Day 1 - San Diego, CA
Day 2 - At Sea
Day 3 - At Sea
Day 4 - Acapulco, Mexico
Day 5 - Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, Mexico
Day 6 - Manzanillo, Mexico
Day 7 - At Sea
Day 8 - At Sea
Day 9 - San Diego, CA
On this cruise we had a balcony room. The weather was pretty awful in San Diego but we had hot, mostly sunny conditions in all our Mexican ports of call.
Acapulco is a big tourist town. We decided to walk around town but were accosted by people trying to sell us stuff every step of the way. They never took "no" for an answer! So our walk, as well as our desire to return here, ended quickly.
Zihuatanejo was our favorite port of call. It's a small fishing village and hasn't become totally commercialized. Walking around town there were a lot of small shops with tourist stuff but they are mixed in with restaurants, banks, grocery stores, etc. Movie buffs may remember that Zihuatanejo was the final destinations for the main characters in the excellent movie The Shawshank Redemption. We found a nice public circle under a banyan tree right on the beach in which to hang out. Locals mixed with the tourists. There were people selling their wares but they left you alone when you said "no." Quite a refreshing change from Acapulco! In case you're wondering, Ixtapa is a much larger city several miles from Zihuatanejo.
Manzanillo was a bit of a surprise. The cruise ships dock at a working port like in Mazatlan. A shuttle bus takes you to the downtown area. We were amazed how heavy the car traffic is in this town! There is a shopping district which caters to the tourists but it also offers the locals places to shop so you couldn't really call Manzanillo a "tourist town" - yet. Next to the shopping district is a very nice park where you can watch the hustle and bustle of this busy town.
Of our 3 ports of call we'd definitely go back to Zihuatanejo, maybe go back to Manzanillo and would not go back to Acapulco.
We had one last adventure in store for the ride home. Returning to San Diego we were greeted by more rain. (Note: we've been in San Diego, a town famous for sunshine, 3 times now and it's rained each of those times!) On the drive out of town we ran into a snow storm in the mountains! Luckily the roads had been treated with sand and the snow wasn't accumulating much. We made it home just fine.
 | Karen at the mandatory lifeboat drill. You can't get out of it so you might as well have fun at it! |
 | Quiet street in Zihuatanejo just outside of the tendering pier. |
 | An interesting Coke truck in Manzanillo. |
 | Sunset over the Pacific Ocean. |
