Mazatlan

Now that we are in Mexico I am going to make links to each major port we spend time in. The first is of course Mazatlan. What a great place.  So far we have hurtled the government and done our check in, gotten groceries, eaten at several of the restaurants and even found the Wal-Mart!!  We have met several other cruisers and several Mexican nationals. There is so much to see here that we will be spending at least a month before we check out other places, maybe more!  We will be leaving the marina on Friday December 28th and going to the anchorage at the other end of town and we will then start really touring!  In the mean time we did make one little trip to a place called Stone Island. It's not an island but a peninsula that is popular with locals and tourists for it's beaches.   

The view from the ferry launch to Stone Island	The beach at Stone Island	An old "Palapa", closed I think
Lunch with new friends	Mazatlan Marina	Mazatlan Marina

The last two shots above are the Mazatlan Marina where we spent the first 11 days we were here.  Then on Friday Dec. 28th we left the marina for the old anchorage.  We left the marina just before 0900 and stopped at Marina El Cid for gas.  We had to wait for the attendant so we hung around until around 0930.  We then took off. It's not very far to the anchorage and once we got out the mouth (which is very very small, think Monterey.) we put up the jib and sailed. It was a very nice sunny day. Not really all that warm, but that's relative to where you are! It took about 2 hours of nice soft sailing to get to the anchorage.

Picture taken from inside the anchorage. Not a large opening	This hill is west of us. It has the 2nd highest lighthouse. The lighthouse it's self is not tall but the hill is 515 feet.	The view of the anchorage from the side of the lighthouse hill.
A shot of Mazatlan from the lighthouse hill	A shot of the coastline from the same hill	And the welcoming committee from the lighthouse!

The first couple of days we just hung around and walked into the market.  On New years eve everyone from the anchorage got together for a pot luck. It was really nice to get to meet other cruisers.  Being the lazy retired people that we are we were mostly back on our boats by 2000. One boat hauled a light up to the top of their mast and did a time square thing, again at 2000!  The next morning several of us walked to the top of the lighthouse hill. It was a great hike. Rick took some really nice pictures. We really hope to do more of that kind of thing.

Friday Jan. 18, 2008

We have been having a wonderful time here. We have learned the bus schedule to most of the places we want to go. We do most of our shopping at the central market instead of the more Americanized grocery stores like Gigante and Mega. We do go the those when we can't find what we want at the market. I haven't taken any pictures of the market it's self but we went by the large cathedral and took some pictures there. The cathedral was started in 1879 and finished in 1899. It is beautiful.

Front view

The center aisle of the church

Right Side aisle

A statue inside the fence

Gargoyle head light posts!

Marble statue/plaque

The next place we went was a local square. They have a lot of those and it's really nice. There is usually a center area with a raised gazebo type area made out of stone and benches all around the square for people to sit and relax. There is always outdoor restaurants surrounding the square. You can sit and have coffee and a drink or dinner (when it's warm enough!).

This sand sculpture was made special for the Carnival.

One side of the square. See the sidewalk cafes.

Just up the street from the square is the "Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia", the national archeological and history museum. It is quite small but has some neat information about the local area.

Some small artifacts found locally

A bronze statue outside the museum

A recreation of petroglyphs.

Then we walked up to the Malecon. That is a long sidewalk that follows the ocean and goes all the way from one end of Mazatlan to the other. I believe that each coastal city has a Malecon.

Last weekend four of us went to the Juarez market. It's only on Sundays and it is impressive. They have their regular Mercado which is their market place, then on Sundays all the flea market people come out and surround the regular market with everything from garage sale stuff to new stuff, shoes to engine parts and a lot of food carts. Their food carts ROCK!!! They have the best tacos there. It is a mass of people but a lot of fun. You can find a lot of odd ball stuff.

The Last picture is with Dana and Terry from Windblown. They were originally from Medford then from Winchester Bay after their boat was finished. They came down last year. We met them at a yacht club meeting a few years ago and recognized them New Years eve at the potluck. We have been having a blast with them and a couple from Fastima Lente.

These next pictures are on our boat. We had Yolanda and her oldest daughter, son and grandson on the boat last Friday along with Fastima Lente, Windblown and Sans Cles. Yolanda and her family doesn't speak english and we know very little spanish except for Terri on Sans Cles who has been studying it for awhile and does really well.

This last picture ( for now) is of a sunset at the anchorage. The hill to the left is the one with the light house on it. We really have awesome sunsets here.

Well, gotta go for now. Next update will be from San Blas, then late in March we will be back in Mazatlan before heading up into the sea.

Monday, March 24, 2008.  Well, we are back in Mazatlan. We only spent a week in Isla Isabela/San Blas. We will be going back next year and go farther south and spend more time.

Now we are getting ready to go north into the sea. This will be the last update for the Mazatlan entry for this year.

Easter week just got over and it is a HUGH holiday here. There were thousands of people everywhere. They block off whole sections of the Malecon and gold zone area where there are a lot of tourist and it is one big street party for three nights. We did not go! We did walk along the Malecon on Saturday. There were a lot of people and vendors. It was a perfect day for it too. The first three pictures are of some of the monuments you can find along the Malecon. There are probably a dozen? I don't have pictures of all of them but I must save something for next year!!!!

The next few pictures are from the dock party we had last night. There were around 30 people or so (I think). We really had a great time and I am going to miss them. A lot will be going into the sea so we will run into them again. It has been an awesome time in Mazatlan and we look forward to new adventures this year and to coming back next year.

So, goodbye for now to Mazatlan and all the new friends we have made. We will see you again hopefully, if not, fair winds and following seas to all!!!