A horrible experience “Acapulco-Mexico”

      On my vacation in August 2005, I had the opportunity to go with my sister and my mother to Mexico. We went because my mother was visiting her best friend, who is from Mexico City. We would get to the city and she invited us to see Acapulco. When we were in Acapulco, we went one morning to a beach called Condesa, which is on the Pacific Ocean. The water that day was very turbid. My mother’s fiend was trying to touch the water with her feet but the tide was so strong. She fell in the water with all her clothing because of the rip current.

      My sister and I were sunbathing and waiting for the tide to calm down. I decided to go in first I did not care that the water was so wavy. When I was inside the water, I realized that the tide was rising and the waves were getting bigger.  I thought about leaving the water. I made some gestures to my sister. I was telling her to not to come into the water but she did not understand.

      When we were together I told her I was tired.  I had been trying to get out the water for a few minutes, but the tide would not let me. My mom hadn't worried because we had taken swim lessons when we were children. She was sunbathing with her friend. I tried to swim back to shore but I couldn't do it because the water current took me back to inside the ocean. My sister saw a rope and she went to take it. She was waiting for a wave to take her out the water. She swam to shore and she put one foot on the shore while was walking fast with the rip current. Meanwhile I was still clutching the rope, waiting to be strong again and do what my sister did.

      I was waiting to take a wave and swim fast to the shore but the tide was so strong that I couldn't get out of the water on my first attempt. I gestured to my sister because I was tired. I did the same again without force. I took the wave and with the current water, I put one foot on the shore and my sister took my hand and took me out of the water. I spent more than ten minutes trying to get out the water. I was tired and couldn't believe that the beach didn’t have lifeguards.

      I told my mother that I almost died by the strong tide and was struggling to get out the water. She was surprised; she had been talking with her friend while I was inside the beach. When he returned to Venezuela and saw my dad, I told him what had happened to me. I said, "Acapulco is a place that I will not visit again."

by Sthefany Urdaneta