Mazatlan

The big city rises out of the east as we sail to shore. Mazatlan has a large bay where the fishing fleet, ferry and cruise ships dock ... our destination, farther north, is the small gap in the shore with the jetty at El Cid. They say not to try this in bad weather or the dark; we have no trouble, it is a beautiful day. The yacht harbor area is shallow and cut through the low lands many years ago. We tie up at a dock as directed by Marina Mazatlan. This is an up scale neighborhood with gringos aplenty. In the slip next to us are four, twenty something, Canadians; they are here to surf and romance the local school teachers; I seem to remember working for a living at their age … (probably just envy).

Down town is a nine peso ride on a pretty nice bus; hard to comprehend the locals paying so much; many things are not cheap in Mexico, like marinas. The buses wind their way along the Malecon to El Centro and the Mercado.

This is the retail center near old town; everybody shops in this neighborhood. Food, clothes, shoes (lots of shoes) and everything else except for books; there were no book stores. Old town area spreads out from the cathedral to the opera house and the cultural venues; small parks … artist’s stores.

           This is Thanksgiving week (only in the US) and the restaurants are still empty; Sergio says it will be a couple more weeks before the town fills up with Christmas vacationers. Marina Mazatlan hosts a Thanksgiving gathering with food, music and beer (of course).

¿Oye Oscar, son aquellas manzanas de Washington? Esté tranquilo Jorge, tengo mucho sueño.