What to expect

Rants, missives and occcasional updates about where Masquerade is located and what we are up to.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Back in Mazatlan

We are back in Mazatlan for the summer, currently anchored in the Old harbor, but will be moving to the marina around the first of June.

It is nice to be back here as this is our favorite Mexican City. The old historic area is very interesting, lots of older buildings, some restored and some not. The plaza is always a good place to visit, during the day it is quiet and comfortable, you can find a nice shady table and enjoy a cold cervesa and relax after walking around all day. In the evening the plaza becomes more active. The one street that runs one side of the plaza is closed to car traffic and the restaurants there claim the space for their tables. The families, friends and couples come out to walk the plaza, there is usually live music playing at two of the corners, as well as wandering mariachi’s. The Angela Peralta theatre art school is at one end the the plaza so you can often here the bands inside practicing (classical, jazz, etc..).

The last time we were there some type of show was going on at the school. There were dozens of kids about high school age, all wearing what looked like dance/band outfits, what looked like several of the carnival princesses, and lots of families. It was interesting to sit and people watch while we ate our dinner.

Another thing that we like about Mazatlan is the public transportation, the buses here work very well. The buses are 5 pesos (about .50 cents US), with the air conditioned buses costing 6 of 8 pesos. The buses run very often and each has the major areas/stores that it goes to written on the windows of the bus. It is quite easy to hop on a bus that is going to the correct area even if you are not familiar with the route that that particular bus is going to take. We use the busses a lot! The only problem is that the busses stop running around 9pm, which is just about when the plaza and the nightlife is just getting started! Besides the buses there are taxi’s, pulmonarias (sort of a overgrown vw powered golfcart, unique to Mazatlan), and pickup trucks with 2 bench seats in back. These are plentiful and reasonably priced, more so if you can bargain well!