Adventures in Mazatlan

I’ve been suffering from writer’s block since we arrived in Mexico. That combined with inconvenient Internet access has lessened the flow to the blog. I apologize. Fortunately, John has filled some of the gap with his reports via single sideband radio.

When we arrived in Thursday morning, we waited in line to enter the old harbor at Mazatlan. It’s the main commercial harbor, but the marinas are all about 10 miles up the coast. Just inside the jetty is an anchorage, and that’s where we are. There used to be something called “Club Nautico” on the shore. The buildings and dinghy docks are still there, but it isn’t in business. For $3 per day, we can use the dinghy dock, toilets, and showers. It’s a really good deal. The big drawback is that the sewer treatment facility is across the street, and it often stinks. Usually the smell doesn’t reach us out in the harbor, so we only have to deal with it when we go ashore.

After a long bus ride to the marina end of town, we’ve all been very glad that we’re in the old harbor, within walking distance of the cafés and museums in the historic district. We’ve eaten well and visited many shops and a couple of museums there. The marina district has all of the services cruisers could want, but none of the culture and charm of the old city.

Our first day here we had a fine lunch at a restaurant with no other gringos present. The next day we found “Té amo Lucy’s” (“I love Lucy”), an ex-pat hangout, but still far from the marina crowd. Lucy is the chef, and her husband, Tony (an ex-pat himself), is the waiter. We struck up a conversation with some other customers there and got advice for shopping and Internet access. Sunday was the one-year anniversary of the restaurant, so we went back then bearing token gifts to hang from the ceiling with the rest of the decorations. In return, we got 50% off on our orders. Our contribution from the boat was what we think is a shackle key. It had been on the boat and never used, so we decided we could part with it (even though it says “Harken” on it). Tony was thrilled and kept coming back to our table with new ways to use “shackle key” in a sentence.