Unheard history of Acapulco...
What to Do Acapulco's history begins with a Yope Indian legend. According to tradition, Acatl (whose name meant "reed"), the eldest son of a tribal chief, heard a voice directing him to seek the love of Quiahuitl ("rain"), the daugther of a rival leader. The two fell in love, but her father was bitterly opposed to the marriage.

Acatl returned to his home near the Bay of Acapulco; he was so mournful that his body dissolved into a puddle of mud, from which reeds sprang.
Quiahuitl, in turn, was transformed into an immsense cloud, which floated toward the bay. When she found her lover, she dissolved into tears. The teardrops fell on the reeds, and the lovers were united forever.

According to the legend, this is the origin of the word "Acapulco", which means "in the place where the reeds were destroyed".

Myth aside, Acapulco has been inhabited since 3000 B.C. Archaeological excavations at La Sabana, in the hills outside Acapulco, have uncovered Nahua artifacts dating back some 2,000 years. The Nahua was the tribe that preceded the Aztecs.

Following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521, a triumphant Hernan Cortes sent one of his men to locate sites for trading ports. Thus, Fernando Chico became the european to reach Acapulco. He arrived on December 13, 1521 and named the place Santa Lucia.

Cortes himself frequently visited the port. As Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, he ruled over a vast domain, which included Acapulco. He would stay in what is now known in his honor as Puerto Marques Bay.

Acapulco officialy became a dominion of the Spanish Crown in 1532. At the time it was known as the Ciudad de los Reyes, of "City of the Kings". Seven years later, Cortes would launch from here an expedition to discover the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. They were never found.

The port became a leading trading center for Spanish ships returning from the Orient. In 1579, King Phillip II declared it the official port for trade between Asia and the Americas. Shiploads of slaves and luxury goods like silks, porcelain, jade, ivory, incense and species were brought to this port. They were then transported by land across a six-foot-wide trail to Veracruz, on the gulf of Mexico. The journey took 20 days.

Eventually, the Spanish limited traffic to one arrival a year, which led to the establishment of the Acapulco Fair of the Americas. Traders and merchants from all over New Spain, a vast territory that included modern-day Mexico and parts of the American South-west, gathered to buy goods. For the duration of the fair, the city was transformed. Its population tripled and local business boomed. This was Acapulco's first venture into the hospitality industry, the beginning of what is now a long-standing tradition.

The port's thriving economy soon attracted pirates. The notorious Sir Francis Drake was the first to arrive, only to be followed by a dozen other British pirates, including Thomas Cavendish, William Dampier and Henry Morgan. In order to defend the city, the Spaniards built Acapulco's first fort, Castillo de San Diego, in 1616. However, it failed to repel an attack by Dutch pirates in 1624.

The fort was destroyed by an earthquake in 1776, but was soon replaced by the fuerte de San Diego. Acapulco was declared an official city in 1799 by King Carlos IV, but with the advent of the War of Independence, its fortune began to wane.

During the war, Acapulco's residents sided with the royalists. In 1810, insurgent leader Jose Maria Morelos attacked the city. Recognizing Acapulco's strategic importance to the Spanish Crown, Morelos burned the city to the ground in 1814.

Acapulco was all but forgotten until the outbreak of the California gold rush in the 1850s. At that time, ships began to make regular stops here on their way to Panama. On their return to San Francisco they were loaded up with Mexican textiles.

It wasn't until the 1920s that Acapulco began to be viewed as a vacation destination. The Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII, visited the bay on a fishing excursion in 1920. Soon, wealthy Mexicans were wintering in this quiet seaside village. By the time Cortes' mule trail was transformed into a highway in 1928, the city's future was assured.

The first real push to generate tourism in Acapulco came from Albert B. Pullen, a Texas entrepreneur who developed what is now Old Acapulco. His investments started a real estate boom that attracted men like J. Paul Getty to invest. Getty is said to have purchased 900 acres at three cent an acre.

Acapulco shorlty became a popular hide-away for well-known writes from the States. Malcolm Lowry, B. Traven, Sherwood Anderson, Jane and Paul Bowles and Tennessee Williams all hung out in what was still a sleepy village of dirt roads and no electricity. Williams' play, titled Night of the Iguana, is actually set in Acapulco.

The man truly responsible for Acapulco's success in the 20th century was Mexican President Miguel Aleman. During his presidency (1946-1952), Aleman transformed the city. Roads were paved; water was piped in; electricity was installed; and the city was groomed as an upscale tourist destination. In 1955, a new four-lane highway shortened the trip between Mexico City and Acapulco just to six hours.

By the 1950s, Acapulco was making headlines as a gateway for Hollywood stars and jetsetting Amarican and European millionares. Elizabeth Taylor married Mike Todd here, with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher as witness. John F. Kennedy, Brigitte Bardot, Henry Kissinger and their respective spouses spent their honeymoons here as well. And Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Harry Belafonte, Sir Anthony Eden and Baron de Rothschild were regulars on the local scene.

With the advent of the 1960s, middle-class Mexicans and Americans began to make up the bulk of Acapulco's tourist population. Though it has had its ups and downs over the past two decades, Acapulco continues to be one of Mexico's top resorts. Little remains of the old town, but the new city is still undoubtedly one of the most exciting places in the world.