Historic Center Nudism and Sexual Entertainment Hotspot in Mazatlan coming!

Ha: I got you: this sort of title seems to be catching and increase viewer traffic.

The original title was: "The new house site for J&R". But the statistics analytsis showed me that titles that include words like "nudity etc" are much more effective in attracting readers - and a blog author of course likes reader numbers to go up...

So, no nudism or sex in this blog, sorry!

I took a little hike to the new place Joan and Randy now own in the Historic Center of Mazatlan, having completed the legal and financial steps just this week. Lets look at it before a new building arises from the ashes:

Here I am walking up the road - about 1 block to go - and on account of J&R moving there, the city decided to replace the sewer pipes:

 Past the construction, we are almost there:

 Here we are: the green arrows indicate the lot/old building:

 This is it: a delapidated and abandoned building, where by the lot extends to the back quite a distance. Note that there is never any space between the houses: no trouble with upkeep of in between spaces then:

Across the site is a shrine, well maintained (one less chance for neighbors to live there and make noises):

 There used to be a an hermit lady living there - see the inscription below:

Next to the capella/shrine is another abandoned building, which seems to have been destroyed by a fire: If you buy it, make sure first that the Agency in charge of historic buildings does not have an original record of this house, because in that case the new owner had to rebuild the original - potentially costly (but also looking very nice in the end...):

From the site of the capella you have a nice view towards the Malecon and the ocean side: This would also be the view from the back of the J&R building: 

Here a view from the capella site (not the house) towards downtown/Historic Center): 

 And a view also of the house and its adjoining buildings - all looking quite clean:

The door being locked, I could not take a shot of the backyard (all open, no construction), but I could take a peak through the fencing of the one and only room - which of course will either disappear or renovated during the pending construction.

 Less than 10 min walking downhill takes you to the Malecon and beach:

Now, let's see what kind of new building the designers will come up with during the following few months! Good luck....

Hector - the local artist!

Many park residents have solicited the services of a local artist by the name of Hector. His style is simple, a bit Grandma Moses, and colorful with lots of local flavor.

You tell him where you want the painting - on a door, a bottle, a TV dish or your wall. He paints true to local reality - showing how the world is still in order in this here country of Mexico, where the woman walks and the man rides!

Sun-cured and colored

If I wanted to enter the US I might have trouble, being mistaken for a person of color. After 2 months of biking in the Mexican sun, this is how things look:

I know that this shot of my legs does not do justice to them - being unfavorably distorted by the camera angle - but they sure are colored!

Breakfast Ranchero style

J&R have become addicts for some of the Mexican style foods, including breakfast: put all into little corn meal patties - egg&cheese, refried beans, avocado, salsa - and then try to fit it into your mouth without dropping it or slobbering:

I like it, too - but usually do without the patty and use my fork - to avoid getting it dripping over my fingers and slobbering. R usually eats 3-4 of these, J takes 2, and I, having superior self control, limit myself to 1..

Juarez Street Market

On Sundays, the Juarez Street Market in the SE of the city is in full swing - that is where you can find almost everything new and, mostly, old.

It covers 2-3 blocks in a local neighborhood. One of the bus lines from the Trailer Park takes you directly there.


I bought myself a nice pair of sunglasses for $1:30; an item not to be found in Canada, namely, a "Tauchsieder", and immersion heater for 2:20; some fresh strawberries (they are smaller than in most markets but directly from the field and full of flavor)...

I could have bought some colored chicks for Easter as well - see the video below. There are some entertainers, like the guitarrist singer right in the middle of the crowd (also in the video) and another one who hops the bus and tells some stories to the assembled passengers and then hopes for some panhandling pesos.

Here some shots...

 Fresh shrimp in different sizes (camerones, about 6-10 CAD/kg, depending on size):

Church at edge of market area:

Randy buying fruit:

Carefree Living? Where would that be?

Maybe it is here:

https://internationalliving.com/2017/01/carefree-laidback-lifestyle-mexican-beach-city/

Just go this link from Joan, so i am forwarding it....

(View from Ice Box Hill to the South - Lighthouse Hill and harbor entrance in back)

And how about this article: where  could you/should you retire these days?

Of course, this is also a matter of where you get your money - and it so happens that the US Dollar these days is worth more, in Mexico, then anywhere else...but I think that no matter where you get your money, the considerations in this following article will apply:

https://internationalliving.com/articles/mexico-worlds-number-one-retirement-destination-2017-part-one-mag-2017-1/ 

Nice Beach Day

Well, now in middle of January, the night time temperatures are a bit cooler - down to 14-18 or so, daytime between 23-28. As soon as the sun goes I have to put on long pants and a sweater or jacket because with a steady wind it does feel cold.

The seaside of course is the most breezy, but during most of the day it is very enjoyable. Like at this spot, just about a km or so Sotuh from our park, where the beach is hardly used and where a small palapa restaurant offers drinks ($1.25 a coke), and "marisco" (seafood) meals ($8.-).

The Park is at the foot of the cerrito (hill) in the background, with RIU hotel complex at the right.

Tick, tick

Would you believe I got attacked by a tick? At the back of my leg, where I could not see but feel it while showering. Must have picked it up when I biked a mountain biking trail through the bush and took a spill, landing on my belly.

Indeed, ticks live in Mexico, including those that transmit rickettsial infections like Rocky Mountain Spotted fever.

Randy performed the surgery to remove the tick from my leg, earning himself 1 credit towards his medical/surgical degree. The house remedy of heating up a tick's bum to remove it is discouraged by the CDC. Instead, remove it by gentle pulling, and of the head breaks off, dig out everything with fine tweezers. The watch: within days a targetoid lesion may develop and after 5-10 days you may start getting a fever and other symptoms - in which case, and only then, you start therapy with doxycycline. If you don't you may end up dead. Nothing like this has shown in my case, so I may live.

Fish at last

On our third fishing trip - bottom fishing - we finally were lucky and landed some 40 or so fish ranging in size from 1/2 pound to about 3. For that we went out on the ocean some 12 or so miles...anchored and baited our lines with shrimp:

Here the hired hands clean the fish (red snappers, striped snappers, sea bass...):

Stone Island

Isla de las Piedras - is the island lining the harbor channel, reachable via a short ferry ride. There is a long and wide beach with safe waters and a dozen or more palapa restaurants where locals and tourists hang out. You can rent canoes and other stuff - and local tour guides drive you around on flat bed trailers pulled by large tractors.

Coming from one of the ferry docks:

Looking back towards the lighthouse hill: I am sure high tides will cause some flooding of these palapa places, not to speak of a hurricane - when they probably disappear into the sea!

Scaling a mountain - Al Faro Lighthouse

The entrance to Mexico's largest harbour is marked by a hill - and on top is the world's highest lighthouse: not in terms of the structure but the elevation, some 157 m above sea level.

My hurting knees have prevented me from doing much hiking and walking, but I finally decided to scale this lighthouse hill and see how it goes - and it went pretty well, without aggravating my knee conditions.

From the top there are some nice views, although that January day was a bit hazy.

Top of Al Faro lighthouse hill: You can by some drinks there...and rest.

View towards Ice Box Hill:

View of harbor and cruise ship dock

The harbor entrance. The little rocky hill across is part of Stone Island, a recreation area for locals and toiurists, reachable on ferry boats for about a dollar. See next post.

 Again the entrance:

A shrimping boat: Maz is the shrimping capital in Mexico, both for wild shrimp (this boat) and aqua-cultured - where they encountered an infection some time ago - no idea how that had developed. Fresh shrimp costs between 10 to 20 CAD/kg.

View up the harbor. Way in the back are large fish/sea food processing plants - you will smell it when driving on the highway to the airport:

And here we have a long distance shot of China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam from the light house hill:

See you up top!

Tipping in Mexico

How much tip to leave in a restaurant? Always a difficult question when traveling internationally.

I don't know about Mexico, but back in St. Vincent in the Caribbean there was a problem that when you left a tip by adding it to your credit card billing, the owner of the restaurant would not pass it on to the servers or the kitchen. In fact, once a waiter alerted me to this and asked me (on a business lunch) not to add a tip - because they would never see it. So, I had made it a policy to always ask the owner, in the presence of a waiter or waitress, whether I could add a tie and whether the personnel would receive it. Of course, everyone assured me they would!

Now, my suggestion is that, wherever you are, do not hesitate to ask! And ask in the presence of both an owner and the personnel!

And don't be afraid to tip "too much": the waitress may receive only some 4 or so dollars a day as a wage, so you definitely will not hurt her when you leave a good tip! And I make it a general policy NOT to add a tip to a credit card voucher but to give it to the waiter/waitress DIRECTLY!

Bus transport

Why don't we have more bus transport in Canada - the only thing we have is Greyhound at incredibly high prices and with essentially no comfort.. Nothing like in Mexico: here are long distance buses all the way to Phoenix or Tuscon, very comfortable (lying down!!) and affordable.

Rick and I once went to Colima from Mexico City - a very pleasant and comfortable ride overnight. If the Mexicans can provide these type of services at reasonable cost, why can not we in Canada??

Anyway, over Christmas/New Year Mazatlan was inundated with huge touring buses coming from interior locations such as Durango in the mountains where at this time of year it gets to be rather cold: Thousands of locals came to enjoy a few days of beach-side fun and shopping.

And as far as city transportation is concerned, we are doing very well here because of numerous buslines and frequent services. here at Punta Cerritos, some 15 or so km from center of Mazatlan, we have 2 or 3 lines terminating which are running every 5 min or so, one even air conditioned, transporting you at the cost of some 60 or 70 cents per ride, independent of distaqnce. No transfers, though. So, even without having your own vehicle, I can zip to toan quickly any time - until maybe 8 pm in the evening.

Tour buses viisting Mazatlan

Bus stop right outside the gate of our park