Last of Mazatlan

January 3

Mazatlan’s city shape is dictated by its long coastline. As a famous Spanish denizen of early times remarked, the city resisted straightening. The high steep peninsula with the famous faro (lighthouse, said to be the second highest in the world) and its sister to the south form the entrance to the port. Now that the cruise ships have abandoned this stop, we tourista types are courted by hotels and marinas far to the north, in the so called Golden Zone and beyond. Before leaving we wanted to stop by the other end of town.

In contrast with the northerly sprawl of towering beach hotels, the city’s Stone Island anchorage is a lovely place to spend time. The Mexicans who have built palapa restaurants along this southern beachfront think of themselves as a band of pioneers. Settling right after WWII and resisting the high rise world of big name tourism, they live like country folk. In this anchorage we photographed the best sunset of the trip so far.

The next morning was spent climbing the Cerro de Chivos among actual goats. We even met their handsome herder, who looked like a caballero, and his horse! At the rocky top frigate birds passed within arm’s length and black vultures peered at us before taking off. We rewarded ourselves with some local beach food, patronizing a pizza spot rebuilt by a young fellow from our state as a gift to his wife’s parents. The recipe was good but Mexican cheese choices just don’t have the sabor we love in pizza.

 That afternoon we headed off for an overnight to San Blas. It was calm, a lovely evening until Charlie called me up on deck. The sight that had him confused floated a bit off our course, but we diverted to check. Up close we could see it was a dead whale floating upside down with fishnet wrapped around its tail and up about a third of its body. Although we have read about the destruction of marine mammals and turtles by net fishing, this was our first direct exposure to a victim. Other sailors had also commented on seeing entangled whales, a very distressing sight to us all.