Tuesday, August 12, 2008

90,000 Hits
. . .While Dalai Does Acapulco

CIMG2702.JPG

CIMG2710.JPG

A lucky reader from Mount Clemens General Hospital, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, scored the 90,000th hit on DoctorDalai.com. I'm going to have to create a contest or offer a prize for #100,000.

We've had several hundred hits since then. You see, I do need to get away from the world of PACS every now and then, so Mrs. Dalai, my daughter "Dolly", and I spent a few days in Acapulco. You can get some good last minute deals, and in particular, Orbitz.com was able to deliver the hotel and the flights I wanted at a very good price.

Acapulco occupies a lovely bay off of the Pacific coast of Mexico. At night, the lights go on up into the hills, and they create one of the most beautiful vistas in the world.

We returned to a place called Las Brisas, where we had stayed 18 years ago. The motto of this pink and whitewashed hillside resort is that children are "seldom seen, but often made" there. My daughter is 20, but when we told people of our prior visit, we could see the wheels turning. Not quite, folks. (There were actually a bunch of kids staying at the resort this trip, reversing the philosophy.) Each room, or "cassita," has its own pool into which the staff throws hibuscus blossoms (some rooms share a pool), and the effect is very striking:

CIMG2671.JPG

Las Brisas used to provide Jeeps to the guests for their use about the resort and in town. Sadly, traffic in Acapulco is totally unmanagable for a gringo like me, and apparently there were some incidents with the local police stopping the well-labelled tourists. Today, if you want a car, you have to rent your own. I could have had a SmartCar (not so smart in Acapulco traffic) or a non-pink Jeep, but I'm not good enough or crazy enough to drive there today.

CIMG2690.JPG

We saw the obligatory sights, including the cliff divers (no doubt there are some out there who would have encouraged me to give it a go...)

CIMG2674.JPG

I did get conned into trusting my life to this lovely horse for a ride on the beach. I won't be doing that again anytime soon...

CIMG2696.JPG

The worst part of any vacation, of course, is the return to reality once it's over. I hope you'll forgive my brief hiatus in posting, but Las Brisas is only now acquiring WiFi. So much for paradise...

No comments :