Mazatlan, Mexico
The bus from Los Mochis to Mazatlan was another first-class luxury: huge seats, leg room galore, personal TV screens (although of course mine didn't work) and a goodie bag with water, coke, chips, cookie, chocolate and half a sandwich. They loaded the snack bag with stacks of junk food but only managed half a sandwich. Whatever, it kept us going for the six hour journey.
When we arrived at the hotel I wished we could have slept on the bus. Old, run down, no towels, no toilet seat, no info at reception. I wondered how they achieved their hotel status. At least there was wifi and it was relatively close to the old town.
It didn't take long to see all the sights of the old town. Market: check. Cathedral: check. Plazas: check. The town was colourful and full of charm though, again reminding me of Europe. We spent most of the afternoon at the beach, walking up and down the coast and kicking back for the best white wine I had tasted in Mexico. We decided to be extremely touristy for dinner, eating at one of the gringo restaurants on a popular plaza. As all the restaurants looked the same and provided identical menus, we went with the one that offered us free margaritas (how all important decisions should be made). Food was average, margaritas weren't bad.
Tourist trap on the plaza. It's okay if they give you free drinks.
I managed to crawl out of bed earlyish the next morning to force myself to go for a run. A path ran all the way along the beach, so I joined dozens of other runners, walkers, cyclists and rollerbladers for sunrise, absorbed by the changing colours. A little nostalgic for home at this point.
The scenery was terrible...
We caught a bus up through the Golden Zone, which was full of flash new hotels (where I bet they all have toilet seats) and overpriced shops. The only reason for us to venture up this side of town was to join a day tour, a cruise through the Pacific. On board the trimaran at 10am and drinks in hand by 10:05am. We knew their were free drinks offered as part of the tour, but we thought it would only be one at lunch time, or maybe a set number for the day. Nope. It was as much as you could physically fit in over the 6 hours the tour lasted. By the time the trimaran dropped us off at our beach for the day, an hour into the tour, we had already downed three cocktails each. I know there was snorkeling, a banana boat ride and some sort of lunch, and that's all I can tell you about the trip.
Bird Island. Yep, the white stuff is bird poo.
The beautiful beach, looking back towards Mazatlan.
This is how we felt by the end (how did I even take this photo?).
