The Road to Acapulco is muy bien!

We've been safely back from Acapulco for a few days. Just a few more days hereafter left for us in Mexico. The month has gone well aside from the random intestinal distress all three of us experienced. I'm still at best a functional retard (sorry, retards) with regard to Spanish, but at least I can direct my cabbies to and from daycare for Maya without getting lost or screwed on the fare. One dooshbag tried to overcharge me awhile ago - I beat him down like a rented burro even with my 17 functional words en espanol. But aside from that, the people here are fabulous. Friendly, hard-working-to-a-fault, immensely curious, and futbol crazy. I was so pysched to see Mexico beat Iran on Sunday, even though I'm only living a brief vicarious connection to their fandom. And I've had a few cabbies try to calm my expected discontent with the horrible first American match against the Czech Republic. If I learn anything of value before I leave, it will be a decent Mexican futbol cheer. That, and I desperately need to find a place that sells Mexican wrestling masks. I'll keep you posted.

Before I get too far past our weekend trip, I'd like to offer a few brief snapshots of life in Acapulco - Mexico's first beach resort.

First of all, we made a mistake in booking online what was undoubtably a cheap hotel room. The problem was that it was also at an entirely sleezy scam hotel right across the street from one of the 2 or 3 top resorts in the city (with a very similar name that confused us, based on recommendations from friends locally). When we saw what we'd drawn as a "deal" - with what looked on the drive-by like a rusting bike in the pool and a crappy chain stretched across the access road as a gate - we immediately went upscale and booked a room at the proper namesake on the beach side, the Fairmont Princessa. And we're damn glad we did. Maya spent most of her weekend eating a seemingly endless supply of french fries, we hung out almost entirely in the friendly confines of our resort address, and we didn't even use the chance to soak up the disco beat from anything closer than grenade range. But it is a truly top tier spot, if you go in for that sort of thang. Obviously, Acapulco's a prime example of the haves being kept at arm's length from the multitudes of havenots. It is, after all, in the poorest, least healthy state in Mexico (Guerrero). Can't say that we're headed back - the ocean's kinda gross and we don't really dig the whole pre-packaged resort feel. But it was an entirely cool getaway from Cuernavaca.

With regard to the getaway part, we also acted like muy importante Americanos by renting a car from the Hertz agency here and taking the tollroads or "cuotas" down to Acapulco. I opted for a Nissan Tsuru - basically the Ford Escort of this part of the World. And ended up with a brand frickin' new one - it hadn't been driven by a single goofball aside from the people that had dropped it off at the agency that morning. So when the mechanic handed it over to me (an American wearing a Jeff Spicoli t-shirt) he looked like I was kidnapping his daughter. The tollroad was ridiculously beautiful - rolling green mountains along the way with stands of cacti and crazily carved rocky passages almost the entire 190-ish miles to Acapulco. But the tollroad was also ridiculously expensive for most Mexicans, especially considering that it cuts through Guerrero and costs over $30American to get from here to there, one-way. Basically, all you see along the way are Jaguars or SUVs driving ridiculously fast that you're told to assume are from Mexico City and the occasional local pick-up full of people in the flatbed going from one exit to the next. In the end, the drive down was a funky way to see the obvious separation between the rich and the poor in Mexico. It makes me think that much more of Mexico would be fun to see by car. If you think I'm being a horribly naive Gringo, let me know.

There will be much more to comment upon in summation as we near the end of our time here. So please check back. Hope your own cultural exposure doesn't burn you in the days ahead. Rock on.