La Quebrada Cliff Divers in Acapulco, Mexico

One of the highlights of visiting Acapulco is going to see the famous La Quebrada Cliff Divers. La Quebrada is the name of the cliffs where the divers climb to perform the death-defying dives into the narrow water below. The divers are all professionals of various ages that perform daily for the crowds that come to cheer them on. We chose to watch them from the La Perla restaurant in the El Mirador Resort that made them famous, but there is an observation deck where you can see them even closer without the expense of a meal.

DSC_3672_cropped
Divers Waving to the Crowds
DSC_3621
Observation Deck Across from the Cliff
DSC_3654
Diver Doing a Flip
DSC_3642
La Quebrada Cliff Lit Up for the Performance

The divers perform one show during the day at 1pm and then they do four performances in the evening at 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30. While the afternoon performance might be best from a photographic perspective, seeing them in the evening is quite impressive. We chose to go to the 7:30 show as we were able to watch a beautiful sunset around 6:30 as we enjoyed our meal and waited for the divers to start their performance. Just sitting and enjoying the beautiful views of the La Quebrada cliffs and the water crashing into the “Gulch” is a worthwhile experience.

DSC_3674
About to Dive
DSC_3665_cropped
Starting to Climb the Cliff
DSC_3629
Setting Sun
DSC_3670
Diver Entering the Water

Prior to the start of the performance, some of the younger divers came out to dive from the smaller cliffs below the observation deck. In addition to practicing the diving skills and warming up, it was also their responsibility to clear away any seaweed that had been brought in by the tide. It was surprising to see how young some of the divers actually were, but they made sure to dive from the lower cliffs. Once the main divers arrived, also working they way down through the crowds on the observation deck, they also dove into the water and swam around in order to loosen up for the performance.

DSC_3652
Divers Gathering Before the Performance
IMG_4598
Lobby of the Resort with Famous Tarzan Actor Photograph
DSC_3658
Young Diver
DSC_3623
Water in the “Gulch”

Once it was time for the performance to begin, the first of the divers began the climb up the steep cliff wall using only his hands and his bare feet to scale to the top of the cliff. Then other divers started to climb the cliff with several of them going to a perch just below the summit. Each diver then patiently eyed the water below before leaping from the cliff and soaring through the air and into the water below. It is quite a fascinating show and certainly worth seeing when visiting Acapulco.

DSC_3645
Beautiful Colors as Sunset Ended
DSC_3653
Warming Up

Frozen in Time

Have you ever wished that you could stop time? For those of you who are old enough to remember, there was an old Twilight Zone show where a man has a magical stop watch that will freeze time for everyone but himself. There probably isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t wish we had our own magical watch, but obviously that is never going to happen. The closest thing that we have to stopping time is through photography, where we can capture a moment in time and relive it forever. One of the things that we enjoy is seeing photographs of water that was in motion, but has become instantly frozen in the lens of the camera. Seeing these images are probably the closest that we will have to stopping time, so until we find our magical watch, we will have to make the most of the time that we have.

IMGP1056
Fountain in Athens, Greece

dsc_0103_day2
Geyser in Iceland

IMGP9606
Fountain in Coroico, Bolivia

IMGP9570
Waterfall in Bolivia

DSC_2406
Fountain at Piazza Navona in Rome

DSC_2527
Trevi Fountain

IMGP6964
Another View of Geysir Starting to Erupt

 

Lake Titicaca

Whether visiting Peru or Bolivia, it is definitely worth taking the time to visit Lake Titicaca. The lake extends into both countries and has several islands with Incan ruins that are thousands of years old. Obviously, we visited from the Bolivian side of the lake and we visited both Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) as well as Isla de la Luna (Island of the Moon), which were fascinating. There are several tour companies that will take you out to the islands via boat or hydrofoil and it is even possible to spend the night on Sun Island. Our trip out onto the lake started out a little choppy as a single rain cloud seemed to follow us out to the island. We even saw a waterspout at one point and had to take cover inside of the cabin of the boat. This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, words that have two T’s, we decided to look back on our time on Lake Titicaca. We saw many interesting things during our time in Bolivia, but visiting the ruins on the lake was certainly one of the highlights of our time there.

IMGP9090
Cruising on Lake Titicaca

IMGP9227
Temple on Sun Island with Moon Island in the Distance on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

IMGP9144
Ruins on the Island

IMGP9088
Start of the Waterspout