Aculpoco

I went to Aculpoco this weekend, which was…

Expensive
It seems that the entire purpose of this excursion was to bleed us students dry of all our money. Meals were not included, day trips always had some kind of hidden charge, and everything in Aculpoco is EXPENSIVE. In defense, I will say that my $22 hamburger and Coca-Cola®©™ were delicious.

Hot
We stayed at the Tortuga, a hotel which was designed by a small child who, coincidentally, really liked turtles. The hotel consists of a huge courtyard surrounded by 7 stories of rooms on each side. There is a plexiglass ceiling on top of the courtyard, which serves to transform the entire hotel into an incredibly efficient greenhouse. Our room was 80 degrees or more in the afternoon.

Sunny
There was a lot of sun. I wore a lot of sunscreen. I still got burned. (Luckily, no too bad.)

Sandy
The beach by our hotel was terrible and also very dangerous (the water is very deep very close to shore.) I avoided this beach. Luckily, one of the excursions was a trip to Princess Beach, which was fantastic, except for the wide assortment of people trying to sell you stuff. I turned down t-shirts, carved coconuts, massages, horseback rides, and a wide array of hand-crafted dust-gatherers. The water was amazing, though, which made this leg of the trip worth it. The waves were strong enough to be fun, and tame enough to be (reasonably) safe. The water was warm as well, but not so warm you couldn’t enjoy it. We played in the waves for about two and a half hours.

Annoying
The people seem to see dollar signs on every gringo’s head. I used to have a bit more patience with people selling stuff on the street (it is hard work.) However, after you’ve had salesmen/women yelling at you every step of the way, your enthusiasm for crap built out of grass tends to wane.

Loud
We went to club Paradise, mainly because the cover charge was half the cost of the Palladium. When we first arrived, there was a Mexican version of “Achy Breaky Heart” blasting through the speakers at levels which would embarrass a 747, and every one was line dancing. I was not pleased. Luckily, the music changed to a mix of hip-hop, reggaeton, and techno, and I was able to get my groove on with sufficient style, if accompanied by a touch of hearing loss.

Itchy
I have been having a little problem with allergies in my host family’s house for the last two weeks. Sadly, I was more allergic to the hotel room than my family’s house. For this reason, I was pretty much exhausted for the entire trip.

All in all, Aculpoco was… interesting. I think if it would probably be awesome on your own in a nicer hotel. As it was, it was more annoying than exciting. At least I got to eat at a place called “Tacos and Beer”.

I leave at 4:30 AM tomorrow, July 30th, for the US. Not a moment too soon ;-)