Tag Archives: Acapulco

The 1973 Acapulco Adventure Part 6

10 Mar

Having made our sketchy drug purchase upon immediate arrival to Acapulco, the boys and I were quickly off to our next adventure destination. My memory gets a bit faulty, but as I remember we followed the highway out of town and made inquiries along the way as to the illusive Roberto. Finally when a group of vendors all pointed in the same direction when we asked, “dónde vive Roberto?” we turned off the highway onto a sandy trail toward the ocean.

Highway market.

The narrow beach road proved to be a nightmare. We managed to damage the underside of the van crossing a dip or possibly a dry creek bed. The van limped along, but it was clear that we weren’t going anywhere for awhile, certainly not back to Cholula to start classes. Oh shit.

Parking the VW van in the shade until parts for repair could be brought from Acapulco.

We pulled/pushed into a clearing with the pacific not fifty meters (160 feet) away. The family who lived here looked at us as if we had dropped in from another planet. It took us days to figure out that the two room, dirt floor house and assorted shelters we had found were actually a fishing base camp. And btw, Roberto who lived further down the ‘road’ was out of town.

The language barrier was monumental, far beyond my one year of high school Spanish. The other worldly environment that we stumbled into took us days to make sense of. Our brains exploded with each piece of the puzzle we assembled. The bottom line was that a young couple with their three children and grandma lived in a two room mud and stick house with pounded dirt floor. The woman cooked meals for a group of men who slept on the ground during the heat of the day and fished by night. I watched intently the daily routine which did not include electricity or running water.

The kitchen entrance and three children.

We added interest to their lives, and they in turn went out of their way to entertain us. I have to break the story down because there were so many layers which included:

*Eating turtle eggs (it took me years to figure out what we had eaten). *Horseback riding *turning ears of corn into tortillas *cheese making *drying coconuts, going for a bath, and cold rum and coke.

I did not know that we were being offered turtle eggs. This was 1973.

I could not swim as the undertow was so strong and the pot was not very good so there was no getting stoned and yet somehow the days flew by. We slept on woven-mat cots which I now suspect belonged to the family. They gave us their beds! To be continued…

DOS TORTAS

While In Acapulco Let’s Buy Some Pot (5)

1 Mar

To catch up with this story, you might want to read parts 1-4.

When the van pulled into a parking lot with the beach and Pacific Ocean in front of us, we naturally exited to gaze at the water and stretch our legs after a long drive. My companions walked off and returned with a random guy they encountered who offered to help them buy marijuana. It’s amazing what you can communicate with almost no Spanish skills. I’ve watched enough cop shows to know how the woman gets mindlessly swept along when a crime is committed. It’s so easy to judge but that probably would have been me in 1973.

Stock photo Acapulco.

Following Random Guy’s directions we climbed back into the van and drove into the hills above Acapulco. The only thing there were shacks and poverty, no high rise hotels or ocean view.

No electricity, water or sewage. Acapulco’s dirty secret.

The first attempt to buy drugs was unsuccessful and we headed back out and up the highway we had originally arrived on. The road was lined with jungle and nothing else, or so it seemed. Random guy directed us to make a U-turn and park on the side of the highway. This time I was not staying behind, no way. Underneath the foliage was a path, invisible to passers by, including us.

We walked single file along the trail to a field and grass hut. Our “friend”translated and the three guys went inside the shack to dicker on a price for our purchase. I sat on a rickety bench and looked around and waited. I noticed at my feet what looked like small marijuana plants. OMG, reality set in. The field around us was ready to be planted and home to quite a large growing operation.

The guys reappeared having struck a deal to purchase a kilo of pot. They seemed pleased with themselves and eager to be out of there. We did not find out until later that the growers pulled a switcheroo as old as time. As soon as the two took their eyes off the prize, the sellers substituted the agreed upon purchase for a far inferior grass, mostly sticks and seeds. But in a hurry to be on our way, we didn’t discover it until many miles down the road.

We continued on our way towards our final destination, dropping our guide off on the side of the road. What I didn’t know at the time was that the upcoming week would be one of the most amazing and memorable of my life. Without AirBnB or GPS or anything more than my high school Spanish, we found people who welcomed us with open arms and fed three strangers who arrived out of nowhere on their “doorstep” for a week. I even have photos to prove it!

The VW van parked with Jerry playing guitar in its doorway.

DOS TORTAS

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