Here we are enjoying beautiful weather, mid to upper 70s daytime with little humidity and perfect sleeping weather. So perfect in-fact that I have been sleeping in, regularly, and so much so that I have missed almost all of the morning local VHF and SSB/HF radio nets! We have gotten some 'must do' projects done on the boat so that we can safely leave on our next leg of this trip, which begins tomorrow (if I can get up for it) when we will head south the 130 nm to Mantanchen Bay, down by San Blas, which is one of those surf spots I used to dream of going to when I was a kid. But, boats being boats there is always something to fix, replace or add so no wanting for tasks to stay busy here. I mean as an example, how can two bilge pumps go out at one time? We had a situation where water maker by-pass brine water discharged into our bilge and when we went to pump it out the pump failed. We used the manual pump and it wouldn't work. OK, got the auto pump swapped out with a temporary until we get a new one and found that somehow the manual pump hose had a tear in it which allowed air in, breaking the suction, so of course it wouldn't work. All that is fixed now, but that's where our days go.

All that said we have taken time to get off the boat and walk. Yesterday we walked to the hotel district then down the beach all the way past the hotel district to the traffic circle where the road takes off to Mega and La Brochetta Restaurant, you know the one? Well it's a long way, trust me on that one. And, did you know that both the US and Canadian governments have consulates in the hotel district? I didn't. The US compound is on the inland side across the street from the Canadian one, which is beach front property next to the Ramada Inn; I'll bet they're best friends! Pretty cool duty! Today we took the bus to Centro, which is the central part of the city where the stores and typically the Mercado or 'central market' is located. No exception here and a pretty nice one too. We got some great pics of the guys cutting up a leg of beef, well cutting it from the torso, but it was all clean and sterile, post butchering stuff. Check out Marisa's photo album "Centro de Mazatlan."

My Brothers will know of this, but most of you will not. Our parents, our Dad especially, were Mexico aficionados. Anyway Mom and Dad were in Mazatlan in 1971 on one of their road trips south. I have this photo of them in front of a fish scale with two marlins that they caught that day. I'm not sure where this photo was taken, but it says Faro Lighthouse Fleet, Mazatlan Mexico, 1971. After walking down there today and having a beer at the La Mar Mariscos restaurant down by the old harbor I recognized the area in the photo as the old harbor. Pretty cool.

After that we walked back to Old Mazatlan and out along the Malecon along the beach to the traffic circle that took us to Mega! One last shopping to top off before heading south in the morning and then a $9 peso bus ride back home. My feet were killing me!

Oh, and for those of you wondering about C Monkey, we learned today that the little primate is doing well as a stow-a-way on So Inclined. Seems he heard they were heading to Isla Isabela to see the "boobies" and got the wrong idea. Check out the blog from So Inclined for full details!