One of the highlights of visiting Acapulco is going to see the famous La Quebrada Cliff Divers. La Quebrada is the name of the cliffs where the divers climb to perform the death-defying dives into the narrow water below. The divers are all professionals of various ages that perform daily for the crowds that come to cheer them on. We chose to watch them from the La Perla restaurant in the El Mirador Resort that made them famous, but there is an observation deck where you can see them even closer without the expense of a meal.

The divers perform one show during the day at 1pm and then they do four performances in the evening at 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30. While the afternoon performance might be best from a photographic perspective, seeing them in the evening is quite impressive. We chose to go to the 7:30 show as we were able to watch a beautiful sunset around 6:30 as we enjoyed our meal and waited for the divers to start their performance. Just sitting and enjoying the beautiful views of the La Quebrada cliffs and the water crashing into the “Gulch” is a worthwhile experience.

Prior to the start of the performance, some of the younger divers came out to dive from the smaller cliffs below the observation deck. In addition to practicing the diving skills and warming up, it was also their responsibility to clear away any seaweed that had been brought in by the tide. It was surprising to see how young some of the divers actually were, but they made sure to dive from the lower cliffs. Once the main divers arrived, also working they way down through the crowds on the observation deck, they also dove into the water and swam around in order to loosen up for the performance.

Once it was time for the performance to begin, the first of the divers began the climb up the steep cliff wall using only his hands and his bare feet to scale to the top of the cliff. Then other divers started to climb the cliff with several of them going to a perch just below the summit. Each diver then patiently eyed the water below before leaping from the cliff and soaring through the air and into the water below. It is quite a fascinating show and certainly worth seeing when visiting Acapulco.