Mexico June 1971

In June of 1971 we drove from Houston to Mexico City and then on down to Acapulco.  Both mom and dad speak Spanish (as well as French unrelated to the trip) which made communications possible.

I remember the drive going to Mexico City was the longest part of the vacation.  Driving in the mountains on winding roads took hours and hours.  Arriving in Mexico City, I was struck by the poverty of the Native Indians who lived in conditions that would make the poor sections of any American City look like wealthy, industrialized homes.   Driving in Mexico City was worse than I've seen in New York City.   We stayed a few days in Mexico City and toured the Museums, Gustavo A. Madero (formerly Guadalupe Hidalgo where the shrine of Mary is held) and seeing several historic fortresses.

On another part of the vacation we drove to see pyramids.  I remember thinking that would be boring since it wasn't the "Great Pyramids" but I was wrong.  I had a tremendous amount of fun climbing up and down the pyramids.  I bet people are not allowed to climb now a days because of "wear and tear".  I remember the vertical incline of the steps were very, very steep.

The last part of the trip was spent in Acapulco.  It was just a month before arriving that a hurricane had did a lot of damage to Acapulco.  We toured the city and saw the famous cliff where international cliff diving is held.  As some of you know, the divers must count the waves coming in and time their dives.  Diving off at the wrong time can result in severe injury and death.  Another fascinating view off the cliff was the distance forward.  The diver would literally be propelled 30 degrees forward to land far away horizontally from the push off point of the cliff. The big highlight for me was swimming in the bay.  The under tough of the water is very dangerous.  Before we knew of the problems and wondered why there was so few swimmers, my brother David almost drowned before being rescued by my father after a life guard came running up telling my father in Spanish to watch the children.  The only safe spot for kids was where a island in the bay broke the waves coming in.

Like all travels to Mexico, the cliché, "Don't drink the water" came to be very true.  Each of got sick on one point of the trip which usually lasted just one day.  I remember coming back into New Mexico on the way back and loving the taste of American water!