Huatulco - Wa Tool Co - He Dal Go

If it’s Wednesday this must be Huatulco, I think. In case you did not know, it is pronounced Wa Tool Co. The entertainer tonight did not. He was calling it He Dal Go.

We have been here several times before but the Kapels, who we are traveling with, have not, so we wanted to go on a tour. There are hundreds of cabs but they are all far to small to fit four passengers and the driver. We saw no vans either so we decided to take a tour from the ship. The first half was to be by bus and the second half was to be by catamaran.

The bus half was a real bummer. First off the guide claimed to be speaking English while the passengers argued he was not. What ever he was speaking, no one from the ship understood much. I later found out that the problem is almost no one in the area speaks Spanish let alone English. There are 22 different tribes of Indians that only speak their own languages.

Huatulco is a new planned vacation spot. It is the only one I have ever seen in Mexico that is being done right. Huge amounts of money have been spent on the infrastructure. Beautifully landscaped four land roads, water and sewer systems. There is a land plan that allows a maximum of six story buildings. There are two very nice marinas. There is an international airport 25 minutes from town central.

The place is spread over 7 or 8 miles of very hilly country. Some of the views are really something to see. There are 5 different bays with gorgeous natural beaches, all in different directions. Like Acapulco, which is just up the coast, it is one of the few places in the world with guaranteed weather in the winter. I don’t think it has ever rained and it is always hot.

The bus part of the tour was to take us to a nearby town and show us the usual church and allow 30 minutes to go into the stores spread over a 4 block area. So the guide decides to tell everyone to be back in an hour. This did not make anyone happy as the description did not call this a shopping tour. I do not do shopping tours. After waiting over an hour we continued on to see about half what I saw in the past, in a fourth the time and money. The rep from the ship that was with us was not happy either. I will have to see if they make any adjustments in the charges tomorrow.

Next we went back to the commercial marina and boarded a large catamaran. This was just a big barge with plastic chairs on the deck. It had a tent covering the deck as was well needed. This was the coldest time of the year and it was about 92 in the shade if you could find any. This boat was spotless as were the bathrooms. They had a very good sound system and the guide spoke good English.

Just after our two busses loaded onto this catamaran, the guy sitting next to me decides there isn’t enough room for his legs and pushes away the chair in front of him. A woman walking by says, “Look over here. There is a big platform where you can lay down and really stretch out.” Naturally I can never keep my big mouth shut. I quickly replied, “What did you have in mind honey?” I guess that did it. Maybe you had to be there, but I broke everyone up. The poor lady turned bright red but then sat down with her friend and they were laughing as hard as anyone. Boy am I funny. I really appreciate me.

All the help on the boat was very nice and the ride to the 5 bays was very interesting and really worth seeing. It is very rocky with mountains going straight down to the sea and suddenly there is an opening in the rocky mountains that goes into the different bays with beautiful sand beaches. Some are well built up with very nice resorts and others are untouched. All have water, sewer and good roads leading to them.

That is about it for today. Tomorrow we have to get up early for an all day tour in Acapulco that is provided for some of us by a travel group our travel agencies and agents belong to. Acapulco is not very far up the coast and we should get there by very early tomorrow morning.

(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)