|
|
|
|
| |
| Tourist Tips for Travel to Acapulco, Mexico |
Tourist Tips for Travel to Acapulco, Mexico This is my attempt to
help you avoid a few of the little pitfalls of travel. Having traveled
extensively myself, I've fallen into most them so I offer these words of wisdom
in this little page that I call tourist 101.
Tip #1: Only Bring the
Minimum
It's best to only bring the minimum for several reasons not least
of which is if you're like me this saves you the trouble of lugging around a
bunch of stuff you don't end up using. To be on the safe side, bring one credit
card and one bank card, your ID (and make a photocopy, front and back and keep
it in a separate place). I guess we should extend this logic to withdrawing cash
for the ATMs (which are plentiful in Acapulco and work well with most any type
of card). Only withdrawal money you'll need for a day or two. There is no safer
place for your cash than in your bank. This is an excellent segway into tip
numero dos...
Tip #2: Your Money Rides Shotgun
Personally, I
think you're much better carrying your money and credit cards with you at all
times. Acapulco isn’t really an armed robbery sort of town, but I would say that
any town on earth is not above having a hotel employee who makes about 6 dollars
a day get a case of sticky fingers with a rich tourist’s cache of cash.
The better hotels have safes. If you have anything really valuable that
you must leave in your hotel, make use of them. If it's a front desk safe, get a
receipt if possible. If something gets stolen from your room, believe me there
won't be any big investigation.
Sometimes I don't follow my own advice,
but have never had any problems in Acapulco yet, well, save some hubcaps. Once I
left valuables in my car for several weeks and nothing happened, but better safe
than sorry. I'm often sorry so don't be like me.
I have had a few things
stolen in Mexico, though. Each time this was because I left a wad of cash
unattended, hidden in my room in a place that I was just so sure the cleaning
lady would never even think of looking (For example, I once stuck 2 $100 dollar
bills in the liner of a Sting CD... this is Mexico, who in the hell is going be
interested in Sting? It's not like it was Luis Miguel...) This, or because I
left my bags in the taxi (attended by a street taxista which is a dicey
proposition at best) while I was checking out hotel rooms (because I didn't plan
ahead). Save Mexico City and the border towns like TJ, Nuevo Laredo, and the
truly terrible Ciudad Juarez, Mexico is pretty laid back and all about
discretion. Strong arm tactics or violence are pretty rare, so unless you plan
to get drunk and pass out on the beach, Real Acapulco says while in Acapulco,
keep your cash in your pocket.
Tip #3: Sunscreen, Sunscreen,
Sunscreen
If you’re not lucky enough to be black or brown but rather your
natural skin color is the pasty white of a dead fish like mine is, don’t go out
for more than ten minutes without sunscreen. And please don’t forget those hard
to reach places like the tops of your feet, your ears, the bridge of your nose,
or the top of your balding head. Seriously, there is nothing worse than a burn
right on the bald spot to add a touch of physical pain to one's psychological
sore spot. If you’re Irish and tend to glow in the dark, make that five minutes
of direct sunlight tops. For sunscreen, Real Acapulco always recommends the max
UV protection and for God's sake, unless you're George Hamilton, avoid sun tan
oil.
Also remember to use sunglasses that block all forms of harmful
ultraviolet light. Remember, Acapulco is located in the Tropic of Cancer. Tropic
of… CANCER, dig. So protect that skin and remember to not burn your eyeballs.
Tip #4: 10 Pesos is Worth About 1 Dollar
When converting between
pesos and US dollars, just drop a zero. Even though the exchange rate stands at
around 11 pesos to the dollar at the moment, this allows for quick math. If
you're from Canada, Australia or New Zealand, well, you'll have to do it the old
fashioned way and do some real math. If your currency is the Pound Sterling or
the Euro, well, you can hire your own mathematician when you get to Acapulco
because the exchange rate just keeps getting better for you.
Tip #5:
Always Bargain
Your favorite word should be "demasiado" (pronounced
day-mah-see-ah-dough) which means "too much". It's a well known fact that there
are two prices for just about everything in Acapulco, the tourist price and the
regular price. The key to getting the latter and avoiding the former is to know
what the real price of things is and when you should bargain. Save the
supermarket, Wal Mart, and restaurants, you'll need to bargain for most goods or
services. In Acapulco, you can even bargain for the price of your room at the
hotel and your entrance fee at some of the clubs.
For a quick primer, the
most common thing you'll need to bargain for is your taxi rides. Always
establish a price before you get in as this can avoid misunderstandings later.
As a rule of thumb, most points between say the Zocalo and Centro de
Convencioes, which covers a good 50% of tourist sites should be about 20 to 30
pesos during the day and about 25 to 40 at night. You just flag a taxi down lean
into the window and say "20 pesos a YOUR DESTINATION HERE." (pronounced ben-tay
pay-soughs ah...) The taxi driver will likely come back with a counter offer,
then you smile and say "25 (ben-tay-seen-co) pesos.. vamos!" And he will
probably say yes and you'll be off. Works for me. If you want to go to far away
places, the ride will likely cost more... a bit more, not a lot more unless you
want to go way out to Punta Diamante or Pie de la Cuesta which can cost a pretty
penny but still nothing like back home.
Tip #6: How to Ask for the
Check
When you're in a restaurant and you're ready to go, all you need to
do is get the attention of the wait person and do one of these two things: Say"
la cuenta, por favor" (pronounced la-kwen-tah-pour-fah-vore). Or just make a
hand gesture with your hand like you're writing something on an imaginary piece
of paper. That is, if you're right handed, make your left hand an imaginary
piece of paper and pretend there is a pen in your right hand and make a writing
motion on your left hand. This is universally understood in all of Mexico for
"bring the check".
Tip #7: How to Say "No" and "Go Away"
Anywhere
there are tourists there are going to be those who see opportunity. The key is
to know how to say no without offending. If someone offers your something you
don't want, a polite "no gracias" with a smile will normally do. If the
individual persists, a second no gracias might be in order, maybe with a half
smile. If still no luck, try a smileless no gracias and perhaps make use of the
most useful hand gesture in all of Me-ji-co which I refer to as "the Fedewa"
(read about the Fedewa here). If this doesn't work,
it's time to change tactics to the more direct... "no moleste" (pronounced no
mo-lest-ay) if it's more than one person, that would be "no molesten." Both mean
basically "don't bother me."
I'll leave it there. There is much stronger
language that I can get away with, and still stronger language that the Mexicans
can get away that typically involve various conjugations of the verb "chingar,"
but as a newbie it's best to always stay in the polite zone.
For more
information, check out the section entitled all things annoying that I'm going
to post any day now... really.
Tip #8: What to do if stricken with
Montezuma's Revenge
Most likely if anything is going to go wrong on your
trip, other than a bad hangover or a sunburn this will be it. I personally would
prefer the other two. Montezuma's Revenge can be mild, or it can put you right
down in bed with grinding stomach cramps. If you get a mild case, you can just
ignore it. If you get a bad case, take a quinolone antibiotic like ciprofloxacin
(Cipro)(PDF) 500 mg twice daily or levofloxacin (Levaquin) (PDF) 500 mg once
daily for a total of three days. You can read more about Montezuma's Revenge,
it's causes and what to do about it here. Of course, if it's
really bad, you may need a doctor. I'd recommend trying the list of approved
doctors in our doctors and hospitals section.
Tip #9: Just Say
No
The one thing you don't want to get caught doing is taking drugs.
Acapulco is a free-wheeling sort of place and you may see many of the Mexican
doing things so you might think it's ok. It's not. Even getting caught with as
little as a joint can spoil one's vacation. Getting caught with something more
serious can spoil someone's year or longer. Read more about these things in the
spelling trouble section.
Tip #10: Where to get more info
Right
here at Real Acapulco of course. There is a wealth of info hidden in the nooks
and crannies of Real Acapulco that you're likely to find useful and if it's not
useful, it might be interesting, and if it's not interesting... hmmm. Did I say
it might be useful already?
If you have a question and you can't find the
answer, try posting it in our forum either to the general section or to the Ask
Real Acapulco section and or a member of my crack staff will try to answer it
for you.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
| What's happening
in Acapulco? |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
