Moral Dilemmas

nospam@example.com (Roadlogger) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:40:53 -0500

Pie de la Cuesta. Qro.

Traveling is about both people and places. Now that I am back in my Mexican groove, I relish the encounters with people and make jokes with them, which enhances both our experiences. My jokes are quite child-like, and it is good for me to be so.

We met some wonderful, warm, proud and at the same time humble people in the past few days. Like attracts like. The night before last was a terrible one for me, full of sadness and maybe even a little self-pity.

Last night was a wonderful night for me, full of hope and renewal. The night before, we were in Pto. Escondido, where I lived in the 1980Â?s. I have been back since then, but not for many years. My, how my baby has grown up.

This morning, I am sitting at a deserted restaurant table both hearing and looking at the crashing waves breaking thunderously on the golden sand of Pie de la Cuesta. This village just outside Acapulco has also changed over the years, but at a manageable pace. There is a new town square, some upscale hotels and restaurants, but it is still honestly authentic to its spirit. This is all only my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Few of the hotels take credit cards, and the ones that do have too great an opinion of themselves, in my opinion. At one, we politely asked if they had a better price and the drunken/stoned blonde gringa manager/owner (or paramour to the owner) came up and said. Â?We have nothing,Â? in English.

Have you ever met someone so full of dark energy that she seemed like she would suck the life out of you? We could not get out of there fast enough. We would not have stayed there at any price.

She brings up a moral dilemma of being a travel writer. Should I write about her hotel based on my encounter? Or should I realize that everybody has a bad day (or a drunken girlfriend) and the quality of the hotel is not really based on her? Or should I feel some sort of petty satisfaction by Â?showing herÂ? and dissing her hotel?

IÂ?ve been doing this for a long time and have reacted all the ways above. I think every travel writer has, at one point. If you will recall, early in these blogs, I talked about a hotel that did not remember me. I was careful to point out that had nothing to do with the quality of their product. In this case, I would imagine that woman is drunk more than occasionally. But maybe it was her birthday. Or maybe she had received some terrible news and was drowning her sorrows. I have no way of knowing. Most of all, who am I to judge?

Once you rent a room from the sober desk clerk, she would hardly impact your stay. So I will err on the side of silence. By basing my review of the hotel solely on the facts, I still serve my readers, yet do not seek personal vindication.

In this case, mentioning the hotel here would taint it, so I will make it part of my hotel reviews for clients without the story.

Then we found the Bungalows Maria Christina. I am not sure whether I liked best the sweet little old lady who owned it, her dog who wanted me to scratch his belly or the rooms. These were simple accommodations, ceiling fan only, very quiet and right on the beach. The thunderous pounding of the wave would be enough to lull a keyed-up CEO to sleep, much less two weary travelers.

She said it was very quiet, Â?with a serenade of the ocean and the sparkling lights of the stars playing with the quarter moon,Â? to keep us entertained. I told her she was a poet. She smiled. BTW, I called her seÃ±orita. No matter the age of a Mexican woman, call her a seÃ±orita, not a seÃ±ora, until told differently.

Alas, she could not accept credit cards. We are on the cutting edge of our funds now, with a couple of hundred dollars in tolls left to get to Nogales. My credit card will handle the hotels, but our meals are going to be less than sumptuous from here on out. Paying cash for a hotel is pushing it. Her rate was a mere $300 pesos for one room and $400 for the one closer to the ocean.

It was with real sadness that we left her and she understood. Vaya con DÃos y regrese, she called softly as we drove out into the night.

She taught me a wonderful life lesson. For every SOB, there are at least two nice people, in Mexico or in the USA. We went off in search of the other nice person to balance the scales. Seek and ye shall find. Like attracts like. A stitch in time Â? wait, I am running out of platitudes.

So we went back to the first hotel in town, the Hotel Pie de la Cuesta. We had been there earlier in the day and moved on. I told him I was a writer and would write about his hotel, without expecting anything in return. We had not been to other hotels to realize what a great deal he had. Now we were wiser, more educated, consumers.

The owner, Tony, is a kind and gentle man. He was kind and caring of his son and they lived in the first room of the hotel. He showed us his rooms with pride. The hotel was a mere six months old. The small rooms had tile floors, modern air-conditioners and decent beds. Most importantly, the hotel had Internet. The connection was a little weak, but that was not (as I reassured him) his fault. His service provider was having trouble, I told him. In actuality, local leeches were probably stealing his bandwidth, but that would be hard to explain and it might hurt his feelings.

He had a pit bull puppy who liked me and a cat in the restaurant in the morning. All in all, it was a loving place.

The price was $500 pesos when we left before, but I gave one last shot at getting a deal. He dropped it to $400. We were the only guests. This hotel was cash only, too, but we came up with it. I had a pang of feeling guilty for not staying with the little old lady, and so did Greg, but we were modern road warriors and were hooked on our Internet. Addicts will justify anything in order to get their fix.

So, once again it took a couple of hours to find a hotel and we met a slew of people. I wonder what it would be like to know where you are going? Nah, I donÂ?t really want to know. Life is more of an adventure lived without a plan.

The road from Pie de la Cuesta to Zihuatanejo has some serious problems with washouts and construction. If driving this way, allow a good 4 hours.

On the road in Mexico with "Mexico" Mike - Pie de la Cuesta

Moral Dilemmas