Mazatlan

Some cruisers leave Mazatlan for points south or north but return, sooner or later. Others never leave. I understand why. There’s a lot going on here, and it’s easy to get around.

The name "Mazatlan" means "the place of the deer" in Nahuatl. With all the construction going on, I’m not sure whether any of the native deer still exist in the wild hereabouts (or if so, how many there are), but we happened across a few in some enclosures over by the El Cid golf course. Unfortunately nobody could tell us why the deer were there (breeding program? relocation center? future venison steaks for the country club?). The photos do not do these critters justice – they are very small; the largest male was about the size of an Irish setter – with longer legs but far less body mass. The yearlings were about the size of a boxer. All of them had hair finely-streaked in the same shades of black, white, grey and tan. And observe their delicate leetle feets:

Mazatlan has other tourist opportunties for gringos and is full of annoying condo time-share salesfolk; but it’s also its own city. Many of the standard tourist attractions are well used by the hard working folk who live here: the beaches and the sculptures all along the Malecon; the old market and the Plaza Machado in the Historic District; and the Mazatlan basilica with its yellow-tiled towers (leave a donation in the box, please). The restored early-20th-century Angela Peralta Theatre has all kinds of performances year-round. Attend a concert there and you’ll find yourself expecting Klaus Kinski to come bursting through the lobby wearing a white linen suit, to hear grand opera after having paddled 600 miles up an Amazon tributary with his girlfriend. If you feel nostalgic for American suburbia, do your provisioning at the Home Depot, Office Max, WalMart or Gigante sooper mart. Or, just buy fresh prawns & squid from the nice ladies in the Historic District between Benito Juarez and Aquiles Serdan, and call it a day.