Enjoying Mazatlan

Jan 31, 2014

A great week  of relax time, swimming, walking the beach, knitting, reading and cooking some good old fashioned Canadian meals!
We have loved the three months of Mexican flavors but  a baked potato with roasted chicken, lots of vegs and yummy salads have been a good diversion.

A three hour tour of the city turned into a five hour tour because our guide and driver had "one more thing" to show us. Wonderful day! Ending up at Tony's on the Beach for the biggest shrimp you ever saw and filet combo served on a pottery chafing dish.

Tequila Shop was the start of the day. Except they cannot call it tequila here as it is not the right region. Only the region of Tequila can name it that, similar to Champagne having the right to the name champagne. Therefore, this manufacturer calls it agave spirits. Taste test time with their specialty, mango spirits.

The blue agave plant and the mango tree, the two ingredients in their product

Never shy to try a sampleThe distillery

The malecon along the beach is 10 miles long, very well done with many statues, representing the area.

Oyster divers place their catch in an inner tube. There were lots of these inner tubes dotting the inner shore

One of many statues denoting life here

The original copper, thing-a-ma-gig that Pacifico beer used to start their beer company here

Representing the pulmania, the open air cabs, exclusive to Manzatlan

We drove by the shrimp market, a whole city block of street vendors, all women, selling the men's catch of the day. Four different sizes

but our guide chose the largest size to share

a little bigger than those of Barclay Sound

Fishing and tourism

Next stop, the big mercado

not for everyone, but all body parts are sold!

Prarie Oyster!!!!!!!

No thanks, says Dave

The Mexican marshmallow, but not sweet as it is made of coconut.

Then the cathedral

started by the Catholics, then money from the Jewish community to finisd so the top section of each stained glass window is a star of David

Cliff divers are a little crazy, I think! Diving from a height of 45 feet into 5 feet of water is LOCO (Spanish for crazy) but they wait for a wave to add a few more feet to the water below them then dive, when they hit the water, their fingers are curved upwards so a shallow dive is executed. Still, loco, I say!
.

Mazatlan has the highest natural lighthouse in the world, so we drove around the point to the ferry dock that takes folks to La Paz, Baja, a 12 hour ride from 6 pm to 6 am.
Past the naval base and to the historic rocks named Two Brothers.

Two Brothers, quite the story

Highest natural lighthouse

Every tour in Mexico must stop at a silver shop! And of course there is a sale, just for you today, 55% off anything under the glass, which they produce right here and 35% off anything on top of the display case, made by other folks. A few pair s of earrings were purchased by the group. The free beer while you shop helps the sales, I think.

The museum of one of the early residents opens on to a lovely town square, the surrounding street reminding us of New Orleans and Melbourne, Australia.

next  to Rio de Janerio and New Orleans, Mazatlan has the third largest Mardi Gras. These costumes are some of the earliest

Town square from the family balcony

The balcony

For my quilting friends

One of the newer condo buildings, built to suit the theme of the area

Some streets have no house numbers but each house is painted a different color. So your address might be "the yellow house on the second street from the water".