Feb 6 Day 16
We started off our bus tour of Mazatlan with a breakfast buffet at the gorgeous Royal Villa Hotel. The entire caravan sat at one long table with a beautiful view of the Sea of Cortez. The food was really good with many different kinds of Mexican dishes. We are sure enjoying the meals we have been served while on this caravan. After our breakfast and a walk around the pool and beach area we boarded the bus for the City Tour. Chilly Willy was our tour guide. He is so knowledgeable about the Mazatlan area and gives us very interesting facts. The summer time temperatures are between 100 and 125 degrees most days with a humidity of 99%. Wow, I don’t want to be here then. The local people put lime and salt in their drinks to keep from getting dehydrated. Sort of like Gatorade in the States I guess. Mazatlan has a large shrimp industry here and boast of catching the largest shrimp in the world, 5 ½ to 8 ½ inches which today cost $25 for 2.2 pounds. The bus made a stop so that we could see the cliff divers. These divers range in age from 17 to 68. They dive from 45 feet high into the Sea of Cortez that is only 8 feet deep. We only got to see one dive. Everywhere we go there are people trying to sell the Mexican products. Some are the very same we saw back at the campground. Guess those vendors must have big families as they told us their families had made them. As we travel to our next location Chilly Willy shares some facts of the area with us: Sinaloa, the state Mazatlan is in, is the largest supplier of tomatoes to the US and Canada. Mazatlan has a Mardi Gras with dancing, music and parades. It coincides with the Mardi Gras in the states. Mazatlan has 4 to 7 cruise ships a day dock here. Today it is Holland America. Mazatlan has a college which raises and researches sea horses. We drove through the streets of downtown Mazatlan seeing the refurbished buildings in this area. and stopped at Casa Antiqua which is a mission and home for AIDS victims. These people make items which are sold in this store. The profits are for their housing and other needs they might have. From this point we began a walking tour through this area. As we walked the guide gave us very interesting information about the rebuilding of the area. We stopped at a small bakery with many of the popular pastries of Mexico. They were selling these pastries 6 for $1.00 and most of us bought something. Now we are on a walking tour of some of the area learning some of the history of the area. We were given an hour on our own to do some shopping at the Mercado, the City Market, and to visit the Catholic Cathedral. We walked through the city market and found it to be very much like a flea market only with all new merchandise. Some of the people working there were very persistent if we stopped to look. They wanted a sale so badly and would finally come down in price. All around the outside of the City Market are little stores and restaurants..We would like to shop here longer so may come back when we have a free day. Time is short and we must get on to the Cathedral. On the way we see an ice cream stand and we each bought a cone. The ice cream here in Mexico is not real good, with very little cream in it. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is located in the heart of Old Mazatlan and has high, yellow twin towers, a dramatic interior and some beautiful statues. It was built from 1875 to 1890, It was good to get back