Playa Saladita to Acapulco, 176 miles

It was with great regret that we leave Casa Margarita but if our goal is Argentina, we must keep going. We will meet up with Midge & Dean on our return, if not before. The road from Saladita to Acapulco is very mountainous and rural. Those 176 mile took about 5 hours to transverse. We pass though villages and militia checkpoints (the latter in the hope of curtailing drugs and weapons). We continue to be lucky in that we have not as yet been searched. We had already decided that we are staying north of Acapulco in the suburb of Pie (Pee-eh) de la Cuesta. The Acapulco Trailer Park is very well known and quite nice. Besides ourselves and a German couple (more on them later) the place is empty, although in season it is usually full. The waves out front are huge. This is not the type of beach that you can surf. Tom, who is generally quite fearless, is wary of this surf. It is so strong that at night, the R.V. shakes! Not scary but just a reminder that this is not an ocean to mess with. Following conversations with fellow travellers, we have decided that new tires for the motorhome are in order. The tread is good but they are 7 yrs. old, and as such the rubber has deteriorated and since we are headed to Central America it seems prudent to have a new set before venturing out of Mexico. Our plan for Tuesday is to head to the southern end of Acapulco and hit Costco, get new tires and stay at an RV park on the south side of town before going further. Monday is a tourist day. Number one on my list are the divers at La Quebrada. Having spoken with the 2 wonderful ladies that run the park and the shop in front, we have decided to attempt to take the bus into town as, according to the same said ladies, taxis are too expensive! Hmm! I think Tom would have preferred a taxi but not wanting to appear wimpish, we elected to go the native route and bus it. If nothing else we learned one thing. It will be a cold day in.. you know where.. before we will bring our R. V. through Acapulco. Traffic is crazy. I have driven in Tehran, Cairo, Rome and some other well known traffic-crazed areas and let me tell you, Acapulco is right up there. Tom commented it is the worse he has known. Our ride on the bus is for want of a better word..insane. The bus has no windows, the reason for this becomes perfectly clear, as we drive. These buses are not called "the chicken busses" for nothing and it has nothing to do with the carrying of chickens. There are no chickens on board and it appears as though the drivers, all of them, need to be macho. Ergo, no-one is a chicken! They battle and jostle for one extra inch. Forget about being courteous, heck that's weakness. But.. if by chance the driver (pardon the pun) runs into a friend, then the bus stops, dead in the middle of the street and they chat,seemingly oblivious to the cacophony of horns that accompany the fact that the bus now blocks all aspects of traffic. They drive within millimeters of one another and how there are not more accidents is quite frankly, God's business. I went to a convent school and a term Mother Superior used comes to mind, when she referred to a sister that no-one wanted to drive with into town. "Sister Mary, you scare the children. You drive with a guardian angel on each shoulder and the devil at your back". We finally arrive at a section of town where I see the sign to La Quebrada and we get off. Cross the street and we are in a taxi to Hotel Mirador and the cliffdivers. We elect to have dinner at the La Perla restaurant, the same restaurant that celebraties ate at when Acapulco truly was the gem of the Pacific, back in the 50's and 60's. Our table was excellent, the food good and the divers, amazing! We stayed through 3 shows with the final one culminating in diving with flaming torches. However, upon reflection, I wondered what was more dangerous. The chicken bus ride or diving 135ft. from a cliff. Close call! On leaving, we bartered with a taxi for a fare back to the trailer park. Winston was so glad to see us, back safely. We have also recieved the results from testing and he is okay. There is no need for more antibiotics. He will need to be re-tested in 6 months. But, he may be left with some weakness on his left side (we have already witnessed this). However he is now running and playing with his former exuberence and if his left side is weaker then we will just help him. We slept with the waves crashing in the background