Thursday, February 27: Sunset cruise

We awoke to the morning ritual of Uncovering The Covered Pool ... an amazing amount of effort goes into preserving the heat in that water overnight.

We're looking forward to a beautiful day out and around.

Today is the official start of Carnaval in Mazatlan.  We are uncertain what to expect; we're told it's the biggest party outside of Rio, which sounds fun but possibly overwhelming.  The sea is remarkably sparkly this morning, which we suspect is choppiness inherited from the major storms on the U.S. west coast today.

 Martha and Alicia arrive with the notion of taking us further north to visit a large resort at Emerald Bay.  Martha had lucked into beautiful accommodations there once when she had many family members along, and we were indeed impressed with the villa she showed us.  Three bedrooms, three full baths; private swimming pool and spa.  Large grill on the patio; generous living/dining space and spacious, well-equipped kitchen.  In-unit laundry!  Don't stay here for a week, do come for a month at least!


 We jumped in an extended golf cart for a jaunt around the extensive grounds.  All, of course, was beautifully kept and there were many secluded spaces for shady relaxation.  Every corner seemed to hide another swimming pool and restaurant!  Most impressive.



 We could have eaten lunch there, but there was so much good food still back at the room...

we finished up the piqillo and poblano rice as an appetizer








  then set up a salad buffet with roast chicken breast, cheeses, various vegetables, and a balsamic vinaigrette. 

Just a little wine ... perfect preparation for our late afternoon departure







At 3 we clambered into an open-back red truck (another common "taxi" style here) with another pair of sisters, and set out for the sunset cruise.  We were told we'd be picking up two more people downtown, but it turned out to be a trio of Romanian husbands whose wives had opted to stay at home.  These fellows had obviously been best buddies for many decades, and the fact that we had to squeeze three into the space of two was no problem.

 Traffic was still diverted off the Malacon and through the old city, which made for very slow going.  After a good while we found ourselves passing the cruise ship docking area, so we knew we must be getting close.  We pulled up to a wharf where several outboard-motor-powered skiffs were tied up, and I must say we eyed them warily.  Indeed, we were to load onto one ... but happily, only to ferry out to to our larger boat, which had too deep a draft to moor at this pier.  It was a bit of an adventure to transfer from bitty boat to larger boat, and we were happy to don our life jackets once on board.


One of the lures of this cruise was an open bar, and we'd stopped for ice (and were assured that the ice was from purified water and we needn't be worried about it).  As we dieseled out into the main harbor, the first round of drink orders was placed.  Not in a mood for margaritas, we all ordered beer ... which came in a styrofoam coffee cup with ice in it.  Shades of drinking 3.2 beer in college!  Yikes.

 

.Making for the mouth of the harbor, we saw two whales breaching and blowing in the open water.  This was unexpected (the whales are expected south of here, off Puerto Vallarta) so our loyal captain gave full throttle and chased out toward them.  We did find them and though they declined to breach for us, they did blow and display their dorsal fins several times.  It's hard to describe the size of these creatures, and we were very privileged to make their acquaintance.









After that diversion, we were in full chop and no one wanted any more beer -- diluted or not.  We investigated the several small islands off the Mazatlan beaches ...

... and craned to see the Carnaval crowd.










Proceeding north, we idled on the shore side of a pair of islands and watched the sun set between them ... a beautiful evening.  As we were in the lee of the islands, the boat was steady for this time, which we all appreciated greatly.

 

 Having accomplished the sunset, we were heading back to port.  All along the Malacon we could see the MARS lights of the police cruisers (we've seen at least FOUR different types of police to date:  local, state, transportation, and military) moving up and down the roadway, with a big concentration at the south end.  We felt that would be at the point where we'd seen access walled off, allowing would-be revelers to be patted down for guns, knives or other contraband.

Once back in the harbor, we again transferred to the small skiff and back to the dock ... back to the little red truck ... back to drop off the unconstrained Romanian trio.  We rather expected to be overrun with Carnaval celebrants, but pedestrian traffic was light and noise minimal.  The large figures look quite different lit up in the evening.



 
The driver played an eclectic mix of sing-alongs including "Me and Mrs. Jones," "Wooly Booly," "Old Time Rock & Roll," "Rock Around The Clock," and "La Bamba."  Everyone chimed in!




We arrived back at the hotel and loaded up Claudette's modest baggage and the larger allotment of grocery, beer and wine left-overs for Martha to take back to Tepic.  In the end we called a bellboy, as it just was too much to carry downstairs.  Claudette will be staying up in Tepic another couple of weeks, while Linda and I are heading back to ... well, a different climate tomorrow.  We hope we have learned enough about towel origami to recreate some when you come to visit!