Kathryn and Ken's Excellent Mazatlan Adventure

Kathryn and I had a wonderful trip to Mazatlan for Spring Break this year. We stayed at a wonderful hotel, the Playa Mazatlan, which was a huge complex. The weather was close to 30 everyday. The beaches were great and the margaritas were very tasty.

Photos of the Playa Mazatlan

This is our room on the second floor.

These are the rooms next door taken from our balcony

This is the pool which was just below our balcony

Kathryn took these photos around the hotel.

Kathryn and I had several adventures during our holiday.

El Shrimp Bucket

One night we decided to go to a restaurant called El Shrimp Bucket. We had an address and we knew it was in the old Mazatlan area. We boarded the Sabalo Central bus at the hotel and headed downtown. After a long trip along the seawall, the bus started to make several ziz-zag turns which did not match the map of the bus route that we had. Soon the bus was empty and we seemed to be out of the downtown area. We told the bus driver that we wanted to go to El Shrimp Bucket. He replied in Spanish. There was one other passenger on the bus, a young girl who spoke a little English. She told us he said that we had to get off the bus up ahead and catch the Sabalo Centro bus going back the other direction. We got off the bus and discovered we were at the ferry terminal. The only problem is that the ferry terminal was deserted at that time of night - around 10:00 pm. Here we are, a couple of gringos out in the middle of nowhere in the dark. There was a hotel nearby but it was also pretty dark. We waited awhile as several buses flew by us. Finally a Sabalo Centro bus came by but did not stop. A short time later we spotted a taxi which we hailed down and had him take us to the El Shrimp Bucket (right by the Deer Monument on the map). After a great shrimp dinner, we found that the Sabalo Centro bus came right by the restaurant and took us back to our hotel. Coincidentally, we found ourselves in the area of the ferry the next day and took these photos in daylight.


A view of the ferry area. There was no one around at night.	This is where we were standing waiting for the bus.	This is the hotel Atenas. Again no one was here at night.

Lookout Hill (The Lighthouse)

Early the next day we jumped in one of the Mazatlan open-air taxis called "Pulmonias", which is Spanish for pneumonia, and headed out to walk up Lookout Hill to the Lighthouse (El Faro), which is something that most tourists do.

It is 515 feet above sea level and took us 30 minutes in 25 plus temperatures to reach the top on the switchback trail. We encountered lots of people on the way up. Water was 90 pesos for a large bottle at the bottom and 100 pesos for a small bottle at the top - location, location. The view from the top was spectacular as it basically showed all of Mazatlan.

The photos below were taken from the top of the hill. Click on them for a larger view.

I also took the following photos which give a panoramic view of Mazatlan. Click on each for a larger view.

After leaving the El Faro, we took a bus into Old Mazatlan to see the Market and the Cathedral. We walked along the Malecon (sea wall) and took some photos along the ways including the Fisherman's Monument.


The Cathedral	Kathryn on the steps of the Cathedral	A pretty lady with some pretty flowers at the church	A view of the bay from the Malecon. Our hotel is around the point in the distance	Another view of the Golden Zone hotels and beaches in the distance

Ken on the sea wall	Kathryn at the Fishermen's Monument	Ken at the Monument	Looking towards downtown from the beach at our hotel. El Faro is the hill on the right	Bora Bora, the hotest disco in town. It is just down the beach from our hotel.

The Beach (Playa)

The first few days of our holiday the beach was pretty quiet as the photos indicate, but the end of the week was Easter weekend and on Good Friday the beach was packed with thousands and thousands of Mexican tourists as evidenced by the fifth photo below.


The Playa Mazatlan from the beach.	Beach view looking east in front of the hotel	The beach view looking west	The beach in front of the hotel

View of the beach looking east on Good Friday	Kathryn about to be hit with a big wave	Party boat passing by	Ken tossing frisbee with some teacher friends from Calgary

Kathryn on the beach in front of the hotel	Ken standing in front of Panchos, our breakfast restaurant on the beach	A local busker hustling the tourists in a con game	Ken in the hotel pool
The following photos were taken at sunset one night.

We had a great holiday. The weather was hot and sunny all week except one day when it was overcast (Ken picked this day to be sick in bed all day with a bout of stomach flu).

While we were there, I ran into Wayne Hager, one of my students and basketball players from the first year I started teaching, 31 years ago. We managed to share a few cervezas together.

Before we knew it, the week was over and it was time to go home. Some fellow teachers had made the trip with us and I took the following photos in the airport in Mazatlan.


			When we got home, the rest of them had to go to work, so I emailed them this photo of me on our deck.	"What time does class start?"
Kevin and Kathy	Dave and Ali	Kathryn and Ken