The beaches of Mazatlan

Next we stopped in the seaside city of Mazatlan.  A beautiful city with ocean side sculptures and statues, this is also the place were we saw cliff-divers in action and sand sculptors molding sand into huge works of art.  This is a popular place for foreigners to buy real estate.  Heavily populated and well organized geared towards tourists, the ocean boardwalk was a lovely place to walk and enjoy the view.  Restaurants and hotels dotted the land all along the ocean.  Thirsty? Stop and have tequila or a Mexican beer by walking 50 steps in any direction.  Tired?  Pull up a chair and sit with your feet up on a railing as you enjoy a beverage and rest in the open air patio covered by canopy providing shade from the hot climate with a magnificent view of the ocean and mountains.

As a group, because the limitation of not being able for some to walk much, we opted to hire a taxi to give us a driving tour around the city, which I highly recommend.  It was interesting, however, that there was a very specific order for hiring a taxi driver; it was an uncomfortable process because we had been recommended a particular driver, but the mafia controlled system was not happy that our large, well-paying group wanted this young, new driver.  He had been recommended to us from the previous port in Mazatlan, where the cab driver for my friends' tour told us about him.  The young man in Mazatlan was the nephew of the man in Puerto Vallarta ~ small world!

We were fortunately enough to get the young man who enjoyed the city, spoke very good English, and filled us in on interesting details including having an approximate knowledge of the cost of real estate, population statistics and information about the affects of weather patterns on the area.  He was very informative and had a great sense of humor.  He took us to the highlights of the city and allowed us time to stop at some scenic overviews, and wove in the story of his life and his families history in the petroleum industry.