Mazatlan (Days 25-42)

We have been in Mazatlan two weeks and have only seen and done a fraction of what this wonderful city has to offer. It would be easy to stay here long term, but there are so many other great places south of here to experience. We are planning to depart on Thursday, January 20th for Isla Isabella, a small island about 86 miles south of Mazatlan. We will anchor there for a couple of days and explore the island before heading south to La Cruz which is twenty-five miles north of Puerta Vallarta. Two other couples we met here in Marina Mazatlan are headed for Isla Isabella also so we’ll have good company. Then, there are always new people to meet when you pull into the next marina or anchorage.

We have found that many of the other cruisers in Marina Mazatlan have been here for months or years. We have also met quite a few Americans and Canadians walking in town that have homes here. We can see why. Everything you need or could want is available in Mazatlan. We marvel at how clean the streets are around town. The city does not rely on tourism, so I think that adds to the charm. The main industry here is fishing, mostly shrimp and dorado (Mahi Mahi), and then you have every other imaginable type of business as well. The shrimp is wonderful and plentiful. There is even a shrimp guy that comes to Marina Mazatlan every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning with three different types of shrimp for sale from the back of his pickup truck. You can choose from one of the three buckets filled with ice and lots of beautiful shrimp. We had some the other night and made Phad Thai noodles with it. It was delicious. There is also a produce guy who comes alongside the shrimp truck. His pickup is loaded with fruits, vegetables, tortillas and tortas. We have bought produce and bread from him twice since being here. He is a little more expensive than in the markets but it’s still much cheaper than in the states. It is worth paying for the convenience and his produce is very good. Speaking of convenience, there is also a laundry guy who comes every morning to pick up and he delivers your clean laundry nicely folded the same evening. I was feeling a little weird about having a stranger do my laundry, but I have gotten over that now. It is actually really nice to not spend a half a day doing that. He charges $50 pesos per load which is about $4.50 U.S. dollars with the current 11 to 1 exchange rate. It would cost me about $30 pesos per load to do it myself at the marina, but they only have one machine! So, it is definitely worth it to pay someone $20 pesos per load to do it for me. And, he does a very nice job at that!

Getting around is so easy because of the great public transportation. Buses run from 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day throughout the city. They are cheap and abundant. You can flag down a bus from anywhere and get off anywhere. It is so convenient! It has been our main method of getting around to see the sights, do our shopping, check e-mail, go out to eat, etc.. We also do a lot of walking in between. There is also an abundance of taxis, which are like golf carts, that are also cheap but do cost more than the bus. We have used those as well. We have explored the business district, the historic district, the resort area and the beaches. We have had many great meals of a variety of ethnic origin and shopped in many of the stores. There even is a Sam’s Club and a WalMart here. Those come in real handy for provisioning. One day while walking around the business district trying to find a boat parts store we had a small mishap. Barry was walking in front of me on the sidewalk. He turned to say something and when he came back around his head smacked the corner of a wrought iron fixture on the side of a building. This was not good! Blood was flowing and he had a nice gash in his forehead. He was not concerned, but I on the other hand was pretty upset. It looked pretty deep and we had nothing with us to clean it. Fortunately, he was not light headed and had no problem walking the couple of blocks to the nearest market with his hand pressed against the wound. He sat in the parking lot and I went in for supplies. When I came out his hand was practically glued to his forehead! I cleaned it, but we could not get a bandage to stick because it was to close to his hairline. Since he felt fine and the bleeding stopped Barry insisted that we continue our trek, so we did. Injuries are no big deal to him. Of course, I kept asking him how he felt about every fifteen minutes and insisted on examining the wound to make sure it did not open up. Infection is a real concern down here. The bottom line is that it healed nicely and he now has a nice scar. We learned from that experience to never leave the boat without a small first aid kit. Each time we go on an outing we discover something else to add to our backpack that goes ashore with us. I guess you could say we are learning as we go. Even unpleasant experiences are of value if we learn something from them. We are sure learning a lot from the good and the bad!

Marina Mazatlan is one of three marinas here and really caters to cruisers. Unlike Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan is a sailors haven and the marina is quiet. We had heard that the cruising community is very close-knit and have found that to be true here. We have great dock neighbors and have enjoyed their camaraderie. Cruisers love a party, so when I invited 5 other couples to come out with us to celebrate Barry’s birthday on the 16th they all came! We had a great time eating an early dinner in a huge palapa on the beach where the surfers hang out. There was live music and dancing. It was fun to have other people to celebrate with. It is so interesting to find out about the new people you meet. Most everyone we have met so far are American or Canadian couples whose stories are similar to ours, only they worked in different professions. There are, however, exceptions to this rule. One, is a single guy, probably in his thirties who refers to himself as a “recovering” attorney. One couple we’ve been chumming around with used to own some pubs in England where Rick is from. Judith is from New Zealand and they are heading there after going to Costa Rica. We’ve enjoyed their company and may have much more of it since we are both heading to Costa Rica. One day Judith and I had a fun girls day out to shop and do lunch. Maybe the absence of stress has something to do with it, but everyone we’ve met so far are great.

Cruisers are known for assisting one another, and one way they do this is to set up radio networks on specific channels at a certain time of day. Here in Mazatlan, every morning (except Sunday) at 8:00, the cruisers in the area all get on their VHF radios to check in, then they ask if anyone needs any kind of local assistance (with all of the various backgrounds of the cruisers here somebody probably knows how to help). You can arrange to swap, sell or buy needed items, make and/or hear announcements about activities, new arrivals, departures, etc.. If anyone is driving or flying to the states they will usually offer to carry flat mail back. Evidently, it can take as long as one month using the Mexican mail system for mail delivery from Mazatlan to the states. I imagine that time will lengthen as we get further south. So, I had to buy US stamps from another cruiser to mail a couple of items. Barry has received much help from the net with several things. That, I guess, is a good segway to share with you one of the definitions of cruising. DOING BOAT MAINTENANCE IN EXOTIC PLACES. We hoped that we wouldn’t experience that first hand so soon, but we have not been spared! I mentioned our auto-pilot not working and Barry got help with that and was able to fix it (we think). We won’t know for sure until we head out again tomorrow. We are having trouble transmitting on our marine SSB (single side band) radio (Barry is trying to resolve that as I write with information he got from three other cruiser). And, last but not least, our outboard motor on the dingy is not running very smooth and may need some repair. So, there you have it! This may be another good opportunity to tell you a definition of the word BOAT that you may not have heard before-it’s an acronym for (Break Out Another Thousand). This is not far from the truth! So, for those of you still in the workday grind who may be thinking that we are just livin on sunshine in this romantic, trouble-free life in paradise, I hope you feel better now.

On the brighter side, we got to participate in the 1st Annual Marina Mazatlan Sailing Regatta organized by the net. It was the brain-child of one cruiser. I think cruisers sit around and think of ways to entertain themselves and each other. There was only one week from the time of the announcement on the net until the actual event and there were about twenty-five entrants. Pretty impressive! The sailboat race was for handmade miniature sailboats constructed out of any material except styrofoam. They had to be sail powered. The race would be from one dock to the other side of the fairway, which is about 50 feet. On the day of the race I was impressed with the intricacy of some of the boats entered and amused by others! Some were constructed from wood and others were from plastic bottles to empty cigarette cartons wrapped in cellophane. Unfortunately, Barry missed the event because he got very sick the night before and was in bed the whole next day. Fortunately, he was feeling better by the third day and was healthy for his birthday! I took pictures for him, but I know he really would have enjoyed this fun event. They had awards for the fastest, the prettiest, the most unique and the best design. As you can imagine, they also had betting for the winners. There is always something going on at this marina. It has been a great place to be for a couple of weeks. This afternoon they are having a Tsunami relief fundraiser. There will be hotdogs and beer for $10 peso each and a silent auction. All proceeds are going to the Red Cross.

Well, we thought we’d throw an idea your way. We had so many people asking us questions before we left, i.e., what do you do for food, do you stop at night and drop anchor, will you stay within sight of land at all times. Many people asked the same questions. So, we’d like to answer any questions you may have as you read our journal and look at our photos. Others may have been wondering the same thing. So, if you have any questions just e-mail them to us. I will post the question and the answer with our next updates. We will post another update as soon as we can. I don’t know if there is internet access in La Cruz. If not, we’ll have to wait until we get to Puerta Vallarta. I don’t know when that will be at this point. So, for now I hope you enjoy our photos from Mazatlan.

Until next time, stay well and enjoy the life you’re in . . .