Mazatlan

The ferry for Mazatlan leaves at 8:00 PM, but passengers are told to be there 3 hours ahead of time.  I get there early, 1:00 PM, having seen all there is to see in La Paz (or all I wanted to see).  La Paz Centro was a little nicer than the outer parts, but it is still a long way from being as attractive as the other towns I have passed through.

I get checked in at the ferry, leave the bike in the care of a line of tractor trailers also waiting for 'Chihuahua Star' and look for the waiting room I have assumed would be somewhere.  All there is are some metal chairs under an open roof.  Oh well, it wasn't like it was very cold.  Here I meet Robin a retired Air Canada Pilot from Tisdale SK.  We hang out waiting for the ferry and swap life stories.  We finally discover that there are at least a half a dozen food vendors outside the 'controlled zone' where we are waiting for the ferry.  It turns out is OK to leave the terminal so we feast on some excellent tortillas.


We kept each other company through the 12 hour ferry ride to Mazatlan.  We arrived at about 10:30, Robin was going on to Vera Cruz, and I was off to find a hotel in Mazatlan.

Villa Del Mar is a charming old basic hotel right in the centro historia.  I am a few blocks from the cathedral and the downtown playa where Caranaval will be celebrated later today.
 
Carnaval starts friday and ends on tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) aka 'fat tuesday' (in French, that would be Mardi Gras, never knew that...).  Mazatlan is just great, what I was hoping to find on this trip.  Farther down is a strip with modern hotels catering to tourists, Zona Dorada (golden zone), but I stay away, I prefer the old part, which has unique character that can't be found at a modern resort .  I could come back here.

More Pictures! https://photos.app.goo.gl/MfVpe8ntBkfEgr8M8
Video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYhlJGO0gv8
More Video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtcuYCQDSA

I stay in Mazatlan an extra day, and reluctantly I leave on Sunday for Guadalajara and Mexico City (Ciudad Mexico).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Electrifying

Image
  The future is electric they say.  I agree, sort of.  I am on my second electric pedal assist bicycle and have test ridden a Zero FX.  I was impressed. I would have bought the FX right then and there, but negotiations stalled over the usual dealer charges for their overheads.  Sorry dealers, but I have had enough.  Do not advertise a sale price that won't roll it out the door.  Anyway, it gave me pause to reflect on electric's weakest link, batteries.   But before I rant on batteries, my experience with electric motorcycle and bicycles have convinced me electric motors are the future of transportation.  Electric motors with electronic control systems are so much better than petrol powered engines.  Electric motors eliminate clutches, transmissions, most required maintenance, smell, vibration, noise, excessive heat  and all the power wasted on noise, heat and vibration control.  On my test ride I did not miss any of them.  The instant torque, and the ability to enjoy the ride w
Read more

Decline and fall

Image
Most motorcycle manufacturers have come and gone.  Pick your favorite defunct moto brand, google it, and surely you will find that someone has written a book all about the reasons no one is making them anymore.  But really, every motorcycle brand failure can be attributed to two reasons, people lost interest in buying them and or their makers lost interest in building them. When it comes to why consumers buy motorcycles, this too can be broken down to two reasons, they want affordable basic transportation or they want a motorcycle for fun.  Because most motorcycles are road legal, motorcyclists can combine practical transportation and fun, or at least that is what they tell their wives, mothers, husbands...   There is a (much) smaller market of motorcycles for commercial, police, or military use. Motorcycles started out with the marriage of the safety bicycle invented in 1883, with the high speed small gasoline engine, invented only a few years later. It is estimated that there were
Read more

A new era

Image
This year I officially became a 'senior', or 65 years old.  So the 60's have been a lot more fun than the 30's, but there are also some indications that things are going to change.  Take last summer, I was riding my KTM 640 Adventure down a quad trail by myself.  The front wheel fell into a deep rut going up hill and down I went.  No biggee, except I couldn't pick the bike up.  This had never happened before.  I have dragged that bike out of mud and sand on its side, and picked it up numerous times.  This time it was staying down, and I was not even sure why.  With the help of a nearby fisherman I was able to get the bike up and out. So, no more solo off road excursions, the reason I still had the KTM, which truth to say was never the greatest highway bike. Since I started riding well over 40 years ago, I have always been more interested in performance, not necessarily all out extreme by the numbers performance, but motorcycles that did something very well.  Som
Read more