s/v Rainy Days

Our Week-long Getaway to Mazatlan

—Blogpost written by Bob

In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in San Miguel de Allende (SMA), Mexico. We arrived by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat. This blogpost describes the last four days of our week-long getaway to Mazatlan on the Sea of Cortez.

Sunday, December 19

A nearby wedding reception kept us awake until almost midnight last night. We closed all the doors and windows and turned up the A/C but it didn't help much as the loud music reverberated through the rock and the building's concrete foundation.

A wedding reception was underway next door
until almost midnight last night.

A view from our balcony looking the opposite
direction from the sunset.

In the morning we had breakfast (desayuno) with the locals at a nearby shoreside "diner type" restaurant that wasn't even listed in TripAdvisor. I ordered an omelet with cheese and that is exactly what I got--an egg omelet with a cup of grated cheese on the side. (We also ordered a fruit salad to share.) Maggie ordered chilaquiles (sunny side up eggs with chips and bean sauce). We were the only gringos in this restaurant. Our waiter was very friendly and only spoke Spanish. He asked us where we were from and he asked if it was very cold and snowed there. Christmas music, some in English, played in the background as we ate breakfast.

We walked back to our rented flat along the sea, taking pictures as we walked.

A view from the Malecon to the Presidio
in the morning. (Our rented flat was
located in the upper left hand
corner of this image.)

A lone surf fisherman on the
beach in the morning.

Monday, December 20

Again last night we were kept awake by very loud music from the nearby venue--it was like ten bands playing their individual types of music (using amplifiers) simultaneously! At times sounding like a revival (it was a Sunday night), it continued until 1 AM. Shortly after it ended a cherry bomb was detonated nearby. (Sometimes I think Mexicans are scary crazy but they probably think the same thing about us gringos.)

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Our goal for today was to explore the south side of Mazatlan, over the hill from our rented flat. We flagged down a little white open air buggy to take us to La Puntilla, a local seafood restaurant, for lunch.

One of the many little white open air buggies
that roam the streets of Mazatlan.

At La Puntilla we ordered a broiled sampler plate for two--this gave us a chance to try many different types of seafood--we liked the coconut shrimp the best. During lunch we fed some of our broiled fish to a scruffy cat that came up to our table and begged for food.

Our new little Mexican cat friend
looked a little scruffy.

Several fishing boats tied to the
beach at Playa del Sur.

We came back from our day's excursion early and did some reading and catching up on YouTube videos, while hearing the waves crash on the nearby beach.

Tuesday, December 21

I had another night of not sleeping very well--this time the culprit was our cats. Maggie had closed all the doors and windows in the living room last evening (we usually leave them open with the wrought iron gates closed) and they had nowhere to release their energy during the night except scratching on the corners of the sofa.

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Early this morning, I was plagued by thoughts about nearing the end of my life--not really a fear of dying. I thought about the end of my Dad's life and how he couldn't walk at the end. Lately, walking long distances has been a major effort for me (at 74 years old and after my radiation treatments for prostate cancer). Walking is such an elementary freedom that we have as humans--I'd hate to lose it.

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I'm not making any progress on my search for purpose at this point in my life. Perhaps, purpose is not supposed to be important at this time. Who knows? I have had plenty of purpose in the past--it has been only recently that I can't seem to find it.

The early morning sun came through the
four glass blocks near the ceiling of
the East wall of our bedroom.

As the sun came up and the sunlight showed through the four glass blocks installed high on the East wall of our bedroom, we could hear the waves crashing on the beach in the opposite direction. (A slight sea breeze kept our rented flat nicely cool without the need for A/C.) Today was the second to our last full day in Mazatlan...

Lola (left) and Kali (right) sit contentedly
in the open window of our living room.

We walked to Angelina's (about 2 blocks away) for a delicious lunch--we both had Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken and it was superb!

Luis was our waiter at Angelina's.

Late in the afternoon, we walked to the beach where Maggie took a swim in the tidal pool and in the ocean. (I went along to take pictures.) It was 5:30 PM when we returned to our rented flat.

I made reservations at a pet-friendly Holiday Inn in La Piedad (about 7 hours away from Mazatlan) for on our way back to San Miguel on Thursday. (We are planning another excursion to the beach in the early Spring--this time to Puerto Vallarta which is about 4 hours south of Mazatlan.)

Wednesday, December 22

Today was our last full day in Mazatlan--it was kind of sad because we really liked being near the water.

We followed our activities from our first day here, taking a taxi to the pangas on the beach and having lunch at Muchacho Allegro (on the beach). In the following three pics, I tried to imagine the equivalent activity around home.