Nov. 23, 2021

The second port of call is Mazatlan, the Mexican state of Sinaloa, only 196 nautical miles from Cabo San Lucas. The vessel was docked at Mazatlan in the early morning. We chatted with a couple of volunteers at a street corner; they were snowbirds from Canada and were very friendly and helpful. They provided us with some tourist information and recommended the walking route marked with the blue line. 

The downtown Mazatlan is centered at a plaza surrounded by many art galleries, restaurants, and colorful impressive sculptures. The streets, along with colorful buildings, were clean and quiet. Police or security guards were standing at some of the street corners. We strolled to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral with tall twin towers. We went inside, and it was beautiful as always. From the Cathedral, we headed to José María Pino Suarez Municipal Market, which started more than 100 years ago. The market had a range of vegetables, fruits, meat, and seafood vendors booths. The seafood selections in the market were limited, smaller than expected. We didn’t buy anything. We needed to get back to Teatro Angela Peralta, the theater, for a public tour at 11:00 am. The guided tour costs $2.00. We had some language barrier with a worker at the ticket office. Fortunately, the wife of another couple who came from Mexico provided the translation. The theater was built in 1883 and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1975. Standing in ruin for years, the theater began a restoration in 1987 and re-opened in 1992. The theater was beautiful and elegant. We learned a little about the interesting story of Angela‘s wedding and death.

After seeing the theater, we were hungry and started to look for a lunch place. Two days ago, during the destination lecture on the ship, Vickie, the presenter, recommended a traditional Mexican dish, Percado Frito, a whole fried fish. It was on our must-to-do list in Mazatlan. We asked a volunteer at the plaza to recommend a local-style lunch place and hoped to find the fried fish. He pointed us towards Mariscos Preparados “Chon,” two blocks away from the square. It is a small restaurant with a Mexican vibe. We were the only customers there, and they didn’t have whole fish and only had fried battered red snapper steak. It was delicious.

After lunch, we strolled towards the beach and planned to walk back to the ship. Along the coast, there were a few scenic viewpoints. A vendor was frying the whole fish on the beach, which we had been looking for earlier. But it was too late, and we were too full from our lunch. So we just kept walking. The weather was nice, sunshine and a little hot. After walking for one hour under the sun along the beach, we were tired and hopped on a Pulmonia Taxi, gas-powered open-air taxi that looked like a golf cart, and went back to the ship.

We were exhausted. But there was still one more place to visit in Mazatlan, El Faro Lighthouse, one of the highest lighthouses in the world. Chenggang decided to go out again while Connie stayed on the ship. He walked 2 miles to the bottom of the hill and hiked 745m up in gravel and 336 pave stairs path to reach the summit. The lighthouse is old and not very impressive, compared to the lighthouses we visited in Oct on the east coast, but the view of the city of Mazatlan and the Pacific ocean from the top of the hill was breathtaking. The lighthouse seemed to be a popular place for locals. As the sun was setting, it was time to return to the ship. We like Mazatlan a lot, and it is beautiful and has its characters.