Everything here is just an overview of our week. There will be lots more detailed photos to come.
Thursday
Another gorgeous day here in Mazatlan. Snapped this as we headed out to breakfast at 9 AM.
Another pulmonia ride to Torres Mazatlan to meet Bill and Carol and their friend George who arrived last night. George is a long time blogger click here. Just in case you haven't read Carol's blog here is a link.
I always have freshly squeezed orange juice here.
I snapped some photos while we waited for the others to arrive.
One thing I miss about not staying at Torres Mazatlan is having the beach right outside.
My granola, yogurt and fruit parfait.
George and Bill.
Spotted this guy as we were leaving, sunning himself by the pool.
After breakfast we took the bus back to the condo.
They were cutting coconuts outside our balcony.
I must show you our lovely laundry we received! Everything so clean and pressed, t-shirts on hangers and folded underwear.
This school band was leaving as we waited for Bill and Carol to pick us up. I can never get over how white the school girls shirts are!
Dinner was early tonight, it is the main reason George made his trip down here just for ribs!!!
As we drove around town we spotted this ad for Paquis for Mazatlan mayor.
We had met her in 2014 click here to read about that.
Friday
I can't believe it is our last day in Mazatlan, it's been 23 great days.
Today was a little cloudy and windy so we did some admin stuff like backing up photos and making sure we have numbers we need for the next week or so. Also doing some homework on Guadalajara.
Also have to pack. Done.
Goodbyes said to Irma, our maid for the last three weeks.
It is not technically the first Friday of the month but ArtWalk is today from 4 PM to 8 PM.
Saturday
We check out and take a taxi to the Centro bus terminal for our journey to Guadalajara. We don't typically take buses but it made a lot more sense than flying there.
We will be here from the 9th and will check out on the 15th.
Click here to read about our bus ride and more photos of our hotel.
This is our hotel and a map of the area we are in.
We changed rooms - this is our new one.
View from our tiny balcony, San Francisco church.
Entrance.
Sunday
Slept in and only headed out around noon. Partly because we had the buffet breakfast and then decided we wanted to change rooms, even though ours was lovely, it looked out on an inner courtyard and we both like to have windows.
Not a problem, desk said if we just left our stuff packed they would move it and we could pick up our new keys when we came back.
We took a carriage ride for an hour around noon $300 pesos.
We will revisit most of the spots we covered so I'll do a more detailed post on them.
Once we were back at San Francisco we set out on foot.
Inside the Government palace.
In Mexico only civil weddings are legal so everyone must come and register their marriage.
Listening to great live music.
As I sip my new favourite drink - a michelada is a Mexican cerveza preparada made with beer, lime juice, and assorted sauces, spices, and peppers. It is served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass. In this case with Clamato.
More strolling.
12,729 steps or 9.4 km
Monday
We set out to find the Mariachi Square and market. For breakfast, I'm ashamed to say, we stopped into McDonald's. But can you get this with your breakfast at home?
Mariachi Square
San Juan de Dios church
Mercado Libertad, better known as Mercado San Juan de Dios is the largest indoor market in Latin America, with an area of 40,000 m². The streets are lined with shops selling every conceivable item that you can think of.
From there back around to Cathedral but mass was taking place so we didn't go in. So we kept on walking and I will only post some highlights as we walked 18,700 steps today so that equals a lot of photos!!
Every
Michelada you order is different, this one is very brown due to the salsa negro
or English sauce (we call it Worcestershire). Here's John having his first.
Some restaurants we passed on our way back to the hotel.
Not covering all the churches as mucho mas churches, many more photos to come.
18,700 steps or 11 km.
Tuesday
Tour to Tequila, we were booked on the Jose Cuervo tour (at our concierge's suggestion, more expensive) but as we waited in the lobby he came and said that they had "transportation issues" tour speak for not enough people but we could go on the other tour. We said sure.
this was a fun tour even though it started off with the time wasting picking everyone up from their hotels. We started out at nine but didn't start to Tequila until almost 10:30.
Just some highlights. First stop was an amazing distillery, Tres Mujeres or Three Women or Ladies.
The family decided to create Tres Mujeres Tequila using their most select blue agave. Their mission is to fill a void in the premium tequila market for a 100% blue agave, 100% natural, quality tequila that is affordably priced. From the valley of Amatitan Mexico, the result is Tres Mujeres tequila, named after the "Three Ladies" most precious to the Melendrez family. Today, the family is one of the largest growers of blue agave with over 8 million agave plants.
What? Back on the bus and no samples?? Oh, we stop at the agave fields.
Mucho samples.
Mucho buying.
Next stop lunch. We eat with a couple from New York, Puerto Ricans. Fun.
Great buffet, one of the best we've ever had.
John enjoying Izzy and Carmen's company.
Back to town and we are dropped off at our hotel where we put our feet up for a while.
We decide to go for pizza for dinner and head back to the restaurant at the theatre.
9,443 steps or 7 km.
Wednesday
They run tours to Tlaquepaque and Tonala that cost $300 pesos each and you know the drill, more time is wasted getting everyone to the starting point by the time they pick everyone up.
Plus you are on a schedule.
After a full American breakfast for $109 pesos each we grabbed a cab to Tlaquepaque for $80 pesos.
What a great place to wander around.
They were performing in front of the church, amazing.
Restaurants lining the square.
OOPS the skies just opened!! A shop owner invited us to step inside.
We took many, many pictures of the painted trees, just a tease.
Rain let up and the sun came out.
Another taxi $80 pesos back to the hotel. Every street corner, there is someone to clean your windshield. Mexicans are very good about this and generally pay them something. Just as they give to most beggars on the street.
Not a bad view.
We go back to the hotel for a burger. Our hotel has an amazing restaurant and the prices are comparable to anywhere in town.
That structure of circled columns particularly catches my eye among the Guadalajara shots, especially the one with the church in the background.
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