Yesterday, Julia and I took a long circular route from our rented place. It took us to some of the non-tourist areas of Mazatlan where people are just living their lives.
Eventually, we made it to the Historical Centro where there are more tourists. I needed some freshly roasted coffee, and the local Facebook Expats group recommended La Mulata. I was pleased to see a Diedrich roaster, a smaller model than the one I operated in my shop.
Before coming to Mazatlan, I watched a number of youtube videos to prepare for the trip. Most of the videos were fluff productions, detailing tourist highlights. One minimalist channel was by a retired Canadian named Dwight Burditt (Duey) who makes videos while taking long walks on the streets of Mazatlan.
I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Duey over beers at Edgar's Bar twice over the last week. He's a retired air traffic controller, met and married a Mexican dessert chef, Lupita, and loves his beer. He's about as down-to-earth as they come.
Last night was the final celebration for Mazatlan's Carnaval, and I am relieved! What started off as a novelty for us ended up getting very old. It wasn't the crowds; it was the noise. Mexican bands played loudly until 2 or 3 a.m. every night, except for last night when the band played until 4 a.m. at our street corner.
Every morning, the Malecon (seawall sidewalk) was trashed with food, paper, and liquids of dubious origin. The city street cleaners managed to clean it up every day--only to have it trashed the next night again.
We paid for a ticket to see the Saturday night parade from the Hacienda Hotel and joined some pickleball friends there.
The food, drink, and company was great, but the parade (and the bands) went on and on and on. Julia stayed until the bitter end.
I had to get up and move my cramped body from the small plastic chair into the open space at the rear of the hotel, where I could breathe.
Now that the Mardi Gras celebration is over, I'm hoping to get back to normal life in Mazatlan. We played pickleball today. I found my sweet spot today and won five out of six games. We will try to go out to eat to tonight at a place that serves regional specialties, hoping that no reservations will be needed.
In New Orleans, it may be spelled Carnival, but in Mazatlan all of the signs say Carnaval. The partying began last night. I slept on my good ear beautifully throughout the night, oblivious to the noise, but Julia assured me that it went until at least 3:30 a.m.
I walk Callie for four miles every morning here, starting at 5:30 a.m., along the Malecon. Some mornings we see people coming home from the bars--just as the sun is coming up at 6 a.m. What was interesting this morning is all of the people who slept on the Malecon last night in lawn chairs, sleeping bags, and tents.
For many poorer Mexicans, the hotels are simply out of reach in price, but that doesn't mean others can't participate in Carnival celebration if you are creative about where to spend the night. These weren't just drunks, although there were a few of those. Entire families crowded together to keep warm, young and old.
Also, as the sun was coming up, the Malecon became full of people rolling suitcases down the street. I can only assume that they arrived on an early morning bus.
Anyway, Callie and I had quite the obstacle course, and neither of us do well in crowds.
I think I've mentioned before that Mazatlan is the shrimp capital of the world. On a street called Aquiles Serdan, there is a shrimp market for about two blocks, where you can buy just about any size or type of shrimp or other shellfish. Here is one stand:
The state of Sinaloa, where Mazatlan is located, is famous for a dish called aquachile, which is made of raw shrimp submerged in liquid seasoned with peppers, lime juice, salt, slides of cucumber and onion.
The shrimp was delicious, and sunset contributed to a wonderful meal.
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| view from our second floor table |
Julia and I walked down to the big mercado today and bought a half kilo of carne adobada (marinated meat) and some green bean.s Then we bought brownies (that tasted more like cake) from a bakery. With some fresh bread that we picked up from the grocery store near us, we had the makings of our Valentine's Dinner.
The dinner was made complete when our landlady dropped off flowers and a bottle of wine to make up for the repairs to the swimming pool/hot tub this week, putting it temporarily out of commission. Totally unnecessary but very sweet. Customer service is a thing in Mexico--even in the absence of complaints. She asked me in Spanish if I was happy with our place. I said, "Claro que si!" (Of course)
I also bought some Chiapas coffee beans from the local roaster. I was running out of my home roast.
It was cooler today--temperatures in the high 70's but breezy. Tonight it's supposed to drop to 46.
We met our neighbors who are here from Oregon for a wedding. They were very interested in our road trip and would like to visit the interior of Mexico and bring their dog.
After leaving the market, we wound our way through the city streets, first climbing to the Observatorio 1873. This is a new attraction that opened up in 2021. There is an original observatory that was built in 1873, furnished from that time period. A tram takes ticket holders there. Tickets were $25 each. I decided to enjoy the view from below.
Now, we needed to go down to come back up. Hiking along the streets toward the Baja and Stone Island Ferries, we crossed a narrow peninsula to the bottom of the El Farrow Lighthouse hike.
There is no fee to enter, but there is a ticket to be purchased in order to walk out on to a see-through ledge for "the very best views." This ticket was only 30 pesos each (less than $2). In hindsight, I would have paid $5 not to go out on the ledge.
The trail is steep, but people of all ages, mostly locals, were hiking alongside us. One young woman overheated and was receiving first aid from several rangers. There were multiple switchbacks with spectacular views of Old Historical Mazatlan and nearby islands.
There are a lot of steps.
After what seemed like hours (Julia said less than one), we were instructed to remove our shoes and walk out in groups of ten to the see-thru landing strip for the view. Each group was given three minutes.
On the way down, we saw a few of the famous cats that live near the top. They have the good sense to enjoy the free views.
We did a lot of exploring today, but I’ll break it down into multiple posts so that I have something to blog about on pickleball days.
The primary downtown Mazatlan market is about thirty minutes walk from our rental place. We could walk about half that distance on the easy-to-walk Malecón, but then had to take to the streets for the rest of the way. Sidewalks in Mazatlan are dangerous and require a high degree of alertness with one’s head on a swivel. They are often uneven, broken, narrow, and sometimes they just disappear. When possible, I prefer to walk in the street against traffic.
Before reaching the main market, we unexpectedly found the Saturday Organic Market a few blocks away at Plaza Zaragoza.
The customers here appeared to be overwhelmingly Americans and Canadians. Prices were high—about what you would expect in the U.S. We checked it out in ten minutes or so (it’s very small) and continued on our way.
El Mercado Pino Suarez is a huge market with vendors selling just about anything you can imagine.
Julia picked up some rings at a sewing supply vendor to complete some pot holders that she has been weaving. Here the customers were overwhelmingly Mexican. English-speaking vendors were the exception rather than the rule.
I was especially interested in buying some produce and meat, but we had several hours of walking and a steep hike (more on that next time) to do, so that would have to wait.
This morning, I was up early trying to tire Callie out so that we could leave her for most of the day in the condo in her crate. I did a brisk walk of 4.5 miles on the Malecon (the beachside walkway), while Julia went for a short run. After breakfast, we walked a mile up to a local college for our first day of pickleball club. The club is called the Mazatlan Pickleball Academy, which maybe should have been my first hint that this was going to be a higher level of play than the recreational style to which we are accustomed.
These players are intense. The day started off with drills, which I found helpful, but it was totally unexpected. Each day of play (Monday, Wednesday and Friday), a round robin tournament is held during which scores and outcomes are meticulously kept, and players move to higher or lower courts, based upon outcomes. I did okay so will probably keep my place, neither moving up or down.
Julia had a rough day and will probably move to a lower level which will be more fun for her (I hope). I ended up playing for almost four hours before my court's tournament was completed.
We headed over to the beachfront restaurant for a late lunch. Julia had grilled dorado (fish). I had a craving for hamburger and fries, so that's what I had.
Finally, we freed Callie and later took her along on a Malecon and beach walk as the sun set.
We made sandwiches at home tonight and have settled in for a night of reading. The weekend fireworks along the beach have already started.
We have observed some interesting jobs in Mazatlan. This guy is a grass waterer from a chair on top of a truck.
The Malecon in Mazatlan is the longest in Latin America, comprising 13 miles of continuous seafront promenade next to the seawall. This morning, we were walking south on the Malecon about 6 a.m. A fisherman was already at work on the beach. Other small fishing boats were just offshore.
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| Fishing Under the Moon |
We learned today that many sculptures have been installed on the Malecon in advance of the Mardi Gras celebration here. Julia took some photos of these sculptures early this morning, as darkness receded into dawn.
On the way back, some fishermen were already busy selling their fresh catch, using a small scale to determine weight and price.
We found closer pickleball courts today, met some expats, and made plans to join their pickleball club. We will begin playing on Friday.
Ate the buffet breakfast at Ibis Hotel Mazatlan. Checked out of the hotel at 11 a.m. and then killed a couple of hours walking to the pickleball courts on the north side of town. Nice group of Americans and Canadians there, but it’s probably too far from where our condo is in Centro. There are pickleball courts closer; we will visit soon to get more info.
On the way back, we got our first glimpse of the beach.
Our host messaged us on whatsapp to let us know we could come a little early, so we drove south about thirty minutes through heavy traffic to Centro. Very nice lady who spoke minimal English. We were able to communicate with my rudimentary Spanish and an ocasional assist from Google Translate.
After getting settled in, I crated Callie and we went for supper at a beachfront restaurant.
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| Shrimp and Octopus Burrito |
I had two firsts in this meal. Octopus in a burrito and fries on the side of a burrito.
On the way home we stopped at the supermarket for drinking water and breakfast supplies. Then we took Callie up to our rooftop for sunset.
The statute commemorates the start of Mardi Gras. The celebration in Mazatlan starts in a couple of weeks and is the third largest in the world.
My wife Julia was pretty worried about this trip. Friends, family and acquaintances warned her not to go. What about the cartel? What about the corrupt police? Don't get me wrong. Those things exist in Mexico, but they also exist in the United States. There's always the chance of being in the wrong time at the wrong place wherever you are, but I wasn't worried. I admit to being a little stressed by Julia being worried.
We spent a restful night at the Hotel Ibis in Torreon, ate an early breakfast at the hotel, and headed out around 7:30 a.m.
Unlike the day before the route today was almost entirely on Toll Roads. We only had one short police stop during which I was asked for ID and for my destination. Other than that, it was smooth going. And I mean the roads were very smooth for the most part, compared to the previous day.
We cruised past our originally planned stop at Durango and headed for our eventual destination: Mazatlan. The scenery on the way was gorgeous.
There were mountains, lakes, and pines at the high elevations. During the last couple of hours, there must have been a dozen tunnels blasted through the mountains--most short, but several very long.
Driving on the two lane roads with an invisible middle third lane was even more challenging in mountains and tunnels. There were often double yellow lines indicated no passing, but that didn't seem to bother most people. I stayed alert and moved to the shoulder quickly whenever someone was passing from behind or in front.
We changed into mountain time today and arrived at our hotel in Mazatlan at about 1 p.m, two hours before check-in.
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| Are We Almost There? |
Fortunately, our room was ready, and we were able to unload our stuff and take a long walk around the Marina.
We ate a light dinner at a restaurant down the street and headed back to the room early. Julia has a Zoom call tonight with her weavers' guild back home, so I'm quietly blogging during her call.
Tomorrow, we move to our Airbnb which we have rented on an extended basis. It was still booked tonight so no early check-in.
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