Chapter 9 - Friend's Visit and International Moto Week

Hi –

On April 4, we left Tlaquepaque and headed 6 hours northwest to Mazatlan.

We stayed at Maria’s Place for 14 days. This place was hard to find because it was located at the top of a steep hill. Google Maps usually works awesome, but it doesn’t work well when dealing with elevation.

😀 The pros of Maria’s Place:

2 bedroom, 2 bath
close to Olas Altas/Centro Mazatlan area
American style living
strong wi-fi
washer and dryer in unit
working tv
induction stove
rooftop pool
incredible Centro/ocean views from patio

😞 The cons of Maria’s Place:

on street parking
no convenient potty spot for Charlie
condo construction right next door (two feet from our bedroom wall…hammering and grinding started at 7 a.m. and ended about 6 p.m. Monday – Saturday)
lower-level unit (walked down two flights of steps to unit)
place located at the top of a big hill…had to take 70 straight up and down steps with no railing to get down to Olas Altas beach area…it was a great workout every time.

Patio view.

This pic was taken from our patio showing condo construction right next door.

Break dancers on the roof next door.

On April 5, we started the day off with a birthday call to my mom. Another Happy Birthday shoutout Mom!

Corp discovered a huge centipede in the shower.

Thankfully, I didn’t see it, or I probably would have busted through the
glass shower door to get away from it.
Happy that was the only one we saw while staying there.

On April 6, we went bike riding on the 13-mile Malecon that fronts the main large bay in Mazatlan.

This Malecon is the longest seawall in the world and has a lot of beachfront restaurants.
We enjoyed ceviche and drinks at a few.

Not only did the Malecon have beautiful ocean views,
it features lots of permanent sculptures and some awesome
temporary sculptures in celebration of Carnival.

Lesson learned…tap water in Mexico is not safe to drink for anyone, so we would buy 5-gallon water bottles at OXXO convenience stores. We finally figured out you must turn in the purchase receipt to get the $3 deposit back when returning them. With the language barrier, it took us a while to figure out how to get the deposit back. And we think a few cashiers took advantage of us not knowing how to return them and pocketed the $3.

On April 7, we hiked to the top of the El Faro lighthouse, which was constructed in 1890 and is one of the highest lighthouses in the world.

We hiked up a ½ mile paved and 336 paved stairs path. Great mid-morning walk.
The top featured a glass bottom observation deck (Mirador de Cristal)
that hung off the cliff. Awesome views!

On April 8, we drove 55 minutes to Stone Island (Isla de la Piedras). It’s actually a peninsula, not an island. Not sure why they call it an island. Neat place!

We made a goodbye message in the sand for our friend Danny from Illinois who had recently passed away from cancer.

We wrote this in the sand on the day of his funeral...RIP Danny…

On April 9, we visited the 105-year-old saltwater pool (Carpa Oliviera) on Playa Olas Altas.

It's a pool constructed in the ocean.

It was really neat sitting in the pool with waves spraying up from the ocean.

Locals pointed out some sea slugs in the pool. We were encouraged to touch them. They are very velvety and some were really big...bigger than fist size.

That evening we were super excited to welcome our friends Scott and Jennifer to Mazatlan.

On April 10, we visited the Mercado Municipal in Centro.

Very busy place selling everything you could think of...even pig heads.

While walking Scott’s sandals started disintegrating.

By the time we were finished walking, he had ripped off the soles of both his shoes. He was basically walking in moccasins. We were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes!

That afternoon we hung out at the beach and enjoyed beer, micheladas, and selzers.

Corp borrowed his boogie board with a family sitting next to us on the beach.
He helped the boys get started and looked like they were having a blast.

Big smiles at the beach!

On April 12, we visited El Faro lighthouse and Stone Island with Scott and Jen. That day they wouldn't allow Charlie so Corp got out of the hike. Two days before, we had no problem bringing Charlie in. Only in Mexico.

All smiles at the top of El Faro.

We had a fun time on Stone Island drinking tropical drinks and renting 4 wheelers.

On April 13, we had a boys and girls day. Corp and Scott went bar hopping throughout Mazatlan.

Corp happy with his Pacifico!

Scott jamming out to some tunes he liked.

Jen and I did some shopping. We were surprised that shopping was so hard to find in Centro and the Golden Zone.

We enjoyed a pulmonia ride to the Golden Zone.

I thought this was funny....Campions Charters...
when did we start a sport fishing business? LOL

We usually rode a pulmonia to get around. A pulmonia is an open-air taxi made from a souped up golf cart. They are all custom and differ in size and features, but all usually have music blasting from them at all times. They ride up and down the Malecon and are super easy to flag down.

Most of the time they costed $5 USD.

Although we missed the cliff divers at El Clavadista, Scott and Jen saw them and shared a video with me so I could include it on the blog.

We were sad to see Scott and Jen leave on April 16. We had a beach day on the Malecon and it was full of surprises.

It was Holy Saturday and they estimated there were 200,000+ people on the beach.

We also discovered a crazy parade on the Malecon to celebrate the end of Carnival/Mardi Gras.

The floats were all sponsored by local night clubs....
that explains the costumes or lack there of.

Charlie and I walking home after the parade.

One of the most visited tourist attractions in Mazatlan is Devil’s Cave (Cueva del Diablo) because of its mystery. It is a place that for more than 200 years has been surrounded by tales and legends that continue to be shared from generation to generation.

On Easter Sunday, we enjoyed American meals...hamburgers and French fries at Carl’s Jr. and pizza for supper.

On April 18, we moved to Alicia’s Place in the Golden Zone in Mazatlan. It was about 20 minutes away from Maria's Place.

😀 The pros of Alicia’s Place:

secured parking
located in the Golden Zone
walking distance to lots of restaurants/bars
walking distance to the beach
big patio with a rocking chair (my favorite type of chair)
gas grill (we grilled shrimp and Lawry’s potatoes…grilled food was delicious after 4 months livinb without it)
beautiful garden space

😞 The cons of Alicia’s Place:

really small kitchen
1 bedroom, 1 bath
no convenient potty spot for Charlie
upper level unit
air conditioning went out mid stay

One day while making supper, I got the propane lighter to close to the lit stovetop and the lighter blew up. It made a pretty big boom! Yikes!

On April 20, we went to Dr. Oswald Sanchez Ruiz for a dental cleaning. It only cost $20 per person. The actual dentist did my cleaning. Corp had a dental hygienist. They were both rougher than what we are used to.

I think we would consider having another Mexican dental cleaning.

While in Mazatlan, we discovered they were hosting a 4-day international motorcycle week (International Moto Week).

It was loud and crazy all hours of the day!

On April 23, we rode our scooter in the motorcycle parade with 10,000+ other motorcycles, rangers, 4 wheelers, razors, etc. I am sure we were the only scooter with a dog in a backpack riding in the parade.

I loved the Predator mask!

Big smiles when riding the scooter!

So many people....riders and spectators!

It was really fun until the scooter wouldn't start mid parade. We pulled over to give Charlie a drink of water and it wouldn't start. At first, we thought we ran out of gas. Turns out it overheated because it was so hot out and we were moving so slowly in traffic.

That night, we enjoyed a Mexican style street hotdog. You could add a ton of toppings.

We decided on potato chips, cheese, jalapenos, and mayo...it was delicious!

On April 25, we left Mazatlan after three weeks.

While exiting the secured parking, I wasn’t watching the front close enough and we collided with the front gate.

The bumper is messed up pretty bad.

Miscellaneous random cute/funny/interesting/weird pics/videos below...

We couldn't believe the amount of stuff vendors carried when selling on the beach.

Charlie is such a cutie with sand on his nose.

Charlie chilling in his backpack.
For 18 years old, he was such a trooper in his Mexican adventure.

Whenever we took a pulmaria, we always showed this
photo so they knew to take us to the top of the hill.

The 70-step stairs to get down to Centro.

We got all this food for $13 USD.

Nice nighttime view from our patio.

Starfish on Stone Island.

4Runner on Stone Island.

You had to ride an escalator with your grocery cart up to the 2nd level to grocery shop.

Magnets held the wheels in place when going up.

Funny photo that makes me laugh!

Mixologist Jen with her tequila concoctions.

Jen's will always be remembered for asking waiter to use his glasses,
looking at drinks menu, and asking "do you have tequila here?".
We couldn't stop laughing.