Mazatlán

I went to Mazatlàn because after freezing my ass off in Creel I needed some beach time. Mazatlàn sees a lot of international tourism, much of it brought by cruise ship, so I decided to stay a couple of kilometers away from all of that nonsense, in the old section of town.

First stop, of course, was the cathedral.

It was pretty unassuming from the outside..


..but absolutely gorgeous on the inside.


There was remarkably detailed stone sculpture adorning practically everything. Around the windows and doors, along the top of the walls..

..all around the shrines. It was everywhere. Let's take a closer look..


This is about chest high, so the width of the sculpted moulding is probably at least 16". Overall, there had to have been thousands of linear feet of this stuff.

Take a close look around those windows. Sculpted moulding everywhere.


Of course, not all of the buildings are so carefully maintained.

I was staying in this little afterthought of a room on the roof of a motel in working class Mazatlàn. It was wonderfully private and allowed me to set up my hammock and I could see the lighthouse from "my" roof. That's it just peaking over the tree in the center.


So obviously I had to go check it out.


Getting closer..


Aw, to hell with it. I'll spare you the details of the grueling, sweaty climb up to the top and skip to the good stuff.


Oldtown Mazatlàn is just inland of the hill on the left. In theory, you can see my hotel. In practice, that's just plain silly. In the foreground you can see the staircase leading down to a vantage point atop a rock outcropping. It was from there that I took the first shot of the lighthouse (excepting the motel roof shot).


The whole sweep of Mazatlàn's beach, all the way to the monstrous resort-hotels, just visible where the land turns and fades into nothingness.


To the other side, the harbor.


Note the mountains in the background. No, not those mountains, the line behind those. Yeah, the line that is barely distinguishable from the clouds. That's "La Espina del Diablo".

After all of that work climbing up to the lighthouse, I decided I deserved to take in the sunset while enjoying an adult beverage.

Look at how you can actually see the rays from the sun against the blue-black sky, like a child's depiction of a sunset.


..then I found a cool looking building.

While in Mazatlàn I enjoyed (but did not photograph; that would be tacky) an incredible shrimp ceviche. Fresh, raw shrimp marinaded in lime juice, salsa picante, onions, etc. and then spooned onto flat crunchy taco shells and washed down with ice cold beer. While I ate, I watched a soccer (ay, pèrdon, fùtbol) match and left stuft to the gills and pleasantly drunk.

¡Fue maravilloso! And it cost about $10.