Broad Beans

February 2017 - Mazatlan Mexico

For the weekly posts I found a list of Mexican Idioms that I thought would be fun to use. I will also post the meaning.

“Broad beans are cooked everywhere.”
(En todos lados se cuecen habas)
Meaning we all have our share of skeletons in the closet. Crap happens to all of us.

Being here is like being home. Mazatlan is known as the Pacific Pearl.

Saturday dawned foggy but quickly burned of by 8 AM.
We had a later breakfast with music entertainment by Mario whom we had met last week when he performed in the restaurant.
The hotel is crowded this weekend with locals, large family groups.

We walked into town and checked out some more Carnaval statues.
The malecon is a miles long promenade lining the gorgeous beach.

the decorations have just gone up for this year's Carnival, the 119 year. This year's theme is Alebrijes and Dragons. An alebrije is a colourful Mexican folk art sculpture depicting a mythical being made up of parts real and imaginary animals such as cat or dog eyes, serpent bodies and pretty much whatever you can dream up.

We only got photos of a few of them on this walk. So lots more to come.

We have never been here for carnival, we have seen the deocrations and some of the parades in previous years, but always left just before the festivities. This year we will be here for it.

We stopped at a beach side restaurant for a beer and a coco loco, the owner brought us a snack, really spicy salsa with tostadas.
That's an oyster on the side of the drink.

Some vendors along the beach.

Got back to the hotel and had clocked over 14,000 steps. The fog rolled back in suddenly giving a very eerie feeling. The sun was blocked out and the temperature dropped.

Sunday the hotel continued to be packed with locals. Seems it is a long weekend, Constitution Day.
The Mexican women are all dressed up in their high heels.

Need somewhere to put your purse, no problem, the server brings a stand.

Even by the pool!

From Thursday to Sunday breakfast is buffet style with lots of Mexican varieties. You can also order from the chef, Mexican or American eggs or omelets. They even grill steak.
I love these large terra cotta serving bowls.

The pool was like an out of control playground with volleyballs, basketballs and footballs being thrown indiscriminately.
We got comfortable by the pool until 3 PM when we came up to get dressed for the Super Bowl.

Jose had our table reserved and was great providing alternatives for beer since John can't drink it. There were peanuts, pop corn and then we had great beef nachos.

Monday after omelets for breakfast we settled by the pool for a day of reading.

We went from pool view to beach view just to change the scenery! The beach was a little more crowded for a Monday as it is a holiday.

This "lady" was sunbathing.

We shared a delicious shrimp cocktail for lunch.The hot sauce is served in a hollowed out tomato.

And then watched a couple of movies before dinner.

Tuesday when the cruise ships are in town they have an option to attend a Salsa y Salsa breakfast in the hotel. We did this a couple of years ago and it was fun, click here for some pics.

That meant we were served breakfast in the restaurant. My orange, carrot grapefruit juice.

Eggs Benedict, what was I thinking? They were served on little pancakes, way too sweet to go with the eggs!!

We walked to the farmacia and then strolled back through the La Gaviota area, a section along the beach with hotels, restaurants and lots of different shops. It was crowded with cruise ship people.

Just look at these construction workers!

And then another lazy lunch and pool time.

Wednesday we were to meet friends for lunch but then he didn't feel well so they cancelled. Guess we'll have to just lounge around!

Thursday after a breakfast of fresh fruit and yogurt we took our laundry across the street.
It will be ready for 4 PM.

We headed over to Deer Island, a two kilometer boat ride from our hotel. We are the only guests going (included with our all inclusive package, along with the activities director, Brenda. She works here 6 days a week and then attends college in the evenings studying communications. Her English is excellent and we had many interesting conversations. She provided a box lunch with drinks. It was so nice to just have a tuna sandwich! John's was made in a corn tortilla.

Our ride over.

Our hotel from the water.

Approaching the island.

We were back at 2:30, instead of 1:30, that's Mexican time for you!!
Anyhoo, we don't have any schedule.
Pool time and then our afternoon movie, Southpaw before dinner.

Our usual table was reserved, thanks to Jose. It was someone's birthday so they brought out a cake.

Friday we have the buffet. It is foggy again this morning.
Picked up the laundry, 202 pesos $12 for a good load and dropped a few more items off.

Since we are going out to lunch with friends we haven't seen in a year, we spent the morning reading and blogging.

It was crazy in town, streets were closed off around as the mayor and governor were speaking at the Plazuela Machado theatre. After we managed to get a parking spot we walked over to Beach Burger. It was great fun catching up with old friends.

Part of the malecon street is closed off for palm tree replacement in the middle of the road. The original trees were planted too deeply. Again this is done by manual labour, although there was a crane to lift the trees.

We got dropped off by "Willie" looking very cool with his new paint job. One of his owners blogs here.

We got back and suddenly we were getting fogged in again. Very strange. We were soon totally socked in. No worries we plan on reading and watching our afternoon movie before dinner.

BOOKS
7 books to date


Finished Bay Street was an uninspiring read but good enough for pool side. The characters are flat, Piper, the main protagonist, for a corporate lawyer, just goes with the flow. The plot is thin at best.
I did like it being set in my hometown in a banking corporate environment.

The Pier Falls a collection of short stories by Mark Haddon was an entertaining, eclectic mix of scenarios.

Crazy Rich Asians  was a fun pool read also. Having been to Singapore I can believe this kind of money!

Started Elizabeth is Missing.


DINNER
Last week of our all-inclusive meal plan! Looking forward to cooking again.
There's a reason why we've only done this once before, we prefer eating out and eating less and I love to cook.


Saturday - John - chicken breast with fries Jackie club sandwich

Jose insisted we have ice cream with Kahlua.

Sunday - SUPER BOWL wings and burgers
Monday - John - coconut and garlic shrimps Jackie coconut shrimps both with fries

Tuesday - beef fajitas



Wednesday -  WHAT??? Jose wasn't working and "our" table was given to someone else!! 😁😁😁
I had spaghetti and John had tortilla soup followed by New Orleans shrimp done in white wine.

Thursday - I had filet mignon and John had beef burritos, not on the menu, but no problema, Jose will have the chef cook whatever we wish.

Friday not knowing what to have Jose suggested (not on the menu) shrimp with cheese in a tortilla which I had and John had beef in a corn tortilla.

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