Beauty and the beast

I just returned this morning from four beautiful days in Acapulco.

I know at this point a bunch of people reading this will say "Acapulco? Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Maybe. Probably not.

In its heyday, Acapulco was the hideaway for many a Hollywood actor. In the late 50s, my parents spent their honeymoon there. It was THE Mexican resort destination. It was beautiful.

And a lot of Acapulco is still beautiful - the sunsets are still breathtaking, the water is warm and crystal clear in many places, the hillsides are lush, and the dark-skinned divers in their tiny swimsuits still do perfect swan dives from La Quebrada.

But a lot of Acapulco is just plain ugly and the drug trafficking of the last few years has taken its toll. Acapulco is a sadly perfect example of the tug of war between man's greedy carelessness and the power of nature.

Arrive on the bus to Acapulco and if you've never been there, your first thought will be finding the next bus back. But drive through the coastal hills and you'll be looking for a real estate agent.

I stayed in a beautiful home up the coast on Mimosa beach. This photo was what I saw from the terrace every evening. About 100 feet below is a secluded private cove where I swam and sat on the sand. What you don't see in this picture is the multi-million dollar property just below of a once prominent Mexican political leader, which was confiscated by the government then completely ransacked and burned by the locals after he was arrested for money laundering and drug trafficking (what better use for a secluded private beach).

So to get from this gorgeous view to the waves below, I traipsed through burnt timbers and broken glass, past empty bungalows filled with bats, and swimming pools thick with decaying mud and mosquitos.

A photo is worth a thousand words but my camera decided to take a break, so I have no images of this disaster. But maybe that's for the best. If we focus too much on the ugly obstacles, we lose sight of the potential for beauty beyond. The jungle is already taking over the property. Fortunately sometimes nature wins in spite of us.