We went to see the cliff divers last night and it was amazing. My heart would be in my throat every time they leaped off the cliffs. The whole set up was pretty cool. There are huge cliffs on both sides of a small inlet. They have built a massive set of stairs so you can go down the cliffs on one side to watch the divers. The stairs are big and wide and there are three foot tall walls that are a foot thick all along the stairway. There are pretty good vantage points all the way down the stairs, so people stop all along the stairway to lean on the wall and watch. We got there pretty early and just watched the surf surge in and out of the small opening.
When the divers arrived for the 7:30 P.M. show they walked down the stairway with lit torches. They dowsed the torches at the bottom of the stairs and they walked toward the wall everyone was leaning over and climbed over it and down the cliffs to a small flat spot about 10 feet above the water. There were about 8 divers, one fellow was really young and was just learning. He took several dives from the low spot, he got the top part of his body under control and managed that part of the dive but had not yet learned to control his legs. They would bend and splat as he hit the water, one time he arched too much and almost flipped over, that looked painful. Meanwhile the older guys had dove in and were cleaning up some debris that was in the water, I imagine if they had hit some of that when they went in the water it could have done some significant damage.
Then what happened was one of the most amazing parts, the divers free climbed up the cliff on the other side, we estimated it was about 80 feet high. They went up like mountain goats one at a time. The younger fellows stopped about half way up and dove from there, about four went all the way to the top, but only one fellow dove from the top. Two dove at the same time and did a pike with one flip. The divers would be standing on their spot on the cliff and then they would whistle and wave to get your attention. Then they would steady themselves for the dive and then intently watch the surf so they could time their dives to hit the water when the surge of the surf would be just right. The cliffs were all lit up with floodlights but other than that there was no other artificial enhancements. There was no announcer, there was no music, just divers climbing, whistling, waving and diving. It was quite magical, I am so happy that we went and without a doubt it will be one of the highlights of our Mexican trip.