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Published: March 24th 2012
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This adorable little girl engaged with us at lunch.
She was uncomfortable with having her picture taken but she and her parents seemed very pleased up when they saw the photo. Lunes, (Monday) 12 Marzo we drove north to Mazatlan and are settled back in at Mar Rosa RV Park. We love this place. We first stumbled in here in 2001. We spent a few days here again in 2009 on our east-west todo las playas (all the beaches) tour. Last year we were here for about two weeks hoping Ray’s back would recover.
Mazatlan has about a dozen RV parks and like everywhere in Mexico, each park has their devotees.
Martes, (Tuesday) 13 Marzo we visited Isla de la Piedra (Stone Island). We caught the bus from just south of our RV park to downtown Mazatlan. We got off and basically walked thru the downtown area across to the ferry terminal side to catch an agua (water) taxi to Stone Island.
If I were not a city girl, I would absolutely love this place. Tres Amigos RV Park on Stone Island is pretty expensive. Like our park Mar Rosa, proximity to the beach determines the rate. Facilities are excellent and wi-fi (at 50 pesos per day) reaches all sites. Parking is on gravel and there isn’t much shade but the manager, Warren, is a friendly Canadian fellow.
There are several super cheap palapa restaurants all along the beach. The crescent shaped wide white sand beach is flat and lovely. As this is a quiet bay, snorkeling looks promising. Stone Island looks like an excellent honeymoon destination.
On our way home, we stopped in to visit Cindy, at Twisted Mama’s, for her excellent margaritas and to catch up on the local Gringo gossip. Just as we were planning to leave for home, we heard sounds of fireworks or gun fire. Cindy’s daughter ventured out and walked up to the main drag to see what was going on. They insisted we stay put until things calmed down. Turns out, a wealthy Guadalajaran lady, having her hair done in a nearby beauty shop across the street from the bank was kidnapped. A security guard saw the activity and was shot. As far as we know, the woman is still being held and none of the perpetrators have been caught.
Miercoles, (Wednesday) 14 Marzo, our job today was to check out the campgrounds north of town so we caught the Cerritos bus to the end to the line. Punta Cerritos seems to be one of the busiest parks in
Mexico this year. Many folks have built palapas over or garden rooms adjacent to their motor homes. Parking is on gravel, there are no trees, hence no shade and there is no beach to speak of. There are a few bars and restaurants nearby but grocery shopping would be a hassle. They do have coin-op laundry facilities which are uncommon in Mexican campgrounds but these facilities come with a pretty high rent. We don’t see the attraction of this place.
In the village of Punta Cerritos we visited with Alejandro whose family lives in Salt Lake City. Alejandro told us that his family first settled in San Bernardino but moved north to SLC so their children would be exposed to a lower crime rate. He claims there is more crime in SLC than in San Bernardino County. In any case, he got busted and deported from SLC. He is not bitter. He says that it was his fault but he doesn’t dare to go back to the U.S. He has not seen his family for five years. I understand people must play by the rules but this is so sad.
Viernes, (Friday), 16 Marzo, we visited Acuario Mazatlan
today. There were several school groups here for a field-day so that made it a lot more fun than it would have been if just our sparse group of gringo tourists had been there. We chatted a bit with a couple from Winnipeg. Manitoba who were here on their first trip to Mexico. They told us that they had both just retired and had spent a month on Baja at Cabo San Jose before coming over here. Of course, we could not ask their age but clearly they looked a lot younger than most retired Americans.
As aquariums go, this one was so-so. They did have seahorses. The only other aquarium where we’ve seen seahorses is Newport, Oregon. We watched an exotic bird show with parrots doing cute tricks. We’d read that all their birds had been confiscated from vendors who had captured them illegally.
This afternoon, we had drinks at Papagayo’s. Wow! We wished we’d discovered this place sooner. It is on the beach, inside The Inn at Mazatlan. This might be a time share facility but they are open to the public and have an excellent Happy Hour. Wine, my beverage of choice, is generally pretty
expensive in Mexico. Here, at Happy Hour 2 for 1, two glasses of good wine sell for forty-five pesos for both (or less than $2.00 a glass) in a glass enclosed patio with a lovely view of the bay. We watched servers create a delicious looking guacamole tableside.
We had dinner plans at Los Arcos. Ray had had a memorable dinner here last year that I was determined to enjoy it before we left town. Los Arco’s twenty-eight restaurant chain originated in Culiacan, Mexico and is named for the arches (aqueducts) which supplied that city’s water. They also have restaurants in San Diego and Chula Vista. They specialize in gourmet seafood dishes such as my filet Los Arcos, at nice fish filet covered with shrimp, mushrooms, spinach and a béchamel sauce – cost 131 pesos (about ten bucks) – two dinners with wine $40.00 and who knew Mexican food could be so good? We are constantly amazed at how much better the food is in mainland Mexico compared to the tasty but greasy stuff served in Mexican-American restaurants in the U.S.
Domingo, 18 Marzo, We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at Twisted Mama’s. In addition to green beer and
margarita’s Cindy served huge plates of corned beef and cabbage and Guinness stew. There was a large crowd when we arrived at 5:00 enjoying her house band. As the evening wore on, the crowd of senior citizens wearing various shades of green packed the place. I had contacted Mazatlan Lee who frequently contributes on
www.rv.net with whom I have corresponded from time to time. She joined us for dinner. We talked for about three hours. Lee’s blog
www.leejacobs.org has numerous pictures of Mazatlan and of her other travels.
I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned before that Mazatlan has the largest port between Los Angeles and the Panama Canal but at the present time, cruise ships have stopped calling here because of supposed crime issues.
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