Having fun in Mazatlan 2.9.08

We’ve had an exciting week here in Mazatlan. There are lots of things to see & do here and we’ve been busy adapting to the life. After Sunday’s Carnaval parade, we hung out on the boat doing boat chores Monday. Chad & Michael worked on some blocks that needed maintenance and some general cleaning/maintenance on the boat. We went for a walk in the afternoon checking out our surroundings. The Marina is very different from when we were here 3 years ago! There are 3 large condo complexes, another two being built, and a large boatyard here. When we were here last, there was one building being built…and a trailer that made up the office and cruiser amnenities – laundry & showers.

We had a wonderful dinner aboard Seabird Monday evening. John & Linda are from Santa Barbara and each of us found something in common with them as we chatted. Tuesday we headed to the beach to Playa Bruja which is just North of here. A simple bus ride, costing all of 6 pesos (60 cents) took us there. There is a restaurant at the entrance and we had lunch & picked up a bucket-o-beers and went to sit on the beach. The beach was beautiful – a little bit windy but wonderful. Michael braved the 65 degree water and went swimming a couple of times. That evening was ‘Fat Tuesday’ with another parade for Carnaval. We had been in contact with Tony & Shannon Morrelli, friends of ours from Channel Islands Harbor that left cruising a year before us on a boat named Sweetie, and they were currently located in the old harbor. We made arrangements to meet up with them at the parade, but at a different location than we previously had been. We met them at the end of the parade, in a section that you had to pay to enter ($2). There were about 6 bandstands setup all along the route & mariachi bands were playing in the streets. We found a spot to sit and they joined us a little later for the parade. The parade was great, again. What a wonderful show they put on! They boys were sitting watching and Shannon & I jumped up on some folding chairs to watch, even joining the parade at times! The Mazatlan Carnaval is touted as being the 3rd largest in the world, after Rio and New Orleans. However, Mazatlan’s is still family oriented – there is no nudity, no alcohol binges, & the streets are safe for everyone. After the parade, we headed up the streets to a street vendor that served baked potatoes – smothered with sour cream, butter, cheese, & meat. On the table was sliced cucumber, radishes, guacamole, & salsa for everyone to share. We enjoyed dinner and spending it with Tony & Shannon! Unfortunately, when we left the parade route, Chad twisted his ankle very badly and was hurting very badly so we went home. I have a bunch more pictures of the parade that I’ll upload too, so check them out!



Wednesday morning Chad flew back to the states. He packed up his stuff and shared a cab into the airport with the folks from Seabird. Michael and I worked on the boat – cleaning, scrubbing, and cleaning some more. We haven’t done a thorough job of cleaning since before we left the harbor and it showed. On a boat, you must deal with moisture, which can turn into mold. The majority of the boat is dry, but there are certain spots you must continually clean. Up in the V-berth, I cleaned the walls, ceilings, & cabinets with Windex to kill anything growing up there, then sprayed it again with an anti-mildew spray from 3M that works wonders. We have our ‘library’ up in the V-berth and it always seems to be more damp up there than other places. We pulled up the rugs & cleaned all of the nooks & crannies of the boat. After a hard day cleaning, we had a very relaxing evening of a home-cooked meal & two movies!!

Thursday our friends from Sweetie came over mid-morning and we visited with them for a while. We have continued to do boat maintenance & cleaning/organizing. Michael has been working on the dinghy engine and thinks he may have it figured out. It seems the hose that connects the fuel to the engine was getting air in it. So he re-cut the line and it seems to fit better & hold the pressure without the air. We will get a new line while we’re in town today and replace it to see if it fixes the problem completely. After he worked on the dinghy, we put it in the water and dinghy’d around the harbor, meeting & talking with several other boats. There are a couple other boats here from Ventura & Channel Islands Harbor and we chatted with them a bit. We have been told that the fuel pumps at El Cid are off by about 10-15% (meaning you get charged for 10-15% more than what you get) and since we will be here for a little while, we are taking the time to fill our 5 gallon jerry jugs, 3 at a time, walking across the street to the Pemex to fill them, then dumping them in. We only need about 100 gallons so it’s not a big deal. The water here is not fit for consumption so we must purchase bottled water to fill the tanks. That’s more of a hassle than the fuel as we use the water continuously! We have two water tanks and are using one for drinking water, the other for ballast right now as the boat heels quite a bit when one tank or the other is empty.

Marina Mazatlan is a nice full-service marina. There are lots of cruisers here. There is a local VHF net every morning at 8am and each morning there are about 45-50 boats that check in. They have shower facilities, a cruiser’s lounge, internet stations (bring your own laptop), laundry facilities, a fruit/veggie truck stops by Monday-Wednesday-Friday for fresh produce, an Ice truck, Purified water truck, Beer truck, the hairstylists come by about once a month, exercise classes in the cruiser lounge, etc. You could pretty much stay on your boat and not have to go into town for anything! But where’s the fun of that…

Last night was the Chinese New Year Cruiser’s party. There were probably 100 or so people attend. It was a potluck and there was some FANTASTIC food!! I made up some Chicken Curry, thanks to Sue Chenoweth for the recipe, and it was gone so I guess it turned out OK. There were so many dishes – yummy dishes – everyone was full. We met a new couple that just pulled into the harbor a couple of days ago, Dee & Paul on Blue Pteron & our friends from Someday also joined us. We met several of our boat neighbors and chatted with them a while as well. I have another cruiser website for you to check out - www.svchessie.com. It's Richard & Karen on a sailboat that is currently in a slip 2 down from us. We met them also at the Chinese New Year's party and enjoyed getting to know them.

Today is Friday and Michael has made his run for fuel. We headed into town to the Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries & some supplies we need. We took the big green bus (Sabalo Cocos) for 5 pesos. They have a great bus service here that’s pretty easy to navigate. We picked up a ‘cruisers guide’ when we checked into the Marina that has an easy to read section of the highlights & stops of each bus. There are lots of recognizable places here – Sams club, Costco, Dairy Queen, Burger King, McDonalds, Office Depot, Home Depot, etc. It’s amazing how much food we’re going through…you know all of those odd bottles in the back of your refrigerator that you’ve maybe used a bit of? We’re finally using them all up cause it’s all we have and there’s no place to purchase more! I’ve had several onesie bottles of drinks, etc that have tasted GREAT!! How could they have sat in the refrigerator for so long without me drinking them before! I’ve been spoiled I guess.

OK, I’ll write more later and let you know what’s happening. We are still planning to be here about 2 weeks or so – we want to tour Copper Canyon which is touted as being better than the Grand Canyon, tour a tequila factory, do some hiking, etc. Michael wrenched his knee and is hobbling around pretty badly and is hobbling along painfully though so I don’t know when we’re going to be able to do all this strenuous walking!! Our friends aboard Someday left this morning to check out Copper Canyon so we will certainly find out more about it when they return. Scott, our dear friend from Ocean Lady, is coming in tonight to get his boat ready to sell. We’re sad about that, but happy they’ve found home. We are excited to see him.

More to follow…
Rene