Mazatlán is a city with much to do, whether you're here during the slow summer months, or the faster-paced autumn and winter months. There are plenty of city guides and online travel sites that describe all there is in Maz and the surrounding area, but here are some of the excursions we made this past…
Please forgive any factual inaccuracies or omissions in what I am about to relate. This is complicated stuff and I'm an idiot. In the Lake Pátzcuaro region of Mexico's central highlands live a loosely affiliated group of indigenous tribes collectively called the Purépecha (aka "the visitors"). We've heard that the Purépecha (or….maybe it was the…
One of the reasons we don't have a land-house is, my dwelling preferences are unrealistic. I am most comfortable looking up at 14-foot ceilings and beams made out of whole trees; stepping lightly upon floors of hand-made tile, and caressing 2-foot-thick walls of adobe. Passing beneath hand-carved stone arches with finely-executed artistic appointments are a…
So, we'd bused it from Mazatlán to Morelia and had a great time. We rented a car in Morelia, the better to tour Pátzcuaro and its nearby lake. Late August is the off-season and we pretty much had the whole district to ourselves for the 4 days we were there. If you can find your…
One of the many advantages of using Mazatlán as a summer cruising destination is the ease of inland travel. Maz summers are oppressively hot and humid, giving incentive to travel to the drier, cooler climes of the central highlands. Last summer we'd bused from Maz to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato (still my favorite…
We arrived in Mazatlán on July 31, 2009, technically 2-1/2 months after the start of hurricane season. From our own experiences and from what we heard from other long-term cruisers during the summer of 2008, most of the tropical storms and other strong weather events don't get active this far north in the Eastern Pacific…
When there is no fire extinguisher, you can always try prayer. You may need prayer to keep these wires on this public electrical pole from catching fire, too. Whimsical, artistic public seating is not necessarily comfortable public seating. Sometimes, even grimy boat yards can support things of beauty. m
You sometimes find really funny things when you get off your boat and explore the shore. Because occasionally, cruisers pull together "found items," transforming them into art. Like this artifact, found amongst the ruins of the salt works at Punta Salinas on Isla San Jose in the Sea of Cortez: Schnort. m
La Paz’s malecon stretches for a couple of miles and is interspersed with many examples of fine bronze sculpture. A visitor may admire life-size renditions of manta rays, fishermen and the vaquita porpoise (the world’s smallest, native to the Sea of Cortez – and sadly, a species which may now be extinct). There are mermaid…
The Mexican FM-III visa is a type of resident (long-term) visa that is one step up the food chain from the basic 180-day tourist visa everyone gets when crossing the border for the first time. Many boaters cruise Mexico for years on a succession of tourist visas, and it works fine for them. Other boaters…