MT and I spent last week at the El Cid Marina Beach resort in Mazatlan. We left super early on Saturday the 13th and got back super late on Saturday the 20th. It was nice to have today to recover and do some laundry and some other stuff. I don't know if I've ever said this before, but I actually could have used a couple more days at the resort. I wasn't quite ready to come back and face reality.
Through our vacations, MT and I have learned that it takes two or three days for us to really relax into vacation mode. True to form, on Tuesday, we were a little restless. I was actually wondering if I would be able to handle being at this resort for the rest of the week. Why? It was soooooo mellow. The place is quite small and not that MT and I are big on the night life scene, but by 8:00, the place seemed deserted. Plus, the weather in Mazatlan is nearly identical to the weather in Southern California at this time of year. I did not pack appropriately, so I was chilly at night. There were nights when I got in bed before 9PM and piled blankets on top of myself.
Eventually, though, we did adjust to the slower, more relaxed pace and the temperature of Mazatlan and we had a nice time. There is a small semi-private beach at the resort on the other side of the marina. We had to take a water taxi ride that was about a minute long from our side of the marina to the beach side of the marina. It was less crowded than the pool areas and the service was excellent since there were so few of us over there. Here is the obligatory photo of my toes and the ocean.
We did sit by the pool (until we discovered how great the beach was). There were two pools there: the Iguana pool and the Calypso pool. Both pools had a snack bar, too. The Calypso pool is larger and it's heated, so it was pretty popular. We sat over there one afternoon. The Iguana pool is smaller and not heated, but their bar service was a lot better. We enjoyed lunches at the Iguana pool snack bar a lot.
Chips and salsa and margaritas? Yes please! MT really enjoyed the shrimp ceviche. I think I ate my weight in shrimp and guacamole over the course of the week. (Let's not talk about weight, please. All the booze, chips and guacamole have taken a toll on my waist line. I'll get back on the Weight Watchers plan tomorrow, thank you very much.)
Why was the area called the Iguana pool? I was lying on a lounge chair out on the grassy area near the pool. When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by three iguanas. I sort of flapped my shoes at them and made noises, but they had no fear. Here's one of the critters:
We did go off-resort a few times. There are four El Cid resorts in Mazatlan, and there was a shuttle between the four of them. One morning we took the shuttle to the El Moro and took a walk along the beach. It was wonderful. Just outside the El Moro is a Senor Frog Official Store. (One of many Senor Frog Official Stores we saw, but we never saw the actual bar.) Because we felt like we had to, I took MT's photo with the iconic mascot.
Another excursion we took was to Deer Island. We sailed on a tri-catamaran across the bay to the island where I sat on the beach and read a book while MT went snorkeling. Let me tell ya, snorkeling is not a big thing in Mazatlan. I think the draw there is deep sea fishing. No problem for MT though, he got in the (COLD!) Pacific and saw a few little fishes. We also so some dolphins from far away and on the sunset excursion, I saw jellyfish swimming by. Here's a photo I took during the sunset excursion (not quite at sunset, but I like it anyway).
We also went into the Historic District to take a look around. We rode in a pulmonia taxi - basically a little open-air taxi which is bigger than a golf cart but smaller than a regular car. It looks like this (not my photo)
We took one of these into town - we rode in it, we didn't drive it. The driver took us to the market where we strolled around. The market was similar to La Boqueria in Barcelona in that there were meat stalls, chicken stalls, fruit and vegetable stalls and also arts and crafts and t-shirts, souvenirs and that kind of thing. Kinda cool. Then we walked over to the cathedral there. We also saw the cliff diver and took a look at the malecon (the beach-front walk).
I feel kind of bad because I did not do as much research as I normally do about the place I'm visiting. I really enjoy learning a bit about the history of a place and figuring out things to do and see before I visit. Even though I knew a few months in advance that I'd be going to Mazatlan, the time I typically do all my research is about a month or so before I go. The month or so before we came here was busy with important things and so perhaps our visit to Mazatlan suffered a little because of my lack of research. However, I did take a quick look at TripAdvisor to see what was recommended, and I think we hit it all, so even though I didn't know the history, I think we saw what we needed to see.
Remember how I said earlier that I didn't feel like I had packed very well for the evening weather? Well, I'd give my left pinky finger for that weather now that I'm home. We arrived to well over six inches of snow on top of the car that we had to remove at 11:00 last night. We definitely were under-dressed for that event! Everything is all right, though, and we are mostly glad to be home.
One last photo that I took the night of the sunset cruise. We are back at the resort and I saw this pretty shot:
Big thanks to Aunt Jennie for letting us take her vacation to Mazatlan. We won't forget the good times we had there.
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