We were pleasantly surprised by our visit to Mazatlan. Our anchorage sits just a 20 minute walk from the historic old town with its tree lined streets, brightly colored homes, green & shaded plazas and the city market.
Our first day in town, we hired an open air taxi (think golf cart the size of a car) to drive us around town for an hour.
The Malecon (waterfront boardwalk) area is very long, about 17 miles, and worth a drive in the shade vs. a walk along its entire distance. There are scattered hill side neighborhoods with beautiful overlooks of the city and what appears to be opulent homes.
We spent an entire day at the Acuario (Aquarium) which is reported to be the largest in Central America.
It was situated in a beautiful very new concrete building that had many built in water features. The seal show was quite remarkable and worth a visit if you are ever in town. We had lunch on the beach a few short blocks away. As this was on Sunday, there were many families on the beach out enjoying their afternoon off.
The central market was fun to wander around, although we are fairly sure that the items we purchased were marked up in price when we enquired as it seems the people standing next to us where handing over much less money. We stocked the freezer with 3 kilos of shrimp from the shrimp ladies, just north of the market.
Mazatlan is also one of the ports of call for the cruise ships. They passed very close behind us when entering and leaving the narrow entrance to the harbor. The first evening when departing the dock, the cruise ship played a few bars from the love boat tv show when they left. That inspired us to watch several episodes of this show that we remembered from our childhood. Large container ships, ferries and many sunset party boats passed by within in close proximity. There was never a dull moment in this active port.
After seeing the sites and getting a bit weary of the pollution from the coal plant that seemed to blow into the boat in the morning hours leaving our eyes blurry, we took advantage of calm seas to head further south.
Our next stop is 24 hours away to the south, where we plan to anchor in Bahai de Banderas at the village of La Cruz de la Huanacaxtle (La Cruz for short).
I've pretended to be a cruise director practically my whole life because of The Love Boat! lol Looks like soooo much fun, guys! Sending love your way! Julie :)
i USED TO LOVE MAZATLAN, SENIOR FROG, GREAT MARGARITAS! s