Puerto Marques - Acapulco, Mexico

Puerto Marques

Puerto Marques is one of my favorite places in Acapulco. I remember the first time I visited Acapulco and went to Puerto Marques. I though it was the most amazing place I had ever been. No tourist traps out here, this is pure natural beauty, still largely undeveloped thankfully, and filled with real Costeños. Puerto Marques beach is normally crowded, but with Mexican "gente popular" not with foreign tourists.

There are five great things about Puerto Marques in my opinion. First is that it is lush, green and surrounded by mountains and gives one the feeling that they have just stepped into nature at its purest. Second, the Scenic Highway offers numerous miradores (which are special spots designed to admire the view) with great views of both the Golden Zone and Puerto Marques. Another thing I love about it is that unlike many of the beaches around Acapulco, the water is calm and good for swimming. I first came here my girlfriend who didn't know how to swim and we rented her an inflatable inertube and she really had a great time undulating with the gentle tide while I swam out as far as I could. The next thing that I like about it is that you can get great seafood and they'll put your table right on the beach so close to the shore that when the tide comes in late in the day you can actually get your feet wet. Lastly, I think Puerto Marques is special because as of today, it remains real Acapulco. This little village is simple and a good look at the way people used to live and I think it's beautiful. Some might call it poverty, but its hard to associate such a negative word with a place like this, I think it's much closer to paradise.

One thing about Puerto Marques is that when the tide starts coming in during the late afternoon, the activity starts to disappear and it turns into a ghost town as evening rolls around. Getting there is easy, you can take a bus (they say Puerto Marques) and it'll let you off where you want to go. If you get off too soon, all the better as you'll get to take a nice walk through the village and maybe buy a fresh coco (a coconut, first they make a hole in it so you drink the milk, then they chop it up for you so you can eat the coconut meat, which I recommend with chilli). Getting back can be a bit more challenging if you don't know where you're going and don't speak Spanish. You can hail a cab or just walk back through the village toward the highway and catch any bus heading in the direction of Acapulco proper.

If you want to spend the night there are numerous small, dive motels in the main beach area and of course the glorious Camino Real Hotel is located at the opposite end of the cove from the public beach. It's set in a truly beautiful and secluded gated development that would make anyone living in the Hollywood Hills green with envy. If you can manage to talk your way past the security guard (sometime they fall asleep), you can walk around and check it out.