Ma-ma-ma-mazatlan

Me under a big leaf in Mazatlan. It's a leaf typical of the area yousee; there are lots of leaves here.
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Ooooh, Mazatlan is humid!  The heat hit us as soon as we got off the aircon bus, and it continued to batter us as we walked with our backpacks to find a hotel.  At east there's a bit of a sea breeze here.  The bus to Mazatlan was actually pretty good... some amazing scenery and films in English, although the films were weird.  Especially The Gods Must Be Mad I and II...very odd!

Anyway, much more greenery near the Pacific Ocean, and we had a nice walk along the beach to find Hotel Mexico which was the cheapest option according to Lonely Planet.  This is where "Puedo Verle" (can we look at it) comes in handy.  We might have been tempted by the $150 price mark per night for a double room with en-suite, but when we saw the room we both thought "No way".  There was nothing awful about it, it was a basic room with bathroom attached, but there was no window, and the room was so dusty I'm surprised I didn't collapse into a sneezing heap!  Turned on the fan and the dust fell from the ceiling!  So we said a polite no and wandered around to the next option which was Santa Barbara Hotel, just one block down from another Lonely Planet recommended place.  The SB hotel was clean, the woman at the desk was friendly and the room only cost $200 pesos per night.  So we were chuffed!  And the shower worked properly!  YAS!  The fan was a bit noisy though, and the room had termites which we've been picking out of our hair for the past few days hahaha!

The room had termites which we've been picking out of our hair for the past few days

Some interesting wall art.
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May 31st

Today was pretty good...had a wander around Old Mazatlan; just followed the Cathedral spires and after a five minute walk we were there.  Checked out the Centro Mercado; lots of bargains to be had but *shock horror* I didn't purchase a single thing!  Not even rosary beads(?!).  This place is good for cheap grub - got some giant agua refrescos, and some tostadas/gorditas.  Lots of tasty fish here as we're so close to the sea.  Once we'd wandered around for a bit we decided to head to El Faro which is "the 2nd highest lighthouse in the world" oooooooh.  I love lighthouses I do.  Unfortunately we chose the wrong time of day to head up to El Faro...2pm which is probably the hottest part of the day, and we were walking up 1500 metres.  Oops.  I'm not too keen on steep hills either, and there were a few dodgy areas with steep drops at the side of the path (which had no banister).  But we made it, and saw some Mexican flora y fauna...a cute cat who clearly lived on the big rocky outcrop wot is El faro, some lizards (Lobo, you could easily beat them), some eagles and a couple of Iguanas.  I got a bit snap happy with these bad boys so family and friends, prepare yourselves for several pictures of the same lizard at a different angle!  Eventually made it to the top of the hill, and the view was STUNNING!  You could see mountains, sea, islands and the entire city of Mazatlan.  Well worth it.  And I saw a giant moth.  That was pretty cool.  The lighthouse was quite cute...fairly wee and painted white and blue.  I think it's still maintained by people rather than automated (most lighthouses are automated these days) as there was a wee man with a dog, and a room with a bed.

La cucaracha...not doing much cucaracha-ing because it's DEAD!
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Wandered back down along the coast and had a wee bite to eat in one of the beachfront restaurants...tasty.  Couldn't walk along the beach as it was "Jellyfish Holiday"...hundreds of teeny wee blue jellyfish had been washed up on the beach.

1st June

Nothing much to report today as I had a splitting sore head (possibly due to our midday adventure).  We did drink beer though.