Sunshine Shangrila, 1963

gentlemen this is Miss Anna Jane siton originally of carlbad New Mexico and now working in Hollywood as Miss Arlene doll's standin and secretary now because her work is So Glamorous we wondered where she would travel if given an all expenses paid trip listen well first of all Miss doll graciously gave me the time off to make the trip but the biggest problem was trying to decide on the one place above all others that I'd like to visit fine fin I decided on the place that so many Hollywood people call their second home Acapulco the sunshine [Music] shanga this is the place that many Hollywood people call the Sunshine shangra LA and coming from Hollywood which has never thought poorly of itself that's quite a compliment indeed the important statistics are as follows permanent po population about 70,000 temperature range 73° to 84° Acapulco has 23 beaches and over 150 hotels I flew from Hollywood to Mexico City where I spent several days with friends and for Mexico City it's only about an hour by air to Acapulco at the airport I was met by an assistant manager of Las bries Hilton Hotel Mr George iaro that's part of the airport terminal in the background we took a Jeep taxi to the hotel and I was told that like all guests I would be greeted by the manager Mr Frank Brader Mr bran this Mrs Miss Anna Jane s Miss s nice to have you here how long you going to be here with us three weeks three weeks well I'm glad you came down to soing some of that beautiful AAA Sunshine of ours would you like to register the accommodations at Las prus are spread out over an entire Hillside so the hotel maintains a fleet of jeeps to take guests to and from their rooms unpacking was easy friends in Hollywood had told me to take as few things as possible since I could buy just the right clothes at Acapulco's many fine shops my room had its own private or laai and the view was magnificent the Bell Hops at Las breus are quite talented they drive with one hand while carrying a tray in the other the tray contains courtesy drinks from the management this private pool also went with the room and this was really living it up this pool was slightly shall I say larger than mine it's part of the pr Americas Hotel there in the background one of the biggest attractions here for woman tourists is the dress shop of Emmy fors one of many brilliant American designers who have literally set up shop in aapco hello are you Emmy fors yes I am I saved my vacation buying because my friends told me of your reputation for carrying the classic Acapulco look well how nice I think we have a lot of attractive things we can show you what did you have in mind that you wanted exactly shorts bathing suits slacks wonderful well we have some very attractive things this is very cute you see it has a it's Lin and it has a bathing suit to go with it here I see a set mhm that's a wonderful color and this is very cute too this all hand embroidery didn't have shorts that go with it fine I guess it's only natural when visiting a place to seek out some of the most publicized attractions in Acapulco everyone knows of the buo that drinks beer and soft drinks and will eat almost anything that's free his owner is a farmer and I imagine he saves a lot of money having the tourists feed the buo but here is Acapulco's most graceful attraction one of the high divers of lra 160 ft to the water in slow [Music] motion this m magnificent Fresco by the great Diego Rivera a fresco of a giant serpent serves as an appropriate introduction to what follows the Exotic and colorful ritual of the flying voladores the ritual has many phases all of them based on the ancient Aztec rain God [Music] TLO the worshippers led by the high priest climb an enormous pole some 11 stories [Music] high now Begins the dance of death with the high priest Seated on a 20-in platform we photographed this in semi slow motion to illustrate the grace of these flying Vador [Music] meanwhile more dancers performed while these men on a turn wheel pray to the Moon God in the finale of this reenactment the moon God is given a sacrificial victim an unmarried Maiden watching this stunning ritual based on historic fact I couldn't help thinking that this lovely girl must be Mighty glad she's living in the 20th century and not in the days of the Aztec there's more to kco than just sunshine and sand women especially will find it as Shoppers paradise and some of the best bargains are pedal by vendors here I'm buying a silver bracelet for 120 pesos or about $10 in our money I think this is fine but it's a little big okay we fix it for you in half an hour it's you can fix it now yes right now in 20 minutes it's ready 20 minutes yes you make all the things you have here yes we make it in Acapulco we make beautiful dresses in 1 hour that's amazing back at the hotel I was summoned to the phone in this manner it's not only a Charming custom but quite effective especially for people who are hard of hearing and this was a typical sunset view from my room overlooking the sea high on a sloping Hillside is the beautiful VI Vera Racket Club which also has guest rooms the vi Vera is owned by The Fabulous man who has become a living legend in Acapulco circles the Swiss born Teddy stoffer Teddy holds Court daily at poolside Senor Teddy I think this is one of the loveliest spots I've seen here in aapco thank you very much I know you're Swiss how did you come here after the war I came from California on the Saka with my friend Flynn and we had planned to stay here a week and I'm still here I loved it is this a private club our hotel guests are automatically members and beautiful girls like you are members for life thank you very much at Mr stofer's urging I availed myself of tennis lessons from the club pro Miguel Rodriguez Miguel I don't know the first thing about tennis do you teach beginners I don't know I couldn't seem to hit the ball right-handed and in desperation I tried hitting left-handed after which Mr Rodriguez begged me to quit and that was that the Aku II is truly one of aap's most beautiful restaurant clubs and here I was introduced to count Gino Rossi on my left well known to speed car racing fans and Mr Dick Meyers the designer architect of the atiki C Ry are you still auto racing here in Mexico well I retired in 1957 it was my last race which was the panamerican race why did you retire well the car was getting too fast now was getting too old I don't believe that at all what brought you to Mexico well I came here in 39 from Mexico City and I fell in love with Mexico City and I've been coming to aquapulco ever since and fell in love with akapulko meeting lots of interesting people AJ like yourself of course well thank you very much dick I've seen some of the restaurants that you've designed in Los Angeles and they marvelous well thank you very much I'm very indebted to the people of Los Angeles and especially to the ibank uh because through this I bank I was able to regain my sight after being blind for 3 and 1/2 years so actually the restaurants that you were familiar with I actually designed with someone else's eyes so it's very remarkable and then you came to aapco yes I came to aapco because only in Mexico did I have the Freedom Design uh that I wanted to do the extreme type of things that I prefer and this is why I came to do the akui before you go any further what does Aku Tikki mean actually well actually Aku is the word for fish in the Pacific Islands and Tikki means Idol or God you see so akuti goes with akapo actually as you will look around our restaurant you will see a number of these tikis uh the one Tiki that I'm quite interested in is the warrior God of Hawaii which keeps all of the evil spirits away from the restaurant and guards all the people within the next Tiki that you will notice is the Tikki of the luau or the fiesta he's smiling because he's so full and happy then we have another interesting one which is from New Guinea and he is the water God it's noted in legend that he is half man and half bird and can go up into the clouds and puncture the clouds with his beak and cause the rain to come down on the crops while I was in aapo the yacht club sponsored an international sailboat rata this is the manager of the yacht club and a good sailor Senor contras as manager of the akapo yacht club can you tell us something about the rata that we're going to see today is it a national or an International race it's an International race how many boats compete there are 14 boats uh seven on the Mexican team and seven on the American team they have a Mexican team wearing blue shirts and the American team wearing yellow shirts how long is the race it's about 10 Mi long is it a straight course no it's a triangle of course speaking of sailors the attractive blonde is one of the best she has Miss UTA Weller the only woman sea captain in aapo and to my knowledge one of the few in the entire world and what a small world it really is boarding Teddy stofer's yacht in order to see the Riata I met Jane Lynn a friend from Los Angeles and a leading fashion model what a surprise to see you here Jane AJ it's such fun seeing you and a all place is running into your emy's shop doesn't she have great clothes you've modeled for her haven't you yes I have she's a friend of mine from California came to aapo years ago and has done very well and she's very important to aapo I understand that she's aap's most gracious Hostess she is and I'm fortunate enough to be her house guest [Music] well the Mexicans won the race and that evening at the Yacht Club Mr lores Del Rio presented the Winter's trophy thank you very much I paid no attention to the trophy I kept looking at M Del Rio and thinking how beautiful and gracious she is finally midnight in the sunshine shanga one of the most interesting sidelights of my dream trip to Acapulco was an overnight visit to a nearby fishing Village known as labara we'll take a small power booat to labara in part two of our journey after this intermission [Music] inevitably I got around to a tour of the City by Carriage my companion is Senor Alfredo batua the assistant commissioner of the tourist office here we're riding down the main thoroughfare alaman Boulevard and approaching the zoko or City Square [Music] I've always thought of akapo as a modern city a city that was born of the tourist trade I didn't realize how wrong I was until we came to this old fortress Fort San Diego it's massive it's Spanish and it reminded me of those swashbuckling pirate films of the late Errol Flynn Alfredo when was El de San Diego built oh San Diego was built in a 1776 by the Spaniard as you can see it covered most of the bay because they had they wanted protection against any incoming ships Like Pirates they wanted to keep this uh Port because of its importance for ships of their own and actually you can see how it follows all this Coast here before there used to be a lot of water here it came up right up to the level of the fort and covered most of the the water here in the entrance for the Pirates against the pirate ships the fort in the bay inspired Alfredo to suggest a visit to the Mexican Naval Base at aapo never having been to a naval base I was glad to accept the invitation Commander ban may I present you Miss Anna Jane siton from Los Angeles it a real pleasure to meet you may I invite you you go around to the Navy base thank you Commander I'd be delighted it's an honor please after touring the base we boarded one of the warships and I hope I'm using the right word but anyway I felt very self-conscious being the only woman in sight I'm sure I blushed a deep maroon but I needn't have because if any of the men aboard noticed me they certainly gave no sign of it vivaa Mexican Navy gentleman to the Core [Music] pla La condesa is one of the morning beaches that is it's used only in the mornings this was my favorite of aap's 23 beaches this man looked like an apparition out of the sea my curiosity was soon satisfied how about some fresh oysters from the bay AJ I'd L them they picked them up right from the bay right from those rocks up there right up there we can go on skin dive there after a while I'd love to fine we'll do that later okay I am going to ask him to open a few right in front Okay George ibero he's the assistant manager of Las P taught me how to eat oysters aapo Style with plenty of lime juice and hot sauce it's really delicious we're in a power boat on the Kuka River un route to the small fishing Village of labara first we went by car from aapo to the beach known as P de laquesta it's on the ocean and also the river about half an hour from aapo then at Pi de laquesta we rented this small boat to go up River to labara on the tip of the peninsula where the Kuka River empties into the Pacific despite the modern bridge labara is quite isolated and life is primitive by our standards there is no electricity and therefore no washing machines consequently every day is wash day in labar and although it's only an hour and a half from aapo many of these people had never seen aapo the river is their only source of fresh water labara doesn't have water lines or Plumbing shark fishing and spearing is the main industry of the few dozen men of the village to get the shark bait however they first fish the kyuka for small fish and you know there's sheer poetry in the way they toss the net as this slow motion seem [Music] indicated we watched to see the result just one small fish this small fish is then used as ocean bait for a slightly larger fish and the larger ocean fish is used as bait for the [Music] Sharks we watched for more than an hour and not a single shark was caught but this Sunset scene alone was worth the trip we stayed overnight to watch labara celebrate the Festival of St guadalupi this is the virgin of guadalupi day throughout Mexico the festival was a small Affair but our hearts went out to these people for they did the best they could two small dugouts gay decorated and carrying all of the children of the village this girl portrays the virgin of guadal after the floats had been pulled asore the villagers carried the young girl on a procession through the village streets [Music] [Applause] [Music] back in aapo that same morning the church in the zoko attracted inhabitants from near and far many of these children live mil away from aapo that they walked all the way to the city to be a part of this important and colorful [Music] day I guess you'd call this getting literally carried [Music] away my third and last week in Acapulco was really the vacation week by now I had seen most if not all of the interesting tourist attractions and I had met dozens of Acapulco's most interesting people and characters now before returning to my desk and typewriter I decided to just relax and soak up the sun I swam paddled Around The [Music] Bay yes and even went horseback riding at the edge of the surf [Music] but most of all I just sat around the beach and watched the activity some of it quite interesting here for example was a camera unit from New York taking fashion magazine pictures of a lovely girl modeling a new swimsuit in Acapulco there's a strong local feeling that the beaches belong to everyone even an outdoor salesman here as calm as you please was a sppy Salesman spreading his wees on the sand back home in New Mexico we're accustomed to our own Indian saries but I had to admit that these were as lovely as any I'd ever seen uh is is it made by hando see no Ino oh made in suo I see we back thank you in aapo the visitor is invited to get into the swing of things and in this case there's no pun intended I was actually drafted into this parade of school children and when I protested that I didn't know how to drum the school principal said that's all right nobody will know the difference I felt terribly foolish but oddly enough none of the children laughed I guess they're used to it by now much too soon the 3 weeks came to an end and looking back all I can say is aapo I love you you are indeed the sunshine shangar