A Mexican cultural icon, he will be performing some of his greatest hits from his long and distinguished career, having recorded more than fifty albums and acted in many movies. If you prefer classical music, the superb Acapulco Philharmonic Orchestra will be offering another free concert on April 20^th starting at 9:00 p.m. at the Juan Ruíz de Alarcón Theater, and if you want to hear the conductor discuss the music to be played get there around 8:00 p.m. Once again the Acapulco Regatta will be gracing the beautiful Bay of Acapulco with a colorful yacht race that sets off from Acapulco Yacht Club on Saturday 21^st and Sunday 22^nd of April. Cementing Mexican-French cultural ties the ninth annual French Festival will take place in Acapulco from April 27^th to May 1^st, with a wide variety of events including opera, fashion, gastronomy, cinema, and exhibitions in different venues around the city.  April in Acapulco is the ideal month to combine culture, cars, music, sun, fun, and some relaxing beach time.

Let’s start with the Riviera Maya. It’s the Caribbean, so the beaches and water and beautiful. The main centers are Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, and Puerto Aventuras. The range of trips and charters is mind-boggling and it’s all state-of-the art boats and equipment. Of course, every season is different, but year round you’ll catch white marlin, blue marlin, black fin tuna, amber jack, dolphin dorado, wahoo, barracuda, snapper, grouper, and sailfish. March through August, when the seas are calm, is the best time for marlin, sailfish, dolphin, and tuna. January through March can get windy and it’s generally better for marlin, wahoo, black-fin tuna, mahi-mahi, and sailfish. If you don’t catch anything you don’t pay anything, which I guess means that nobody ever catches nothing.

On the Pacific the action runs all the way down the huge coastline, from Los Cabos to the border with Guatemala. But for our purposes, the main centers are Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Zihuatanejo, and Huatulco. As you probably know, Los Cabos is a prime location, but from Mazatlan you’re fishing similar seas for a lower price since it’s not a huge tourist destination. Either way you’re going to have a good shot at sailfish, blue, black or striped marlin, swordfish, dorado, rooster fish, wahoo, yellow-fin tuna, stripe, and shark.  Manzanillo is famed for its sailfish, but there are also plenty of dorado, marlin, and giant tuna out there. Puerto Vallarta specializes in sailfish, dorado, marlin, tuna, roosterfish and red snapper, while Ixtapa, of Ernest Hemingway fishing fame, has some fighting sailfish, black and blue marlin, yellow-knife tuna, roosterfish, grouper, and ,well just about everything. Huatulco is a smaller resort but offers some excellent yellow-fin tuna and big dorado fishing from late November through March. From March to May there’s nothing much happening, but July and August are good for sailfish and blue marlin. Wherever you go on the Riviera Maya or Pacific the fishing is great, you’re dealing with professionals who know what they’re doing, you can take your fish for dinner, and (though they may say they’re the only ones) everyone will do catch and release. Take a hat.

If you’re in an intrepid mood you might want to try getting around on the metro. You may be surprised to learn that the Mexico City metro has an excellent international reputation, while locals acclaim it as ‘the three B transport’, meaning ‘bueno, bonito y barato’ (good, nice, and cheap). With just three pesos you can travel around the whole city, which is amazing if you think about the size of the place. You can get the metro from the Zócalo to Bellas Artes (Fine Arts), where you will find the Palace of Fine Arts and see some wonderful exhibitions, including the permanent ones by the three great Mexican muralists Orozco, Siqueiros, and Rivera. Entrance fees are very reasonable and you can also enjoy opera and fine classical concerts by the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. On Sundays entrance is free and you can attend piano concerts. In fact all of the city’s museums are free on Sundays, and some of them on Tuesdays too. Close to the Palace of Fine Arts you will find another of the city’s most famous buildings ‘Casa de los Azulejos’ (House of Tiles), which belongs to one of the country’s top restaurant chains, ‘Sanborns’, where you can savor typical Mexican dishes. If you are looking for something more refreshing in a historical setting, try ‘La Opera’, a bar famous for hosting a meeting between Zapata and Villa during the Mexican Revolution.

If you still have time and energy, visit the National Museum of Anthropology, and after that cross the street and take a stroll in the enormous Chapultepec Park. In the evening hop across to Garibaldi Square where you will find not only restaurants and bars but also a wide variety of traditional music played by local musicians. The best areas for dining out are the Condesa, the Roma, and the Roma Sur, and are all to be found in the southern part of downtown; they are safe, fashionable, and boast a wide range of excellent restaurants. For the following day an excellent choice for a tour are the Pyramids of Teotihuacan, a huge archaeological site with the impressive remains of a city built around two thousand years ago. It’s really worth giving yourself time to stroll around the majestic ruins, to climb the pyramids, and soak up the amazing atmosphere. To finish off, why not take a tour to Xochimilco and its floating gardens? It was once the huge water and irrigation system of the Aztec empire. Today you can still take a boat ride and enjoy the flowers and the wonderful traditional food and music that you’ll find on the way. You can do all of this on your own, but maybe the best way to go is with a tour where a guide will give you some real historical background on what you are seeing, and also you won’t lose any time trying to find your destination. There is so much to see in Mexico City that maybe you should stop off for a week rather than a weekend!