1. (1) To Acapulco (email from Acapulco - Apr.19, 2002)

2. (2) Esperantists in Acapulco

(1) To Acapulco (email from Acapulco - Apr.19, 2002)

I arrived in Acapulco yesterday after riding 1000 km from Puerto Vallarta to the southeast along the Pacific Ocean. As soon as I arrive at the hotel, I took a shower and made a phone call to Luis, a Esperantist in Acapulco. Esperanto didn't come out again. I spoke mixed languages of Spanish, English and some Esperanto. Luis paid me a visit at the hotel an hour later and suggested me to move to his place. However, as I had already unloaded the heavy luggage and had changed the riding clothes, I told him to go to drink on that night and to move the next day. And, I have moved to his big house. He has two cars. His wife is a doctor and very friendly. Three of us went to see the famous diving from the high cliff together today. Last night I went to drink with Luis at a good restaurant on the top of the hill. The nightscape from there was fantastic. On the way from Puerto Vallarta, I stayed in four villages or habitations along the long, long beach. While the much smaller beach in Puerto Vallarta was crowded with tourists probably due to the vacation weeks, the four beaches had such a few people that I felt a little lonely on the beaches as long as the other end is invisible. In the two hotels out of the four, I was the only guest. Especially in the hotel, in fact a restaurant with rooms, where I stayed last in La Barrita, 180 km to Acapulco, even all the workers of the place returned their homes by bus in the evening and I was absolutely left alone.

During the day, to survive in the heat I laid myself in the swaying hammock with beer in the hand, watching pelicans frequently swoop down into the sea for fish. I don't know the probability that they capture fish per one dive. If it is 100 %, .then they catch so many fish by the frequent dives that they cannot fly again in 30 minutes by the weight of the fish. While I was watching the sea in the hammock, black birds like a small-sized crow often flew across my eyes as straight as they follows a line in the air. I also saw a flock of big birds, perhaps eagles or hawks, on the rock hill in the end of the beach. I walked closer to the flock, to 6 or 7 m away, to take a video, all of the bird flew away. On the beach at the bottom of the hill, I saw a lot of skeleton of 30 cm-long round fish. Do these birds also eat fish? On the foreshore of the beach hundreds of sandpipers were walking, synchronizing their steps with the back-and-forth movement of the tide. I thought they were a flock of crabs at first, and walked toward the flock. Then, they flew away all together.

Bertha is as slim as a young woman, while most middle-aged women become fat in Mexico, and is attractive with full of intelligence. She is a physician. After the lunch, Betha went back home by her "Volkswagen", and Luis sent me to the hotel, where I rode my motorcycle, and I moved to Luis's house, following his car. The house was big. The forecourt itself had a space larger than the apartment where I lived. A room in the separate house was given to me. It was much spacious and comfortable than the rooms of hotels. When I entered the house, I saw a young girl Elisa, who was supposed to be a senior high school student, waiting for me. Elisa evidently seemed to be a girl of high breeding. She told me she also learned Japanese. To tell the truth, she was not waiting for me. On that day, she was expected to be in the Esperanto class that Luis teaches a day every week. Usually they had the class at another place, however, Elisa couldn't go to the place that day and so came to Luis's house to learn Esperanto. Soon later, Luis's daughter Dalia joined her. Elisa was a classmate of Dalia. I heard that usually Bertha also joins the two and the three people learn Esperanto from Luis.

In the evening four of us went to see the famous diving from the cliff of Acapulco. Seven to eight young men went down to the sea from the cliff where lots of onlookers were standing, and nakedly clambered up rocks on the cliff of the other side. It was just like a rock-climbing. Half of the young men looked to be still kids at elementary school. They dived into the sea from the middle of the cliff probably for the sake of practice. The top of the cliff had a height of 35 m. There stood something like a tiny shrine with a cross, and a young diver prayed in front of it before jumping. Once he mad a mistake, he would face his death. However, these young men keep doing this repeatedly every day. I was afraid an accident could happen at any moment. On Sunday the same four of us also visited the lake in the suburbs 8 km away from Acapulco. We got into a boat. I saw the birds like a white heron perching here and there on the branches of mangroves surrounding the lake. The boat soon came close to an island in the middle of the lake. Coming closer to the island, I saw that every tree on the island was totally covered with various birds. I had once seen the trees covered with small birds somewhere in Mexico, but it was the first time in my life to see the trees with numerous number of big birds. I also saw a lot of pelicans and big birds like a hawk flying in the sky. It was just like a view in a dream. I felt really envious that Mexico still conserves rich nature like this in close vicinity of a big city like Acapulco. I have never visited the bird-watching park in Osaka, however, I doubt if many wild birds can be observed there. When I visited Acapulco in the last December, I sat at the computer in a hotel room all day long during the stay and as a result I didn't see anything about the city. I thought I had to go out in times. I found Acapulco was a much better city than I had thought before.

I heard from Bertha that the charge of electricity for her home had been raised ten times during the previous ten years. The charge was relatively higher than in Japan. She told me from this reason there are lots of people who steal electricity from the line over the street. Someone told me that the price of gasoline had also been raised every month, which I didn't notice though. It is certainly true that the price was nearly doubled in comparison with that of seven years ago. The price is as high as in Japan, which is one of the countries where most expensive gasoline in the world is sold. But, Mexico is one of the major oil-producing countries. I asked its reason to Mexicans many times. Everyone answered me that it is due to the mismanagement of the Mexican government. Bertha is a doctor, however, recently she doesn't work as a doctor. Today she went to sell clothes to neighbors. It is, according to Bertha, difficult for physicians to find a job in Mexico, and in addition, the salary is not so high as in Japan. Luis works for a big company and probably receives enormous amount of money in this country where the average income is much less than in Japan. Besides Dalia, they have two sons, Rodrigo and Jorge. The three children are all students. The oldest Rodrigo studies at a university in Mexico City. It is said that the expense for private universities is more than in Japan, while that for public universities is only about US$500 per year. Their expense for the big house is also much enough and they pay the same amount of money as I paid for my the apartment where I used to live in Nara. Besides, they have to pay for the expensive electricity and gasoline. There are two cars, Peugeot and Volkswagen, in the home of Luis. The expense for the two cars cannot be negligible.

Mexicans told me that the average income in Mexico is US$3000 a month. In Luis's home $1500 is paid for electricity every month. It is never surprising that people steal electricity. Bertha told me that $3000 a month is necessary for a student of private universities. In Mexico motorcycles are more expensive than in Japan because of the import tax. With relation to automobiles, the situation must be the same. The people with a monthly income of $3000 cannot buy a car in their life. In spite of the fact that Mexico has oil, the public seems to live a hard life. I hope that Mexicans will not lose control, the result of which is shown by the tombs on the roadsides, and will not have an accident of a national scale.

I had already traveled in Mexico for nearly half an year and had listened to Spanish every day, however, Esperanto was easier to me. Thanks to Luis, I gained self-confidence in my Esperanto a little. Bertha is a very warm-hearted woman. As she is a doctor, she took care of my troubled stomach, giving me a small amount of food in many times. However, she never forced her opinion on me. This is a good aspect of intelligent people. She gave me a lesson on leukemia for about an hour, using her medical book. She also taught me Spanish. The second son Jorge is a student of the second grade of senior high. While Japanese young men of this age are really busy in learning in order to enter a university, he was truly relaxing. He spent his free time in editing the video he himself filmed, or in chatting on the Internet. He often had a visit from his friends at home. On the day I left Acapulco, he went out of the house early in the morning to have a football game in Cancun. He gave me the information about the software to download music. I talked to the daughter Dalia in English. She spoke good English. She is a first-grade student of private senior high school. She had been learning English for a long time since she was in elementary school. In addition, she now learns Esperanto. I can't imagine what kind of an intelligent person she will be in the future.

Luis's family is a very good family. I thought there that to be a good married couple itself certainly can be the best education and can realize a peaceful family.