¡Dulceria!

Still here in Melaque. Today we took a walk down the beach to a neighboring small town, Barra de Navidad. Although Barra looked like a cute little town, I think we like Melaque more. Melaque is a bit larger, with about 12,000 residents, and for some reason many of the beachfront buildings in Barra seemed to have recently fallen apart, either due to a tsunami or some sort of strange weather. It is odd that this doesn't seem to be happening in Melaque since it was only a few mile walk down the beach. Anyway, we wandered around Barra for a little bit, had some lunch, then caught the bus back to Melaque. On the way home, we decided we deserved some ice cream after our strenuous walk, which we enjoyed on our balcony overlooking the ocean. Now's the time to come visit us here, we head to Zihuatanejo on Tuesday! The picture is of the local candy shop here in Melaque, around the corner from our bungalow.

Sarah in the Kitchen

After an overnight bus ride to Puerto Vallarta and catching another bus to Melaque we have arrived. If the Chepe is thunder mountain railroad, the bus from Puerto Vallarta to Melaque is like Indiana Jones falling into the jungle cruise in a bus going twice as fast. Luckily we made it here and after scoping out a dozen different hotels, we found one right on the beach! In addition it has a kitchen so we will be eating tostadas and drinking shots of tequila tonight! We are now in Jalisco state, the same state as Tequila, and oddly enouh the supermarkets seem to have hundreds of brands of tequila we have never heard of. We are going to head downstairs to the beach in a little bit, but first, a well deserved siesta.

Raining in Mazatlán

We picked a good day to leave Mazatlán. As we were walking to the mercado this morning it started raining. After picking up some supplies and eating delicious marlin we headed home and the rain was really coming down. Since we last wrote, we saw the Venados game. We left during the seventh inning and the Venados were winning 11-3. Sarah was given a foul ball! A word on taxis in Mexico, the taxi drivers basically make up the prices as they go along, simply saying, "my, that's expensive" in Spanish knocked 20% off the price before we even started to negotiate our fare home. Two days ago we returned to our cabeza taco stand for some more delicious cabeza tacos at a very affordable 45¢ each or so. We saw they were making what appeared to be baked potatos, and asked what they were. Turned out they were delicious potatoes that they grill in aluminum, then blend up the potato meat with some butter or cream, then put in some carne asada, many cheeses, onions, pico de gallo, and some frijoles. Probably the best stuffed baked potato ever. In case you ever come to Mazatlán, it's a little stand on Miguel Aleman street about one kilometer from the malecon. Yeterday we went to a seafood place for an early dinner and had some crab Ceviche and camarones a la diabla. Now we have a few hours to kill until our bus leaves around 11:00 tonight, then we have another bus to catch in Puerto Vallarta which will take us to Melaque. If anyone wants to visit, it's a short ride from the airport in Manzanillo!

More Mazatlán

So, it turns out the Zona Dorada wasn't that exciting. Lots of overpriced hotels and tourists staying there. We were both surprised by the number of Canadians. Apparently a lot of Canadians spend their winters in Mazatlán to escape the cold. Two days ago we went on a long walk around the city. There is a park in Mazatlán which has some jaguars and deer(in cages). Mazatlán is named after its deer. We also discovered the beisbol stadium where the Mazatlán Venados (Deer) play ball. We are going to see them play this afternoon. We escaped the heat for a little bit in the local McDonald's, easily the nicest McDonald's we have ever been to. Yesterday we took it easy on the beach, and I caught a fish! Too bad our hotel room doesn't have a kitchen, otherwise we would have had a fresh dinner, instead I threw it back into the ocean. We just booked our bus tickets for the next leg of our journey, we leave for Melaque on Monday night, going by way of Puerto Vallarta. Hopefully the first bus is on time as we only have a 16 minute window to get to the next bus, otherwise we will be spending some time in Puerto Vallarta. Hopefully we will be able to snag a bungalow on the cheap in Melaque and sit on the beach eating burritos all day. The adventure continues!

Mochis to Mazatlán

Our last day in Los Mochis we took a leisurely walk back to the Parque Sinaloa and played with the iguanas and turtles again. We had a delicious roasted chicken for dinner after visiting the Plazuela 21 de Septiembre. Sunday we took the bus to Mazatlán. It seems that in Sinaloa, the bus-merchants have a different style. Kids will hop in the bus walk down the aisle handing out candy and then walk back up the aisle collecting pesos. We just gave back the candy as we are on very strict diets. After a few brief stops in Culiacan and elsewhere, we arrived in Mazatlán. Seems like the bus line we took didn't go to the central bus station, but luckily there was a small army of taxis and pulmonias waiting to take us to our destination. A pulmonia is a golf cart that has a little more power. We decided to take a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Milan. Turns out the hotel is no longer in business! We wandered around old Mazatlán's downtown for a little while, but the hotels seemed a little overpriced for what we would be getting. We spoke to some friendly Canadians (eh?) who recommended we head to the malecon (boardwalk) and see what we could find there. We found Hotel Belmar, on the beach, with negotiable prices - we ended up paying the same to stay here, across from the beach, as we may have down in the old sector in a much crummier place. 
The Hotel Belmar, according to some locals, once housed some very spectacular guests, such as John Wayne and Frank Sinatra.  The place definitely looks like it used to be a glamourous place, but now it is pretty rundown - definitely needs some TLC, but according to what we've read, Mazatlan is not what it used to be as a vacation destination.  Since the 80s, the "high season" is lower and lower and the bartender (see below) said he didn't know if there would even be one this year.   After getting a small room for a negotiated lower price, we got 'upgraded' because the air conditioner didn't work.  As we were moving our stuff, a cockroach jumped out from under the bed.  EW!  Luckily, no more bug sightings in the newer room.
We walked up and down the boardwalk a bit, had dinner at a seafood place next to our hotel and then found a bar called "The Time Machine." The owner of the bar is from Alabama and he married a mazatleca about 27 years ago. In addition they were playing the steelers game on tv and the beers were ten pesos each. We met a few other interesting expats who all seem to be in love with this city. 
This morning we went to the mercado central in old Mazatlán to get supplies for the day. After re-energizing ourselves with an Agua fresca de nanchi which is a small yellow berry, we got some tamales, some pan dulces, and a piece of pumpkin cooked in honey. We took our supplies to the beach, still largely deserted since it's a Monday during the low season, and ate our supplies over the next several hours. Anyway, here we are, the hotel has wifi in the lobby so check Facebook for pictures. We are about to go back to the mercado to retrieve supplies for a beach side dinner. Tomorrow we might head to the Zona Dorada where the big spenders stay. 

Los Mochis

After our adventure in Creel, we got back on the train with some pan dulces in hand and half a box of hojuelas de maiz (corn flakes). The train is like a real life thunder mountain railroad, turbulence, ups and downs, and the beautiful copper canyon. We arrived in Los Mochis around 8:30 at night and grabbed a colectivo to get to the city. The train station is a bit out of town and we could have taken a taxi, but a colectivo, or shared taxi, is more cost effective and much more authentic. There was also an elderly couple, and another guy in the colectivo with us. We were the last stop and it turned out that the driver had lived in the bay area, good to meet a fellow 49er fan. We are staying at Hotel del Valle, no internet but it has hot water, A/C, and a much more comfortable bed. It feels a bit more safe since there is normally a man watching the front door, locking it at night, etc. Yesterday we wandered around the city, got an agua fresca de piña colada in the morning, and went to the Parque Sinaloa and the Jardin Botanico. This was originally the very large private garden of an American who started the sugar mill here. It has a broad collection of trees and plants from all around the world. Additionally there is a fountain area with a large pool around it and a few small islands. There were literally hundreds of turtles hanging out on the islands along with a few very large iguanas. We took some pictures of the king iguana, and will post them later when we arrive somewhere with wi-fi. Also it is a bird sanctuary and we saw many geese, ducks, and other birds including one that tried to eat my toe. We decided to visit the statue of Don Quijote and on our way we stopped at a Chinese restaurant, one of many in Los Mochis. The food was quite tasty, very similar to American chinese food in the Cantonese style. When we arrived at the statue, we were somewhat underwhelmed and took a few minutes to drink some water in the shade of the VW dealership. We walked around some more, took a quick siesta, and the city was pretty alive at night, not too surprising since it is so hot at night. We had a snack, an "elote en vaso" or corn in a cup. It comes with all sorts of sauces and whatnot that you can have put in it, however we had ours with only cheese, chili sauce and lime. ¡Muy sabroso! To really top it off, the gentleman running the elote stand was wearing a 49er hat, we like this town already!

This morning we made the bus trip to Topolobampo. Topolobampo is a local port on the coast about 20 minutes from Los Mochis. We thought that this bus would take us to a beach, but upon our arrival, we spoke with a few locals and learned that Topolobampo is really a port town, you can get on boats to look at dolphins and go fishing, but no beach. Perhaps that explains all the odd looks at our swimsuits. Luckily there is a beach nearby, El Maviri. We took a taxi there and Sarah determined that El Maviri is currently the #1 contender for the future home of Casa Shapiro, Bed & Breakfast. The beach is pretty secluded, and right now, since it´s the low season, the beach was completely empty when we arrived. We walked through a few restaurants and there was nobody there. We sat down at a table underneath a palapa (thatched roof umbrella) and after an hour or so a waiter came by and started setting things up. We ordered a few beers, played in the water, which was nice and warm, and generally hung out for a while. Around one or two in the afternoon we decided to do some exploring, this is shapiroadventures after all, and wandered farther down the beach. We came across another restaurant and ordered ceviche de pescado and a limonada. We asked if the ceviche was for one person or two and it sounded like an order was only enough for one person, but based on prior experience so far, we got one order for the two of us. Turned out it was more than enough and the ceviche was delicious. The waitress said that the fish was locally caught and it was probably alive a few hours before we ate it. I would tell you the name of the restaurant, but I´m not sure it has one, but its trees are painted yellow and green and there were a few old guys sleeping in the hammocks around the tables. We caught the bus back to Los Mochis, took a quick siesta, and here we are. Looks like we will probably spend another day here tomorrow, hang out in the park, maybe go to some plazas here in the city. I want to see the iguanas and turtles again. Then it´s off to Mazatlan on Sunday.

Trick or treaters in Creel

After our strenuous day of hiking yesterday, we are going to take it easy today. Sarah may have pulled a few muscles yesterday, luckily I practiced walking long distances before we left. Here's some trick or treaters from last night.