Activities around Mazatlan
09 December 2013
Connie pleasantly warm in the 70's
Activities around Mazatlan, Nov. & Dec. 2013
The Isla Marina, where we are located, is a small marina on a small man-made island in a harbor that holds 3 other marinas. At the head of the ramp is a Palapa restaurant that is a great place to hang out and meet friends and other cruisers. There is also a Condo/Hotel Resort here. This marina is a quiet, peaceful place to be as it doesn’t have any traffic. Just a short walk away, across the bridge, is Marina Mazatlan and four restaurants. There are several other restaurants within walking distance. The Palapa has Kareoke night every Sat. and Cheryl sings here every Sun. Cheryl sings Blues and a variety of other songs. She plays guitar and harmonica and often another man joins her playing his harmonica. She brings a number of different percussion instruments and she encourages people from the audience to play them. It’s always fun to relax at the Palapa with a beer and listen to her play and sing. In the photo gallery is a video of her singing with friends playing instruments along with her.
The first Sun. in Dec. is the annual Pacific Marathon. The street that runs along the marinas and oceanfront is closed off for the race. We can sit on our boat and watch the runners go by. This is the second year that we’ve been here for this event. The night before the marathon is a fireworks display on the beach. We went to it this year and it was spectacular. The road that runs along the beach is closed off for this event and people fill up the malecon (sidewalk along the beach) and the road to watch. The fireworks were set up about every 100-200 yds. down the whole length of the beach from one end of the bay to the other end. The malecon is about 10 feet above the beach so we could not see where the fireworks were but our location on the malecon ended up being right in front of one of the fireworks launching pads. The street lights were turned off and the fireworks began. I’ve never been so close to fireworks before and it was LOUD, but wonderfully exciting and beautiful. I had to look straight up to watch them, but I could also look right and left to see the other fireworks up and down the beach. All the fireworks displays were synchronized with each other. It was beautiful.
Our friends, Cliff and Lynne, took us to the small town of El Quilite for lunch one day. It’s about 30 miles away from Mazatlan. It was a beautiful drive through lush green hills. We saw some cattle and the occasional cowboy on horseback. Near the town the road was lined with colorful Bougainvillea and other tropical plants. The town was old with cobblestone streets and the buildings had wide roof overhangs that shaded the front porchs that held rocking chairs. The restaurant had been a house and we walked through the first 2 empty rooms, with murals painted on the walls, to get to the patio where the dining tables were. It was a large shaded patio with trees, tropical plants, and fountains. Oh, and it had roosters running around and crowing! There was one shaded patio and one sunny patio with 2 open air dining rooms between them. Crawling on the roof was the biggest orange Iguana that I’ve ever seen. Cliff and Lynne took us out the back gate of the patio to show us where they kept their animals. There were chickens, roosters, turkeys, ducks, goats, and sheep! There was one sheep that kept trying to get inside the door to the restaurant while baaaaaing insistently. One of the waiters came over and said the sheep wanted some milk and let him in?! So we followed him in and watched as the waiter handed a bottle of milk to a customer and she proceeded to feed the sheep from her table. Here we were having lunch in this beautiful tropical patio and it felt like we were in the middle of a farm. Two roosters started flying at each other and having a cock fight right by our table! I’ve never eaten in a restaurant quite like this before in Mexico. After lunch we explored the town a little, looking at a few stores. There was the leather goods store that had saddles, chaps, belts, and other leather goods. While next to it was a room with bales of hay in it. The town had a real western/cowboy feel to it.
The next day we joined some other friends at the El Cid Marina and resort and relaxed around the pool and played a couple of games of volleyball in the pool. It was a great way to spend a warm, sunny day with friends.
We went to the Art Walk which is held on the first Friday of each month. It takes place in the old town around Machado Plaza. All the art galleries and studios are open for people to browse through and they offer refreshments. It was fun to see the wide variety of art they have to offer. One artist makes leather masks and sculptures. It was quite different and beautiful. He had made a sculpture of a horse’s head that hung on the wall, which was stunning. Most of these art galleries are in old houses, so it is quite interesting to see the houses as well as the art. Remember, most houses in Latin American countries just have a wall in front with a door in it. You don’t get to see the beauty of the house until you’re inside where you’ll find inner courtyards and patios, open air rooms, and beautiful architecture. Some galleries used the whole house, whereas others displayed their art in 2 or 3 rooms and lived in the rest of the house. After seeing most of the galleries, we went back to Machado Plaza and browsed through the jewelry and other vendors, then had dinner at Pedro and Lola’s on the Plaza. While we were having dinner a band set up in the gazebo and we expected to hear some nice Mexican music. Boy, were we surprised when they played Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire”!! They played 50’s & 60’s music including a lot of surf music. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening.