So, we walked a quarter mile to the water taxi and took it over to old Mazatlan and checked on the Club Nautico anchorage first (but they were closed today) with the idea that we might anchor out there soon. It is closer and easier to get to the town from there as opposed to having to take a water taxi over. They have a dinghy dock and don’t charge too much to anchor there. However, we found that their facilities were pretty rustic (read dilapidated, long past their heyday– D) and there is a new water treatment plant going in across the street so there is an unpleasant smell in the area. Hmmmmm…..
Anyway, we started walking back towards the town and looking to walk towards old town. We were hungry though and decided to get a bite to eat. We climbed up these very steep stairs up to a restaurant that is perched on the edge of a rock. It looked like it would have great views and it did. However, it was closed today! Bummer, but we got some good pictures from there. After climbing down, we started walking again and checked another restaurant, but it was closed too. Hmmmm….. Not sure why things are closed. It is not a holiday. Anyway, we found a small local hotel (and we do mean small, I’d be surprised if it had more than a half dozen rooms . To have a beer with lunch I had to walk across the street to little neighborhood tienda and buy my own and bring it back – D) which had a little restaurant and had lunch there. Nothing fancy, but yummy, authentic burritos.
We walked the rest of the way to the old town center and checked out both town squares. One of the oldest buildings in Mazatlan was in Plazuela Machado, the first square we visited, and had a museum regarding the history of Mazatlan on the second story. It was very interesting! We visited a beautiful cathedral which was in the second square we visited (Plaza de la Republica). There are several restaurants we saw which we will have to try on future visits.
It is time to get back to the water taxi and our dinghy. We had invited the couple from “Deep Playa” over to our boat for a visit so we needed to get back. The water taxi service stops after 6:00pm anyway.
We had a lovely visit with Patrick and Dawn. It was a very nice end to the day.
12-20, Tues – The winds have died as forecasted…. Yay!! We are going to go to ashore and check out the local resort row and some of the restaurants. Maybe hang out in a palapa or two and enjoy the reprieve from the wind.
We took the dinghy to Benji’s again and walked around to the beach strip. Our new favorite friend, Marley the dog, was showing us how to get there. Everyone seems to know him too. Very cute and a sweet dog. He’s a black lab mix of some sort and very smart. We got a recommendation from young Daniel, at Benji’s, to eat at either Victor’s or Carmelita’s. Both were way down the beach, almost directly in front of “Journey” when looking out from the shore. We decided to try Victor’s. Our friends from “Deep Playa” found us there and we all ate lunch together. It was a pleasant afternoon watching all the locals play in the water and chatting with some x-pats who have been here a while.
The food was absolutely superb here at Victor’s. We will have to come back for more . We were so stuffed, that we really didn’t want dinner, so we went back to Benji’s for a cold drink and headed back to the boat for a quiet evening.
12-21, Wed. – The folks on “Deep Playa” left the anchorage for the marinas to spend Christmas with visiting relatives. We listened to the morning net on the radio and were contacted by another boat, “Chrysalis II” (a 29’ boat!!) with Dave & Leiann aboard, letting us know they were coming out from the anchorage by Club Nautico to here today and wanted to get together later to swap stories. We set a date for that evening aboard “Journey”.
We had lunch at Benji’s and took the water taxi over to Old Mazatlan and took a bus to the town center (Centro). We walked the local market (Mercado Central), which is really fantastic, and looked at all the meats, fish and chicken for sale (fresh, chop-it-up for you now) . They had all kinds of produce available and almost anything else you might need. We strolled through the town and went to visit a local artist, Glen Rogers, who is a very good friend of our friends Larry & Patricia and Larry’s parents , Fawn & Roger. She has a beautiful home and studio in what looks to us like the up and coming art district of town. It turns out she had been aboard “Journey” once in the past at Angel Island on an Opening Day weekend event. We had a nice visit and will look to get together with her after the holidays before we leave Mazatlan. (We also met a fascinating, and somewhat mysterious world travelling Jewish artist, Daniel, from Israel sitting on the sidewalk working on a watercolor of the colorful old buildings lining the narrow streets and had a wonderful chat with him – D)
The time was getting away from us, so we walked out to where we could catch another bus back to the waterfront and a water taxi back to Stone Island.
Dave & Leiann came by “Journey” on their way back from the beach, where they had dinner at Carmelita’s and extolled how we should eat there as well. We had a lovely evening swapping stories with them and having hors d’oeuvres. They had some pretty interesting tales of their trip down from Seattle, Washington area and many other sailing adventures that Dave had been on over his lifetime. A lovely evening was had by all.
12-22, Thurs – Today we are going to have another Benji’s pizza for lunch with Dave , Leiann and another couple , Rob and Kai, who just pulled into the anchorage this morning and then go to the town here on the island. I want to find a mercado to get a few things for our Christmas dinner before the wind picks up as forecasted and we might not be able to leave the boat.
Dave, Leiann, Dick & I walked to the town of Isla Piedras on the dirt road that goes along the harbor side of the island. We wanted to find the 2nd water taxi to the Mazatlan side, because it runs all night long. As we were walking along the road this gringo fellow hollered from a home up on a hill overlooking the road and harbor for us to come up and see the view. He is a Vietnam vet who has lived down here for 20 years and is in the process of building a lovely home there on that hill. He was definitely a character, we think a lonely character though, and very interesting to talk with. The people down here are very VERY friendly. As you walk along, everyone says hello, smiles and asks how you are. You never know who you are going to end up meeting and sharing experiences with. The locals are only too happy to talk and laugh with you when trying to communicate. It is quite a fun atmosphere.
We found the water taxi station and there are a few concrete roads in this part of the town, but not many. We also found the small mercado and got a few things there. We followed the roads through town to the beach side of the Island, admiring the local architecture of the old homes painted so colorfully. We bought some roasted peanuts and candied peanuts from a local family who makes them right there in their yard. You should see the roaster they use, which was powered by a Rube Goldberg type contraption of an electric motor and pulleys (in the middle of it all a car transmission, for gear reduction I guess - D) that turned the 55 gal drum on a spit over a fire. There was a back-up hand crank for the spit. You could see a man further back in the yard pouring finished peanuts out of a basket from above a fan. The fan was blowing the empty shells out of the mix as they fell past it on their way to the basket on the ground. This way empty shells didn’t fall into the basket with the good peanuts and subsequently into your bag of peanuts (mostly). And…………….they were excellent!!
The road brought us back to the playa at Carmelita’s, so we stopped for a beverage, then made our way back to Benji’s and on to the boat for a nice quiet evening. The sunsets over the point have been spectacular!!
12-23, Fri. – The day before Christmas Eve?? Really?? Doesn’t really feel like it. We are going ashore to the beach palapas to find an internet connection. We had Leianne & Dave over this morning so they could take a shower while we used their Banda Ancha device to get internet here on the boat. We want to get one of these, so we can do this. We will have to find a Telcel store to do this though, so we won’t get to it until after Christmas.
I need to upload pictures and update the blog at least through our arrival here, so we went ashore with the computer. Carmelita’s has Wi-fi, but it doesn’t reach the restaurant. The owner is going to bring the router out to the restaurant tomorrow, so we will have to put it off till tomorrow. We had a late lunch there anyway.
We had so much to eat at Carmelita’s that we didn’t really need a big dinner, so we had a beverage at Benji’s and went back to the boat.
12-25, Sun, Christmas – Can’t believe it is Christmas. It was supposed to be a no present year, but Dick surprised me with a lovely silver sailboat necklace with opal insets which he got in La Paz before we left. Very lovely!!
We had some breakfast munchies, made phone calls to loved ones that we could get ahold of and headed to Carmelita’s to Skype. Before we left though, one of the boats “Vallela Vallela” (say that 3 times fast, ha) in our anchorage (a nice young couple, Kai & Rob, from Port Townsend, WA (and they know Chelcie and Kathy too! – D)) organized a get-together at Benji’s Pizza at one o’clock for about six of us boats in the area.
It turned out to be a fun get-together. There is always the exchanging of stories, the food and the locals. Kai & Rob had bought a Santa pinata in the Market Central yesterday, so everybody had a chance to whack at it after dinner. It was fun watching the local children swing away at this thing.
So, we had Garlic Shrimp & Ham Pizza for Christmas dinner. Will do the meal I had planned for tomorrow.
Merry Christmas Everyone & A Happy New Year to you!
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