The approach into Mazatlan certainly didn't look the same as it did two years ago. Almost thought we were in the wrong place. Several new hotels etc being built on the beaches, including this new all inclusive resort. Doesn't appear the recession has hit here.
Spent our first day back in Mazatlan washing booby poop off the deck. It was early afternoon before we were done cleaning and putting sails away. We have a long list of chores to be done, but we'll start on those tomorrow.
First, we caught up with Willow and Guiding Light, and visited with Vic on Charisma. While Don fiddled in the engine room in the afternoon, I cleaned and polished some more of the stainless rails. He found a loose connection on the starter which hopefully was the cause for the poor start when we left Los Frailes.
Next day took the bikes down and cleaned them up a bit, went for a ride to see if the new rims and tires were all adjusted right, and ended up at Total Yacht Works for their welcome back cruisers party. They treated everyone to free tacos & cerveza.
Sunday found us back on our bike to Bruja for breakfast and they even had entertainment there early in the day. Some of the dancers from Ballet Folklorico, including some senior citizens performed for us.
PSS at Mazatlan marina
On our return trip we followed Bob & Nancy who have a condo at the marina.
They took us back on a different route, via a back road behind the new golf course where there were lots of birds, especially big white egrets and all kinds of flowering trees and shrubs growing wild along the estuary. Will have to do this trip again with the camera.
Next we went by a new convention center and a new college, again, I don't believe the recession has hit here.
We stopped in at their condo for a drink and had a great view of the marina and PSS.
In the evening, in the company of Steve & Sheila & Merry & BJ, we went for dinner, our favorite 2 for 1 ribs, but sat at the beach first to watch some dolphins jumping and then another glorious sunset.
Well, Mazatlan may have changed, but the dinner, the company and the sunset were just the same as always.
The next few days found us busy crossing things off our "TO DO" list. Fix the heads, find new spring for the dingy wheels, clean and service the scuba compressor, get Don's glasses fixed, get diesel, do laundry, etc., etc. It seems the list never ends, and when it's almost done, I just add some more!
Torrential rains
We did get "house" bound one day due to torrential rains. It rained so hard for a few hours that it washed the mud down from the empty lot at the top of the dock into the marina and turned the water a dirty red color.
We have only ever seen a few sprinkles of rain in past years so this was another first for us.
We are finally ready to leave Mazatlan once again.
This year we will be travelling south with s/v Willow, who left a few days ago and are waiting for us at anchor out at Stone Island, just a "stone's" throw away.
Radio'd Merry as we left the harbour, and they met up with us as we passed Stone Island.
They followed us all night, past some fishing fleets that looked like they were all decorated for Christmas, their decorations being birds. Once we were over the stress of trying to determine which way the shrimper was going, they provided us with a little addition to a picture perfect sunset.
Glad we were in a big panga and not our little rubber dingy when we came across this guy.
After the sun set, we started seeing large black blobs on the radar that we finally realized were rain squalls. The rain kept coming all night, time and time again.
At one point the GPS went out, so we got out the back up, only to discover it didn't work either. Turned out to be the external antenna that was acting up. Guess it didn't like all the rain either.
We anchored at Matanchen Bay, around lunch time with Willow right behind us. We had a little snooze, then got the dingy down and went to Ramada Matanchen for supper.
They close at 5:00pm because the no-see-ums get too nasty in the evening, so had to have an early supper.
This was to be our home for a few days, while we waited out another whole day of rain, then we toured the Fort at San Blas, checked out the new marina in San Blas and did the Jungle Tour up the Rio Tovaro.
Yaka fruit. Largest tree born fruit in the world.
The last time we were in San Blas, we sampled a fruit that the locals call yaka, which was very sweet and tasty. I have since found it, in a can, at home, it's jackfruit.
Here in Matanchen they are making not only banana bread this year, but also yaka bread, so I was able to see the fruit cut and cleaned.
Very strange looking stuff. It's as big as a watermelon and the part you eat is the coating around the seeds. I tried to buy some of the cleaned fruit, but they didn't seem to want to sell just the fruit, they were using it to make the bread.
When I returned later in the day and bought some of the bread, I grovelled a little and told them, in my very poor spanish, that my husband is allergic to flour, so he can't eat the bread, and they finally conceded and sold me a bag of the fruit.
Our next major stop, and the last marina for quite some time, will be La Cruz, then on to Tenacatita and Barra de Navidad for Christmas.
Although we miss being with family, especially at this time of year, we certainly don't miss the snow. However, maybe Don is a little more homesick than I realize ... Yesterday he bought our Christmas present ... a set of solar powered Snowball Christmas lights!
Want to wish everyone a very happy time this Christmas and our best wishes for the New Year 2010.
FELIZ NAVIDAD Y PROSPERO AÑO NUEVO
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