Acapulco: the classic bay of the cliff divers

The preferred beach destination for Hollywood in the nineteen-fifties, Acapulco remains famous for divers who launch themselves from cliffs plunging into the sea.

A taxi or car remains the most common way to get around the bay.

At La Quebrada, professional divers launch themselves from cliffs over thirty meters high into a narrow rocky inlet, calculating the exact moment when the wave lifts the water underneath.

A short walk away, the San Diego Fort, a star-shaped Spanish fortress from the seventeenth century, houses a museum on the city's colonial history.

Continuing along the bay, you walk the Costera Miguel Alemán, a waterfront surrounded by hotels that recall the city's tourist splendor from mid-twentieth century.

Toward evening, Acapulco's bay illuminates with the lights of hotels rising on the surrounding hills, a scenery that inspired film directors and Hollywood stars for decades.

The La Quebrada cliff divers train from childhood, passing the technique down through generations within the same families that still perform multiple times daily for tourists.

In the nineteen-fifties and sixties, Acapulco was a holiday destination for stars like Elizabeth Taylor and John Wayne—a golden age the city still recalls with pride despite subsequent decades of hardship.