A Soiled Nest: Acapulco 2008

A 20 minute tourist stop at Tarzan's hotel

Narco trafficker "The Hummer" caught. Acapulco's

economy is a mix of tourism and drugs.

Johnny Weismueller and John Wayne co-owned

an Acapulco hotel - Los Flamingos. Tarzan was filmed

in Acapulco's jungles - now strip malls.

Acapulco beaches - a taxi driver warned me to beware

of the raw sewage.

The divers launch themselves 4 times a day.

The divers scale the rock face to get to their diving perch

Warning: Dive only when the waves roll in!

A Soiled Nest: Acapulco 2008

My deepest apologies to my Aunt Diane and dear friends who have spent fabulous vacations and romance-filled honeymoons in Acapulco. Savor your memories.

In October 2008, it was the taxi drivers themselves – those whose livelihoods depend on tourists - who told me not to swim in Acapulco’s stunning bay. The physical beauty of the giant cove remains but the sewage waters of the 5 star hotel towers slosh and lap the sandy shores.

The beachside strip is crowded with Senor Frogs, Hooters and a string of U.S. chains in the shadow of the hotel towers. Thousands of bathers wade in the compromised waters, a few hundred yards from the exhaust of the choking traffic.

I have to admit that my generosity towards the place was colored by just having spent 3 days at a forum of communities affected by large dams, mining operations, and spiraling electrical rates. La Parota dam is scheduled for construction just 50 miles from Acapulco, where the forum was held, to power the hotels’ washing machines and air conditioners. The cost of the dam to the thousands of farming families slated to lose their land is incalcuable. Insult to injury is that Mexico already produces an energy surplus; much of it is destined for the U.S. through an integrated grid, that might be called upon on a particular hot New York day to power that metropolis’ air conditioners.

Opposition to these “mega projects” is fierce. A seemingly benign windmill project being developed on Oaxaca’s isthmus is vehemently opposed by the peasants whose land is usurped and who don’t consume any appreciable amount of energy. The affected communities organizing power is considerable; with help from international friends (get on the phone to tell Obama not to satisfy US energy thirst by flooding out Mexican peasants!), the farming families might just prevail.

On the way to the airport, we narrowly avoided collision with a swerving black Hummer, no plates. The taxi driver sheepishly explained that he wouldn’t consider an obscene gesture; it was probably a narcotraficante (drug dealer) against whom he dared not lift a finger. At this point, it’s not clear how much of Acapulco’s booming economy is due to the flow and washing of drug dollars or the (diminishing) flow of tourists. The taxi driver alleged, as did many others, that Acapulco’s municipal government and indeed the state government of Guerrero is controlled by narcos.

I did have the occasion to spend the night (missed a plane due to a giant traffic snarl) at the joint briefly co-owned by John Wayne and Johnny Weismuller. Tarzan movies were filmed in the 40s and 50s in jungles outside Acapulco – jungles long since converted into strip malls. The hotel is perched on cliffs, down which John Wayne allegedly dashed his shot glasses in a drunken daze. In stunning topiary, right next to the hotel’s flagship room, Casa Tarzan, there sits a bush shaped into the bust of Cheetah, Tarzan’s monkey.

With such an illustrious past, the Tarzan hotel was smack on the tourist trail. Starting at 9 am, tour buses deposited wheezing big-bellied clients for a 20 minute stop. It was a Sunday morning but trays of beer and Coke went quickly.

I’m sorry to be such a cynic. It must have been a remarkable place, Acapulco, in its day. But today, the golden goose is ailing. Except for the cliff divers – my deepest bow to their nervy acrobatics.