With few tourists watching the daring feat, Abraham Estrada dives from La Quebrada, an iconic rock in Acapulco where the spectacle has resumed but is trying to attract visitors after Hurricane Otis to the Mexican resort.
The devastating storm — registered as a Category 5 when it roared ashore in late October — has left nearly 50 dead and another 30 missing, about 90 percent of tourist facilities damaged and the once-vibrant port city licking its wounds.
As cliff diving returned this month, the tourism industry hoped for a much-needed recovery, but it has been slow to take off.
“We are having a hard time, because of the lack of tourism… We hope with faith that this festive season will bring some,” Estrada tells AFP.
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The 36-year-old has been cliff diving for 22 years, a tradition that runs in his family’s blood for nearly a century, with 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 hotel rooms available at 91 properties, compared with 20,000 rooms offered before Otis.
In the days since cliff diving resumed, there have been only two La Quebrada performances a day, compared to five before the typhoon, explains Estrada, whose repertoire includes jumping off the rocky promontory while engulfed in flames and plunging into the water nearly 50 meters (164 ft) below.
“La Quebrada is a universal icon of Acapulco,” Estrada says of the spectacle featured in the 1948 film “Tarzan and the Mermaids,” in which star Johnny Weissmuller dives shirtless into the Pacific.
Estrada himself saw his home destroyed and furniture destroyed by Otis, and the diving viewing facilities, including a hotel, destroyed.
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Divers’ income has sunk like a rock, given how few tourists pay the roughly $5 entrance fee and accompanying tips.
Estrada has the advantage of being a lawyer to improve his finances. The same cannot be said for Juan Francisco Cruz, a professional diver who derives his only income from his cliff art.
“It used to be a show,” Cruz laments, noting only three tourists were present.
“Now there’s no traffic, there’s no people and it’s really affected us.”
But he is confident Acapulco will recover and says divers are waiting “with open arms” for more tourists.
Source: AFP