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.
This interesting rig was in our campground last night. The trailer appears to be a prototype from a California start-up company.
