Acapulco’s Cliff Divers Are Back After Deadly Hurricane Agence France-Presse
go to original December 17, 2023

A cliff diver leaps from the rocks above Acapulco after the Mexican resort allowed resumption of the activity in the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Otis, but tourists are only slowly returning to the region. (Francisco Robles/AFP)

Update: Death Toll From Hurricane Otis Rises to 52 in Mexico (IANS)

With few tourists watching the daring feat, Abraham Estrada dives off La Quebrada, an emblematic Acapulco cliff where the spectacle has resumed but struggles to attract visitors after the Mexican resort was hammered by Hurricane Otis.

The devastating storm - recorded at top-intensity Category 5 when it roared ashore in late October - left nearly 50 people dead and another 30 missing, some 90 percent of tourist establishments affected and the once-vibrant port city licking its wounds.

As cliff-diving returned this month, the tourism industry has hoped for a much-needed rebound, but it has been slow to take off.

"We are having a hard time, due to the lack of tourism... We are hoping with faith that this holiday season will bring some" travelers, Estrada tells AFP.

The 36-year-old has been cliff-diving for 22 years, a tradition that has run in his family's blood for nearly a century, his father and grandfather divers before him.

According to the Acapulco mayor's office, at the end of the year - a peak tourism season - there are just 2,890 available hotel rooms in 91 establishments, compared with 20,000 rooms on offer prior to Otis.

In the days since the cliff-diving resumed, there have been only two La Quebrada shows per day, compared with five before the hurricane, explains Estrada, whose repertoire includes leaping off the rocky promontory while enveloped in flames and plunging into the water nearly 50 meters (164 feet) below.

Estrada himself saw his home damaged and furniture destroyed by Otis, and the facilities from which the dives are observed, including a hotel, were devastated.

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