Mazatlan has lots of fun, affordable shore excursion choices for cruisers, but it consistently ranks as the least favorite port on the Mexican Riviera.
Why is that?
Fear of crime keeps those who don't purchase excursions in the small shopping area in the pier area.
A lot of cruisers seem to reason, "With lots of colorful souvenirs, tasty Mexican foods and tequila or beer available, why risk venturing into purportedly mean streets?"
In 2022, I wanted to see for myself. Julie and I not only survived meandering Mazatlan; we discovered a network of helpful locals and interesting sites.
For our return, however, we wanted to spend the day at a beach resort. She picked out a Viator excursion that included transportation to the Gold Zone and entry to a beachfront hotel's pool area.
Upon learning our ship would not be visiting Mazatlan as scheduled due to the detour around Puerto Vallarta, we cancelled our excursion, avoiding the 24-hour cancellation penalty zone.
A couple of days later, however, Viator emailed an offer of the same tour on the date we would be in Mazatlan, but with no payment required. We would just go to the meeting point and pay there.
I can't say that meet-up went smoothly.
We arrived at the meeting point across the street from the cruise terminal. Dozens of tours met at this place, and amid the chaos, no one seemed to know anything about our "reservation."
We finally met with someone who brought us to our driver Eric, who would take us to the beach resort.
Eric took us on a tour of the city, giving brief explanations about various sites in his hometown.
He was obviously very proud of this seaside city where he's lived his entire life.
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| La Cueva Del Diablo, a natural cave steeped in local lore. Was it used for hiding pirate's booty or an escape hatch for the devil? |
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| Dining in Mazatlan means fresh catch-of-the-day options. |
At a certain point, I felt guilt about not taking him up on his offers to stop so we could get out and take pictures, so I started saying yes, even though we had seen many on our self-guided tour four years earlier.
It was great having Eric take photos of the two of us together.
Eventually, we headed toward the Gold Coast, past places we hadn't been in decades. The Gold Coast is the home of beach resorts sold in land packages.
Eric stopped in front of Shekinah Beach Club, asking what time we wanted to be picked up. I asked if he would escort us to get us in, he said that wouldn't be a problem.
Perhaps foolishly, we took him at his word, and Eric drove off, after letting us take a photo of his little car as at least some sort of precaution.
We had already paid, but how could we prove that?
Spiking our concerns, the hostess said she had no reservation for us.
I have no idea how that possibly worked efficiently. At this point, I don't remember his name, so what if we had forgotten it back then?
Walking through the gates, we found ourselves in a nice pool area, elevated about ten feet above a sandy stretch of beach.
This would do nicely.
We moved between chairs occasionally, seeking out different views. This was possible, because the resort never became crowded.
When we ordered drinks, they were reasonably priced. I ordered a Negra Modelo, switching to Pacifico when told my original choice was sold out. I think it was $3, whereas the Modelo would have been $3.50. Julie's Diet Coke was also $3 or so.
There's not much to say about this kind of day when things go well. The hot tubs were sometimes the same temperature as the pool or a few degrees warmer, but with temperatures in the 80s, there really was no need to warm up in water.
It's one of those pleasant experiences that you either grok or you don't. Others might be just as happy staying in the little shopping mall at the pier to drink tequila or perhaps staying on the nearly deserted ship. It's all good.
I went down to the beach to see about body surfing. I didn't have any trouble avoiding the casts of a morning surf-fisher. I managed to catch a few decent waves when they presented themselves.
After 45 minutes or so, a lifeguard on a nearby beach whistled me in. He said there were rip tides that made it unsafe. I did feel some pull out and certainly gradually was pulled sideways up the beach to the lifeguard's domain, but I'd swam through considerably worse rips in California in my youth.
I don't ignore lifeguards, who are just doing their jobs.
In addition, hard as it is to believe, I'm not as young as I once was when swimming out of riptides would have been easier. He recommended going a couple of hundred yards down the beach, but I was really done anyway. The waves didn't have enough of the right shape without a boogie board.
I ordered another cerveza.
Julie ordered her first Pina Colada of the 21st Century (if ever), and it was delicious. We brought our drinks into the pool.
The big decision became whether we would have a reasonably priced lunch in this lovely resort setting. As par for our way of cruising, we decided to wait for teatime on the ship (or reality for us, coffee and cookie time).
When we closed out our tab, the came to $18 for our drinks, rounding up for currency conversion. Shekinah didn't try to charge us for the resort stay, which we had resolved to pay if it turned out we had been ripped off at the port through no fault of the resort.
We had an appointment for Eric to pick us up at 2. We had built in extra time to get back to the ship, as we always do, just in case something goes wrong. We never want to miss sail-away.
True to his word, we saw Eric parked across the street when we walked out of the club. He spotted us and soon u-turned back to the parking lot to pick us up.
Eric was always smiling, still pointing out sites, including a cliff diver.
As usual in Mexico, what sometimes feels subject to happenstance all worked out well.
We once again enjoyed our visit to the oft-underrated port of Mazatlan.
I wonder if one of the popular Beach Boys songs had been about Mazatlan if that would be convincing.
Lounging by the sand. Pacifico in hand. Saw Mazalan so I thought I'd take a chance on Mazatlan.
Ma-ma-ma Ma-Mazatlan...
