Horror Movie or Quaint Retreat?

---

It began like any of our other road trips... While packing our bags we remembered a hotel room was in order. I finished the packing while Erika booked us a room online. "This one has good reviews," she yelled from her mother's computer. "Book it!" I replied. And with those two words, the story begins...

With the trunk full of our things and the car loaded with gas we were off for a few days in Mazatlan! The views from the newly opened autopista were amazing. The three hours flew by as I stared out the window at the dramatic scenery! Around 4:30 in the afternoon we arrived to central Mazatlan. As we had only had breakfast we stopped for some a late lunch and to ask directions to our hotel. In our normal manner, all we had written down was the name of the hotel and no address or phone number.

After our meal we set out on our search. We drove up and down the "strip of hotels" searching for Marial Coral Hotel. After three times through and a few stops to ask if anyone had heard of it, it was time to turn on the forbidden Iphone data... (In the morning we would learn that we had spent $220 on data while searching for our lost hotel.) Google maps came to the rescue and told us our hotel was on the "other side" of Mazatlan.

Thus began our long, arduous journey on a dark, deserted, dirt road. Erika's mom drove us valiantly for almost an hour on a road in which we passed only about 2 other cars and did not see any other sign of civilization. I kept leaning forward and asking, "Are you sure this is the right way? Do we have enough gas?" It was only a couple years earlier when we found ourselves nearly stranded with no gas in Costa Rica! Our drive was something straight out of a horror film... Three woman in a car in a foreign county driving down a deserted road to nowhere...

Finally, we saw signs of life up ahead, although barely, and we arrived at the Marial Coral Hotel. They explained to us, "There will be some loud noise in the morning because there is construction going on. The pool will still be open as will the bar but the restaurant is closed. You can stay for free tonight if you want and then decide if you want to stay another night. "Umm... Uh... let us think about it." We go up to the room thinking that this is really odd! The hotel seemed so quiet. Most of the lights were off and there was plywood over the space where the elevator should be that read "Do not lean here."

We asked if there was another hotel around and the front desk lady replied, "Not really." I asked, "Where are we?!?!" She replied elusively, "You are on the Isla de Las Pierdas. It's not really an island but a Peninsula." I asked, "Is there another way to get here besides the long dirt road that brought us here?" She said, "No, but there is a small boat you can take to visit Mazatlan."

Erika and I trekked back up three flights stairs to talk it over with Dora, Erika's mom. Turns out driving is exhausting as she was out cold by the time we arrived back to the room. Decision made. Back down three flights to confirm we would be staying. Front desk lady explained that hotels.com tried to contact us but were unable to. It turns out the hotel is actually closed for remodel. I asked why she was working then. She looked at me funny and I replied, "Oh, in case of idiots like us! Got it!"

Luckily the construction held off until 9:30 AM. We were up by 6 anyway since we had gone to bed at 8 PM. It turns out that everything on this peninsula shuts down shortly after dark. And since the sun sets at 5:20, by about 7 or 7:30 its dead around here!

As it turned out we had an entire hotel to ourselves. Horror Movie or a Quaint Retreat? The verdict is still out!

---

Photos

Elevator Shaft
This is where the elevator used to be.

View from our Deserted Hotel
This is what I saw when I woke up at 6 AM. Not a bad thing to wake up to at all!

Hotel Marial Coral Hotel
Our own personal hotel!