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L to R above: Myself, Travis (Greaves Matt (Dorsen Jared (Flynn)NOTE: I lost/had my camera stolen out of our hotel room in Acapulco at some point during the trip so all of the pictures I had planned to upload from my first four days in Mexico are gone…Spring break this year in Acapulco was much more enjoyable than last year’s trip to Key West as the group of guys who I went with proved to be absolutely hilarious. Myself, Travis, my old college roommate and current 2nd-year law school student, and two of his fellow law school friends, Matt & Jared, all met up in Acapulco at the Hyatt Regency. The hotel was packed - PACKED - with Jewish students from the NY/NJ area. The hotel has a synagogue and supposedly is “kosher” - how a hotel can be kosher is beyond me - but the word was out and apparently everyone knew that our hotel was a Jewish hotel except us.I hadn’t spent much time with Matt before this trip and had only met Jared once but we all got along really well. This part of my Mexico trip proved to be more fun than I had hoped or expected (although it was ALSO more expensive than I had hoped or expected). I am not going to go thru a day-by-day play-by-play of the week but will pass along some observations about the city and the nightlife:* Acapulco has seen better days. I really liked the city but it won’t hold a candle to Cancun in the eyes of most American tourists as the cities slums are directly across the street from the hotel zone.* The hotels have some draconian policies regarding everything from loud music to visitors in the hotel. The Hyatt, for example, only allows 3 people per room even if you have two queen beds.* The nightlife is pretty amazing (and pretty expensive). Apparently, almost all of the bars run an open-bar system whereby you pay a cover of $30 to $50 and drink as much as you want (depending on the crowd and how responsive the bartenders feel like being) until 5 AM. We went to two different clubs overlooking the city and the bay: Palladium & Mandara Both clubs have dancers, Cirque Du Soleil-style theatrics from the rafters, and amazing views of Acapulco. Supposedly, Palladium is one of the ten best clubs in the world. I can say without a doubt that both are EXTREMELY loud and expensive to get into as my ears are still clogged from previous evenings we spent there and my wallet is now beyond empty.* Speaking Spanish helps get you an automatic 40% to 60% reduction on just about everything (excluding the entrance fees to the above clubs). My Spanish has been coming back pretty nicely and I have really enjoyed being able to speak again on a regular basis. Both Matt & Jared commented about how much safer they felt being in Mexico with me as I served as the de-facto tour guide for a lot of our operations.* Mexican food is amazing. I wanted Travis, Matt, and Jared to see a bit of Acapulco outside of the tourist area and so we took several walks into the surrouding barrios in search of such delicious food and drink as horchata (a cold rice drink tacos al carbon (tacos made from Kebab-style meat and liquados de fresa (a Mexican version of an American milkshake). Travis and I went out to dinner one night in a small taqueria where we drank a beer or two with some Mexican sailors. * The girls are beautiful (and also disappear). During the day, there would be tens if not hundreds of great looking girls walking around and then, at night, they would disappear (or at least the number of dudes would multiply by 100). We met our fair share of women dancing but, as there seemed to be very few people from the South in Acapulco this week, we either weren’t Jewish enough or weren’t “Italian” enough.* We laughed a lot. The four of us are pretty different personality-wise but the “brotherhood” - if I can use that word - was strong and we all laughed and told stories about the previous night’s successes and failures. Going out at night with the four of us was like watching four different stories unfold; sometimes those stories were interrelated but other times they diverged and went off in all sorts of directions. Waking up the next morning and recounting what each of us said, did, and remembered about each other was hilarious. Compared to last year’s trip to Key West where there was a mixture of guys and girls, this all-guy group was much more fun and easy-going.Final thoughts on Acapulco: I am glad I went as I always have a good time around Travis. The hotel was kind-of a bust as the hotel sold itself as a “spring break hotel” and then applied 20 rules once you actually arrived that were way beyond the scope of reasonable. The city was cool (for me, at least) as it was definently much more “Mexican” than Cancun’s hotel zone is. The Mexicans were friendly and didn’t try to take advantage of us once I started speaking Spanish. The fact that I don’t have my camera anymore is a bit uncool. I am not sure who to blame as I talked virtually every day with the maids and honestly don’t believe that one of them took it but I can’t come up with another explanation as to how the camera (which I never even took out of the hotel room) disappeared from where I thought I put it in my bag. Oh well, things have a funny way of working out for me so I haven’t given up hope yet as I talked with the hotel manager and left him my US cell phone number in case it shows up.I am in Mexico City now as I took the same bus back from Acapulco that I used to get there (about $30 - very comfortable and timely). I am tired and ready to go home as Jared and I spent the night last night after Travsi & Matt left Friday afternoon in a 1/2 star equivalent to an American Motel 8. We didn’t have a room for Friday night as Travis’s Hyatt reservation ended on Friday so we took walked two blocks into the barrio from the Hyatt and found this place called Hotel Nilo that was…ahem…interesting…to say the least. All part of the adventure I suppose! At least we didn’t make the mistake of staying in one of the hotels that charges by the hour (which was located next door to Hotel Nilo). So, basically, I am tired from last night and today’s 5 hour bus ride even though 50 feet away all of Mexico City is celebrating El Dia de la Primavera here. I wish I was in more of a festive mood because there is all sorts of dancing and music going out right outside of the hostel.

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