Are you in search of a place with fine weather? So it is only in Acapulco, where the sun shines 360 days all year round. Are you keen on sports? There is a lot of activities for holidaymakers in Acapulco, including sunbathing, swimming, sailing, diving, deep-sea fishing, surfing and water-skiing. Do you feel like a gourmet? You would have a meal of multi-national kitchen, and value the Mexican culinary art. The best restaurants and night clubs of Acapulco are arranged in the most attractive places: on piracy boats, on the marine cape, nearby in the mountains and on the islands. It seems surprising, but every day starts in the evening, and absolutely there is no difference between days and nights. Acapulco is awoken after the sunset: people enjoy having a good time all night long, or having breakfast at six early in the morning. If you want to experience acute sensations - welcome in Acapulco! Visitors are thrilled by the divers at the nearby La Quebrada cliffs. These daring divers plunge about 130 feet from a cliff platform into the water of a rocky cove. The cove is too shallow except when large waves surge in, and so the divers must time their fall to hit one of the waves. You can raise adrenaline in your body going by fast-track boat, avoiding clashing with ancient rocks. The short and the long of it, open this fantastic Acapulco for you!

A modern freeway connects Mexico City and Acapulco. Traveling along the freeway you pass the city of eternal spring Cuernavaca and Tasco - the place of the foremen making silver goods. It is a four line Sunny Road considered to be the eighth miracle of the world! The motorway is well-equipped and illuminated. A driver can go at 90 miles per hour. Having planned far from the settlements in the mountains, the serpentine route of 220 miles goes through the cross-country terrain. It usually takes 3 hours for an experienced driver to cover this distance.

You can arrive in Acapulco by comfortable buses of modern design or airplanes of the First Class. An international airport serves the city. There are 90 international flights per week connecting the airport of Acapulco with the other largest cities.

Acapulco has become one of the most competing resorts and holiday destinations in the world. Warm sunny climate makes Acapulco one of the world's most popular holiday spots. A peak of a season is from November through March, while the beaches of Florida, California, and Spain "are not working", and tourists arrive here. Winter air is dry, and temperature is 86 degrees. It resembles climate in the Crimea.

Acapulco is a Nahuatl name and it can be translated as "where there are thick canes" or "place of thick canes". Acapulco's history begins many years ago.

In the middle of the second millennium Acapulco was founded by the Spanish colonialists in Mexico. A small Indian village stood near what is now Acapulco. It soon became a major port for Spanish ships carrying silk and spices from the Far East. In 1616, Fort San Diego was built to protect Acapulco from pirates. The fort was rebuilt in the 1780s after an earthquake and still stands in the center of the city.

Acapulco is also a shipping center for coffee, sugar, and other farm products.

Tourism in Acapulco's the leading industry. It goes back to the 1950s, but package tourism really took off a little bit later. More than 250 hotels and motels are erected on or near by the city's 20 beaches. Over the last few years the government is providing grants for organizing the tourist sector, modernizing public service facilities, improving the standards of accommodation for holidaymakers.

Nowadays a two-million city of Acapulco with its suburbs is well-known all over the world due to the picturesque landscape, constantly warm climate, hundreds of restaurants and hotels, disco clubs and stores.

Over 50 years Acapulco is being used as movie making area by eminent producers from Hollywood and other main film studios. It is in Acapulco where a famous producer from Russia Sergey Eisenstein made some takes for the film" Que viva Mexico!", but curiously, they were not used as he intended because he died before editing it.

This was only the beginning of a long international film history in Acapulco. Makers have used Acapulco's natural beauty for their films; people from Hollywood and Europe have come to make films with actors like Susan Hayworth, Errol Flynn, and Orson Wells, who made here "The lady from Shangai" using Acapulco as an Oriental setting and Elizabeth Taylor, Cliff Robertson, Lana Turner, Farrah Fawcett, Joan Collins and of course, Johnny Weissmuller, the famous Tarzan who acted here for the first time in Tarzan and the mermaids and was so caught by Acapulco's exotic beauty, that he set his residence here until he died, making unforgettable sequels as Edgar rice burroughs' character.

Alongside with Spanish-style houses there is the most luxurious region of the rich on Acapulco bay by the Pacific Ocean. You could stroll along the expensive villas of Shah's widow of Iran, a former president of the USA J. Carter, Elizabeth Taylor, Charles Bronson, Julio Iglesiaz, a Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, Luis Miguel and other famous people, such as Joan Collins and Johnny Weissmuller.

In Acapulco being a member of a golf club, it is exciting to play golf with Sylvester Stallone and Richard Geer.

Having gained a popularity very quickly Acapulco has become an ideal choice for wedding couples. The majority of newly-weds prefer traveling by the ocean coast. Bill & Hillary Clinton, John and Jacky Kennedy had a nice time during their honeymoon, whose photos decorate the walls of the Los Flamingos hotel. This gorgeous hotel was built back in the thirties, located on top of the highest cliffs of Acapulco, 450 feet high, with spectacular views to the open sea and to "La Roqueta" island.

Diplomats, scientists and geologists all over the world take part in important international congresses in the Latin America Center. Besides, you can enjoy classical music played by a Symphonic Orchestra of Acapulco.

I should say about the fine resorts such as Princess and Vidafel. Their architectural solution is a combination of a mausoleum style with the pre-colonial architecture of the people of Maya, though the last mentioned had never lived here, and their monuments are very far away, about a thousand miles to the south of the country. You will enjoy the quietness of the ocean, visiting numerous swimming-pools and going by boat or train through jungles, tunnels and bridges.

I recommend you to visit a peninsula Caleta, in the open ocean, further an island Roqueta follows. They are the most traditional beaches of Acapulco. Visitors will watch theatrical shows in a well-known restaurant Palao. You are welcome here in swimming costumes.

You could prolong an entertainment program on a lagoon of Pie de la Cuesta. The ocean merges with a fresh lake here; it's just the place where the movies "Tarzan" and "Rambo-2" were made. Having a ride on a horse you will see the most beautiful sunsets and watch the bright paints dying out in the sky.

Afterwards you could dip into the night life of Acapulco. Smart clubs and celebratory bars pulse in a rhythm of a dance. Disco clubs are the best in the country: very experienced DJs, magnificent ensembles, sound-and-light shows, bright air balloons and fireworks. You could enjoy dancing or merely listen to jazz music or blues in quiet piano bars - favorite places of American musicians.

If you are capable to sing a sweet song « The black eyes », the musicians will accompany you willingly.

Beyond all question, you will be inspired with 97 kinds of tequila or cocktail program of the Pacific coast. These cocktails are a vivid reflection of Acapulco life in general. They are to any taste. Titles speak about it much: "«Conga", "Margarita", « Russian White » and « Russian Black », « Alfonso 13 », « Nobody's wine-glass », « Silky stockings" and even "Wow-wow". Can you imagine this romantic cocktail ballad!!!

Every tourist in Acapulco is aware of a very entertaining way to earn on living: courageous divers plunge into the water of a rocky cove! Seriously speaking, every day hundreds of people gather at La Quebrada to watch a famous show of the divers. The night shows are especially effective. The divers jump in into the dark water with the lighted plumes in his hands. They are not magicians or gods; they are humans with a soul, happiness and feelings.

Diving is not an easy task on this cliff; it becomes a tough challenge due to the air flow and the strength of the ocean waves, opening space for a very narrow water entrance.

Every dive produces ecstasy among executors and spectators, for it is the result of many years of training. That precise instant of harmony between wind's strength, waves flow and water's depth, such is the opportunity to jump, diving to the ocean and seconds later, automatic and short fame.

Though Acapulco is considered to be a place for adult games, children will get pleasure going to a fine park of water amusements with dolphins and seals, with toboggans and basins, huge aquarium and a fortress used as a museum. The international Convivial Center for children - better knows as CICI, is suitable for all kinds of exciting water games.

Enjoy your pleasant holidays! Be happy in Acapulco!

Margarita Tourko
May, 2004