It rained very heavily on Wednesday morning. It was a real tropical downpour, the type that lasts half an hour and then clears. Except this one continued to pour for more than an hour, before it slowed down to heavy rain for another long while, and then eased to light rain. It continued to rain on and off until mid-afternoon. So much for the 5mm total February rainfall statistic quoted by one source, or even the 12mm quoted by another!
We hunkered-down onboard and did some Internet shopping. Edi ordered some more books, and I ordered a replacement battery for my laptop. I also finalized Sequitur's insurance renewal; it is amazing what we can do so easily now over the Internet. I asked for, received and reviewed quotes, read terms and 'fine print', decided on a broker and a policy, received an application to fill-out online, printed it, signed it, scanned it and emailed it back. From the time of making the decision to having insurance bound took less than twenty minutes, and this was while sitting on a boat in Mexico using a free WIFI connection and dealing with a company on the east coast of the USA.
The solid overcast began to break-up a bit in the late afternoon. By the end of the day there were wonderful rippled cloud formations, which coloured to deep oranges and reds as the sun set.
On Thursday it was still cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining. The forecasts talked of a possibility of showers until mid-afternoon, then a clearing for the next few days. We gambled on the forecast being wrong, and didn't take an umbrella when we left Sequitur in the mid-morning and caught the bus into the centre of Mazatlan. We stayed on the bus to the end of its run, along the commercial wharves, and we then walked along to the beginning of the trail up to El Faro.
After half a dozen switchbacks, the broad gravel trail gave way to concrete steps, which continued almost without interruption for 335 steps to the top. On the top of the hill is a very plain two-storey concrete building with a lighthouse tower growing out of its western end. The bland building is painted in Greek blue and white, or at least it was Greek to me.
Hanging by a wire on a nail pounded into the wall of the structure is a plaque, which declares the lighthouse to have "una altura de 157 metros, sobre la marea alta media, y esta considerado como el faro natural mas alto del mundo", which translates as: "a height of 157 metres above mean sea level, and is considered as the highest natural lighthouse in the world". I had elsewhere seen mention of it being the second highest, so I needed to find out which was correct.
After a bit of googling, I found out that Mazatlan's boast might be a tad overwrought. From the limited searching I did, I found that the lighthouse atop Lover's Leap in Jamaica at 530 metres is well over three times as high. The Gran Almirante Grau lighthouse in Peru, at 309 metres is nearly twice as high, as is the lighthouse on Deal Island, Australia at 305 metres. I also found Australia's Tasman Island lighthouse at 276 metres, Chacachacare lighthouse in Trinidad at 251 metres, the lighthouse at Morro Calvario, Peru at 242 metres, Table Cape lighthouse in Tasmania at 180 metres and the lighthouse at Ancon, Peru at 172 metres to be higher than Mazatlan's El Faro. With this many so easily found, there must be lots more that are higher.
While searching, I also found a claim that Sugar Pine Point on Lake Tahoe at 1,898 metres is the highest lighthouse, in elevation, in the world. This led me to think of navigation on Lake Titicaca; surely there are lighthouses there. The list of Peruvian lighthouses shows four. These range from 9 to 12 metres above water level, or 3821 to 3824 metres above sea level. I found reference to a lighthouse on the highest point of Isla del Sol, on the Bolivian side of the lake, which is given as 4096 metres. Sorry Lake Tahoe!
Whatever the height, we enjoyed the view back over the city, with the deep-sea ship harbour and small craft anchorage on the one side and the beaches along the malecon in the background on the other. The lighthouse sits atop Cerro Creston, which used to be called Isla Creston before the causeway was built to form the small craft anchorage and to add protection to the inner harbour.
There was a Carnival cruise ship alongside as well as a huge slab-sided vehicle transporter. As we headed back down the stairs and the trail, the transporter left its slip and headed out through the tight harbour entrance. The gap is quite narrow, and from our vantage point, it appeared even narrower than it is. For a while we almost expected to hear the screech and squeal of crushing steel plates as she slid through.
We walked across the causeway and caught the bus back into Plaza Machado, where we paused to enjoy fish tacos and Tecates under the trees on a patio facing the square. A short stroll past city hall and the cathedral took us to the market. There, we bought a kilo of large prawns and a nice assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables, before catching the bus back out to the marina.
Thursday's dinner was prawns sauteed in garlic and butter with green beans almandine and steamed basmati rice, garnished by sliced tomatoes and tomatillos and washed down with a Chilean chardonnay.
On Friday we relaxed onboard and did chores. Edi emptied our laundry hamper through the machine in preparation for our continuing south on Sunday. I gave notice to the marina office that we will be leaving, and asked them to prepare our departure papers and invoice for Sunday morning. This 48-hour notice should give them ample time. There is a Yanmar service agent in the marina, so I bought two 3.78 litre containers of lubricating oil for the engine and an oil filter to add to the spares.
On Friday evening we gave the ship's chef the night off, and we went out to dinner. We walked along to Fufo's Cantina, a waterside seafood restaurant in the Marina Mazatlan complex, and just 200 metres from Sequitur's slip at Singlar. However, the 200 metres was as the pelican flies; we had to go nearly four times that distance to get there because of the security fencing around the Singlar complex.
Sitting on the patio was a musician blowing a saxophone to the accompaniment of canned background music. He was playing oldies from the 50s and 60s, and when we arrived, there were half-a-dozen couples dining and listening to him. We both had a rather nice mahi-mahi stuffed with shrimp and crab in a creamy white wine sauce. This came with a plain scoop of mashed potatoes and some flavourful coconut-covered cubed beets that tasted like they had been cooked with pineapple. Our dinner for two, including three Coronas, nachos and salsa, a plate of garlic bread and a generous tip, came to 350 pesos, a bit over $28 Canadian.