Panorama: Mazatlan
Good morning! We are approaching Mazatlan.
That is El Faro on the left. I plan to reach the top of it later this morning.
I was fortunate that there was only one person in line when I got my coffee. It looks to be 10-12 deep now. There is no line at the ocean plaza bar behind me which also has coffee.
I keep trying to catch the Havana bar open so I can try their Cuban coffee. I guess Cubans don’t drink coffee early in the morning. They do have some regular complimentary coffee sitting out near the bar.
It looks like the Havana bar doesn’t open until 10am. I returned to the coffee shop to try an Irish coffee instead.
I asked for no whipped cream but I’ll go with it.
I missed breakfast in the MDR so I’m doing an omelet on lido deck.
That was a 15 minute wait. This place is slammed!
I got ham, onion, peppers, mushrooms, and both cheeses.
They are signing people up for the hop on hop off bus on lido deck.
I stopped by the Red Frog Rum bar for a funship.
The Royal Princess showed up.
I’m off of the ship. Carnival excursions have a meeting place right here. Then they have shuttles that take you to the main port area.
They also have an information desk with maps.
They have shops and a restaurant in the port area. The bathrooms are free but there’s a guy in there with a tip jar and the only bottle of soap.
With the charge for soap in the bathroom there’s no way I’d eat at the restaurant outside.
Once you get through the restaurant you come to the gates which is where the taxis hang out. I decided to walk to El Faro. It’s about a mile and the weather is nice. A cab would’ve been $6.
I passed a couple of schools. They looked like prisons. Walls, bars, guard shacks, barbed wire, c-wire.
We’re on the home stretch.
This is the entrance. In this building they have a small gift shop. If you need them you can get pesos in there. The bathroom costs 10 pesos (about 50 cents) and the glass bridge at the top also costs 10 pesos.
This is the bathroom.
The first few parts of the walk are ramps up. I took some pictures Of the walk as well as the view along the way.
I’ll take my next set of pictures from behind that cactus.
They do have a few places on the way up where you can pose for pictures or take a break.
At this point my health app says I’ve gone up 10 floors. It seems a little higher than that to me.
Now we get to the steps. I think I read somewhere it has over 300 steps.
This is the last break spot before the top. It’s a good picture spot as well.
A look up at the final steps.
And we have reached the top.
According to my health app it was a 1 mile walk up and 28 floors.
They have benches by the lighthouse.
They have drinks available for purchase.
On the other side of the lighthouse is the glass bridge. It costs 10 pesos. They would only let a certain number of people go at at time and they were taking forever so I didn’t go.
The walk down was much easier than the walk up. I was feeling pretty good so I walked back to the port.
I wanted to see the Cathedral and the cliff divers so I hired a driver, Sergio to take me there.
Sergio asked if I had ever seen something like this back home. I said change those shoe shiners to artists and tarot card readers. Change that gazebo in the middle to Andrew Jackson. Improve that fence a bit and it would be similar to Jackson Square in New Orleans.
Very thick door here.
Mazatlan is a Nahuatl word that means “place of deer.”
This is where the cliff divers dive.
The way this works is the divers wait for a group of tourists to show up and the group pools together money for the diver. I was fortunate that a group showed up right around the time I did. We each chipped in $5.
Sergio has a thumb drive and is prepared for all audio needs.
This is where El Chapo Guzman was arrested.
Sergio says these are from the carnival season (Mardi Gras) and each of them represents a different country that participates in the one here.
This is an interesting flower place. It takes up the entire block. I thought the dog ones were unique.
Fresh seafood. Sergio says you can buy it and take it with you or they’ll cook it for you here.
Flea market. “You think they have fleas there, don’t you?”
Mardi Gras float storage.
Elvis Presley on a motorcycle.
On the way back to the ship we drove through a neighborhood up on a cliff I walked past on the way to El Faro this morning.
Some of the officers are here to welcome us back. On the far end Lars, the hotel director, recognizes me from a function yesterday and asks about my day.
When I got back on board I was hungry but didn’t want to eat anything that would spoil my dinner appetite. I went with a mango gelato.
This is from the ship. In the center you can see the Cathedral.
This is the Pacifico brewery.
I really want a burger. I decide since there are no comedy shows tonight to try for a late reservation at JiJis. I was able to secure an 8:30pm reservation so I grabbed a ringer and fries from Guy’s burgers.
I have a couple hours to kill before the Rock Revolution show so I head down to the Alchemy bar but it’s full.
I decided to go to the Tides bar at the back of lido deck and grab a pina colada for sail away.
Once we got a good distance from Mazatlan I headed to the front of the ship to catch the sunset
Last night they had violins in the atrium. Tonight they have a solo guitarist. This is his country music hour.
I headed to the Pig & Anchor for a stout.
On my way here I noticed a few people lined up outside the main lounge for the Rock Revolution show. It’s 6:40 now and the doors open at 7. I’m going to head down there in a few minutes so I can get a seat with a table.
The line to get in has gotten longer.
I ordered a water and a funship. This is why I needed the table.
The show is over. I’m heading to JiJi Asian for dinner which is above the lido buffet. It looks like they have a dive-in movie playing on lido.
This is what they’re having in the MDR tonight.
They gave me the same table I had on Vista last year. The hostess says she was on Vista and remembers me.
Here is the drink menu:
I ordered a Kirin beer.
Here is the dinner menu. You get an appetizer, one entree, one side, and one dessert.
Compliments of the chef.
This is the pork belly appetizer.
Short ribs and shrimp fried rice.
This is the wonton dessert. It was weird. They gave me a small spoon to eat it with. Surely they don’t expect you to eat the whole wonton in one bite? I can’t cut it with a spoon it keeps sliding off.
Finally when I’m sure nobody is looking I pick the first wonton up with the spoon and just bite it in half.
On the second wonton I was able to catch my spoon in a groove and start to break it apart. I definitely liked the crepe dessert better last year.
I highly recommend eating at JiJi if you’re on a ship that has it. I think it’s the best specialty restaurant for the money at just $15 per person. Everyone was nice. The food was great. The chef came to my table twice and stressed If I wanted anything else, he would make it for me. I may come back before the week is over.
Next up is Puerto Vallarta.
