The resort city of Acapulco, Guerrero, continues to be a popular destination despite the ongoing violence instigated by warring criminal gangs, but there is a beach to avoid and not because of stray bullets.

During this Christmas vacation period, tourists have discovered that the beach at Papagayo park is one to steer away from due to contamination by sewage.

Constantina Galeana Sánchez, a visitor from Puebla, shot video of the beach and posted it online. The recording shows that storm drains have become open-air sewage canals, discharging the fetid waters on to the beach, where it either accumulates in puddles or runs into the sea.

Galeana told the newspaper El Sol de México that she and her family decided to look for another spot to spend the day because the smell made it impossible to enjoy.

Francisco García Sotelo of Mexico City lamented the situation but said what was worse was that neither the municipal nor the state governments were doing anything to solve it.

Capama, the Acapulco water department, is reportedly unable to intervene due to a lack of funding.

But authorities are doing something about the garbage that tourists leave behind.

The city said that so far this holiday season it has removed 273 tonnes of trash from the beaches, 58 of which were picked up on December 24 and 25 alone.

Acapulco continues to report good hotel occupancy numbers. The state Tourism Secretariat said the occupancy rate yesterday was 76.4% but predicted the figure would go higher yet.

In Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo the rate was 83% and in Taxco, 60.4%.

The holiday season will end on January 4, and most students will return to their classrooms on January 7.

Source: El Sol de México (sp)