Ma-Ma- Ma Ma-Mazattlan

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.

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?

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.

We mentioned the name of the guy back at the original meet-up point, as if we were visiting a speakeasy in the Roaring '20s, and that seemed to satisfy her.

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...

You got me rockin' and a rollin', rockin' and a reelin' Mazatlan.  Ma-ma-ma Ma-Mazatlan.

Close Encounters of the Cabo Kind

There's been a lot of space news lately, with rocket launches and release of "X-Files," but you don't need to go to other planets to have close encounters with amazing creatures.

No matter how many times we snorkel, it always feels like visiting an alien planet.  We can fly with remarkable denizens of the seas through scenic coral landscapes.

While visiting new snorkel spots can add a bit of mystery, returning to favorite spots like Hilo's Richardson Beach, Bermuda's Tobacco Bay and Cabo San Lucas can still delight and dazzle.

We had a double dip of Cabo during our recent Mexican Riviera cruise aboard Royal Princess.  A police raid on a drug cartel in Puerto Vallarta a couple of weeks before our cruise resulted in Princess and other cruise lines diverting ships to avoid PV.

Fortunately, Princess added a second day in Cabo to make up for missing Puerto Vallarta.

The last time we went to Cabo, we met a guy who said he'd walked to Pelican Rock.  Always happy to save money, we decided to try strolling instead of taking a boat on this lovely March day, with morning temperatures in the low 70s.

As it turned out, the water level was a bit too high to get all the way to the snorkel beach without swimming, so we set up camp by a little stretch of beach a few hundred yards away and then went one at a time to snorkel.

The water was considerably cooler than we'd encountered in Costa Rica, but with a rash guard, it was quite comfortable, especially once exerting energy to swim.

Appropriate to the name of the area, two huge pelicans stood sentry on a craggy rock perch, and fortunately they decided I wasn't likely to endanger their prey.

As to whether Pelican Rock was more crowded because it has become better known to cruise passengers or because detoured itineraries brought an extra ship there, I can't say for sure, but next time we may have to seek a more distant snorkel spot.

A lot of small tour boats hovered near the best snorkel area.  When motoring around, the boats stir up sediments and bubbles that obscure underwater views.

In any case, there were lots of fishy friends to swim with.  There was also a huge sea lion who seemed a bit territorial.

Each snorkel dive is unique, never to be repeated again.  It is such a special experience, one I wish my dad would have experienced before he passed away, but he was not a swimmer.  He loved all animals, including swimming pets in multiple aquariums, all purchased at Tex's Tropical Fish on East 2nd Street in Belmont Shores 

We enjoyed a lovely day before walking back on what became an 80-plus degree day, catching the tender back to the ship.  We thought about going back to shore, but as often happens, once on the ship late in the day, it is tempting to stay there. We enjoy lounge chairs in the sun looking out at shore or up at Movies Under the Stars.

That might have been the day when I lingered to watch Carlos Santana Live at Montreux while I sat in a hot tub when Julie went to shower in preparation for another great evening of dining and entertainment. 

The next morning, the same destination was at the door of our floating resort.

We were determined to go whale watching.  We spoke with another couple on the tender boat who said they had a reservation for a similar trip.

Rather than going to the pirate tour sales booths right by the pier where we have bought similar boat trips before, we decided to go to an official whale watching tour company.  As it happened, the other couple was walking that same direction.

We went into the official whale watching excursion vendor's nice office to get a quote.  The price was considerably higher than we would have preferred, and this wasn't the kind of place for haggling, it seemed.  Even at half price, they would have been high.

As we left, another pirate tour seller was standing there and offered a similar trip for the price we wanted to pay, so we told him to lead on.

We ended up on the same boat as the other couple, and we were the only passengers for this day trip.

The captain was a good sailor but had limited English skills, so there wouldn't be much of a narration to go along with what we saw, but he took us to the arches and caves for which Cabo is known.

The other couple was a retired history teacher and his wife, both from Ohio.

As it turned out, they were lively conversationalists, so perhaps the guide did speak English but couldn't get a word in edgewise.

When he spotted a whale, he didn't need words to describe the excitement of a close encounter with a beast considerably larger than our boat of questionable durability.

As to how much the other couple paid relative to how much we paid, I can't tell you, but we had negotiated to be dropped at Pelican Rock after whale watching, and then theoretically our captain would return to pick us up a couple of hours later.

There's always a question mark in our minds as to what will happen on these pirate excursions, as comedienne Kathleen Madigan does a good job capturing.

A couple of guys from shore helped us off the boat as it rocked in the shore breaks.  We managed to not only stay on our feet but to get our shore bag onto the rocks that served as our beach chair that day.

One of the guys who helped us off immediately offered his services to get us set up, but we declined his a la carte offers.

"Cerveza?"

"Maybe later."

Being much closer to the snorkel area makes it easier, but the sandy beach we had the prior day was preferable while basking in the sun between dives.

Before long, I got a Pacifico Beer for $5, putting it on a tab after explaining that digging into my wife's carefully packed bag would not be happening at that moment.  He laughed and handed me a Pacifico.

When I brought him $5 an hour later, the entrepreneur laughed and said he'd forgotten about that.

Not long after that, our captain returned as he promised he would.

Our rock and brew concierge helped us on the boat.

"Tip?"  He wasn't shy about asking for the reward for being a helpful host, but he did not make it a demand in advance.  I handed him a few dollars, basically splitting the tip we intended to give the captain, because we never bring more money ashore than we think we'll use.

Photo purists may note that the snorkel photos were all taken the first day in Cabo, and of course whale-watching was all taken the second day.

One of our "neighbor" cruise ships, Carnival Panorama

Back on board, we enjoyed the usual great evening activities, with a return to the Elite Lounge where Julie had white wine while I savored what became my regular happy hour $8 drink, a Boulevardier --- a rye cousin of the Negroni --- along with tasty tapas.

Happy Hour was interrupted briefly when the Royal Princess Captain announced we were passing whales.  Julie hustled outside to get some photos, including a spouting whale.  I guarded the drinks and tapas from the unlikely appearance of marauding pirates on the high seas.

I'm happy to report that life is still good when cruising the Mexican Riviera, even if there is a detour!