palm beach and a coral reef at the southern tip.
