mexico part 5: mazatlan

mazatlan is a coastal town in sinaloa. the ways it's divided up is pretty interesting – there's the zona dorado, which is basically the tourist zone and all those things that go along with that (i.e. senor frog's), and then there's the historical center, which isn't overrun with tourists and has that same colonial feel to it – colorful homes, plazas, outdoor restaurants, etc. and to make it even better, it's right on the ocean.





we decided to splurge and stay in a beach front hotel near the historical area. and after that hellacious drive, it was fabulous to wake up the next morning to this outside our window:





it's a great little town.



[cathedral]


[interior]




probably the best part though, is it's malecon. we have a malecon in peñasco too – it's something like .5 km long. the malecon in mazatlan though is 16 km, running all along the beach for basically the length of the town. and all the time, there were people walking, running, riding bikes, sitting and watching the waves, vendors, et cetera along it.





that's what i would like eventually in my life (add it to the forever growing list) – to live in a place that has a public setting for walking, for family time, for enjoying the outdoors.

out near the harbor is a little hill with a lighthouse on the top that you can walk to, so one morning, iván and i climbed to the top to get a view of the city. here's two of those photos:







i always enjoy picturing myself living wherever i might be visiting when i travel, and i like this place. colonial feel, beach, culture. probably too many tourists though ...

so from mazatlan, we had to reluctantly return back to peñasco. this trip was much needed for me. peñasco is slowly starting to drive me a bit crazy, and this is the longest i've been anywhere for a really long time. i am getting that itch, that bug that it's time to leave, that i need to go see more of the world. and these travels were helpful, even if they didn't quite quench that bug.