Mexican Riviera (& tasty grasshoppers!)

Our first stop on the Mexican Riviera was Huatulco (pron. Wah-tule-co) down in southern Mexico. We did a bay cruise on a catamaran as well as visiting a few places in the town, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, a textile factory - where I bought a bag and the highlight...a stop at a Mescal Factory. They make the tequila here, WITH the worm in the bottom of the bottle! There's a couple of condiments that go along with a shot of mescal, it's a ritual that starts with a roasted grasshopper, followed by the shot of mescal and lastly a slice of lemon is sucked. Probably to get the dead bug taste out of your mouth! Here's a shot of the inside of the shop with all the stuff laid out on the table ready for the unsuspecting tourists...

Mmmmmmm....don't THESE look yummy!!!! Fresh Roasted Grasshopper!!!! Being the huge woos that I am, I didn't partake but Joan and Grant made a pact that they would try it. Joan went first and I actually have video footage of her munching away and pulling all manner of faces and then finally she says it tastes kind of nutty, she quickly followed the offending beast by a shot of tequila. Well, give me a bowl of cashews or peanuts any day! Of course, when it's Grant's turn he declines. I gave her 10 points for guts!

Below is the inside of the Church dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, these little digital cameras just do not do justice to these places, you really need a wide-angle lens to fully capture the beauty.

Second port of call was Acapulco where we did another bay cruise and watched the famous Cliff Divers. We saw it from on board a boat though you could've viewed it from the balcony of the hotel that you can see in the photo below (it has the 6 arches in the centre of the picture). The divers dive nearly 130 feet down into the water and they have to time their dives so the water is rushing into the gap so they don't get mushed on the rocks below. IF my computer is doing it's thing correctly, you should be able to enlarge the picture and spot the divers around on the left hand side of the cliff (about level with the arches in the hotel). They then swam out to our boat, climbed on board and the tourists could take pictures with these fit young men (16, 19 & 21)....for a small donation of course!

We were all very surprised at how hilly Acapulco is. The buildings are all stacked one behind another going up the slopes of the surrounding area.

There are some huge palatial houses that belong to the rich & famous.....can you guess who this white "shack" belongs to???

His initials are B.G. and he's worth squillions and it's something to do with computers!!!!! Did you guess right??? Don't think he was home at that moment, though we did see some of his slaves....I mean servants....cleaning the outside pool area.

Last stop was Cabo San Lucas, a very tourist-oriented shopping mecca. The only thing we did here was visit a huge market and picked up some touristy-type paraphernalia. I did manage to buy myself some Mexican Day of the Dead figurines which was one thing I really wanted from Mexico. How slack of me, can't be bothered getting my camera out so I've just scanned my two little "dead" figures. I bought the Doctor one for my Doctor, but I'm kinda attached to it and he goes well with the little Devil so they may stay a pair. I know Dr Saint (& he is that!!!) doesn't read my blog so figure I'm fairly safe here! lol.

Here's my Mum with a couple of "human statues".....man, they must've been hot under all that paint and heavy clothing, it was so hot and humid that day in Acapulco!

San Francisco and the beginning of our Alaskan leg of the trip is next!