Touring Mazatlan, Mexico

This is city where cruise ships dock (typically on Wednesday and Thursday) and they know their audience.

A trip into Old Mazatlan on a Monday was incredibly quiet. The Mercado was fascinating and lively, but it was almost too hot to be inside. I did capture a bit of video that gives you a feel for what you can find:



As we walked down toward the waterfront, it was clear that Monday definitely was a slow business day and many things were closed up. We didn’t make it back to Old Mazatlan on either of the days when cruise ships were docked, but I suspect it was a very different atmosphere on those days. On a Monday in “low-season”, it was pretty sleepy and empty. There were a few restaurants open along the waterfront, along with a very over-priced silver store.

From there, we visited the Cathedral – a beautiful and very welcoming structure. Take notice of the lamp posts outside. Inside, the alcove to the right is dedicated to Maria (Mary) and the alcove to the left is dedicated to Jose (Joseph).



Afterwards, we wandered into Zona Dorado (Gold Zone) is also often called "Tourist Zone" on some maps. We visited the Zona twice - once on a day when there was no cruise ship, and once when there was a ship in port. VERY different atmospheres. The day without the cruise ship was nice, most things were open and bargaining went well with the vendors.



When the cruise ship came in, there were more vendors out and about, but we also were pressed more to buy. The pace picked up in shops and restaurants, but things still weren't packed. A number of places had specials running for the cruise ships and the silly tourists walking around with name badges on diverted the timeshare sellers from us. Yeah!

Happy Travels! 

Mobile Boarding Pass: United

I have something nice to say about United Airlines. I know, I know, a certain very hot location may have just frozen over.

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I gave the mobile boarding pass a try. I have a Blackberry Storm with a cracked screen - probably NOT the ideal candidate for such a thing. However, it all went well. At the SFO airport security line, I was mostly worried about losing my signal and not being able to pull up the barcode again. At the kiosk, I was asked to hold the phone to a scanner. First take - nothing happened. I tried again and I received a green light. Yeah!

At the gate I had a moment of panic when I lost cellular connectivity and couldn't re-open the saved web page. There may be a way to save the barcode page as a file on the phone - if not, maybe I should read the FAQ on United and learn what happens if I can't! Again at the gate the first scan didn't work so I zoomed in on the barcode and tried again - GREEN LIGHT! YEAH!

Overall, it was fairly easy to use. I'm trying it again on the way home.

Blue Agave Distillery Tour: La Noria, MX

Technically, you can't call it Tequila because it is not in one of the three states licensed to officially sell Tequila. However, blue agave is blue agave. Distill it and you get something that looks, smells and tastes like Tequila.

The Los Osuna Blue Agave Distillery just outside of Mazatlan is a very happy place. Getting to the property is easy - follow the signs off highway 15 to La Noria. Just before you enter the town, you'll see the sign to the left. The road from here is dirt, but not too bad overall. You'll pass the canopy zip-line place and keep going to the Distillery.

We arrived before the big tour groups arrived and received a very detailed tour - I noticed the bigger groups didn't get to go through some of the tighter spots in the distillery (probably for safety reasons). The tour provides information on how tequila has been made historically, as well as showcasing the huge newer stainless steel distillers.

Free tequila shots at the end - all you can drink. Total cost? $2.50 a person. Not joking - best value we found in Mazatlan. We tipped our tour guide and the bartender generously. There are a few small shops by the bar and while I didn't buy a thing, everyone else in our party walked away with good prices on silver and titanium jewelry so the bargaining must have been good!

To get a feel for the place, check out the video:



-- TEQUILA!!

** Interesting fun fact: the tequila is 65% alcohol after distillation. They water it down to 35% in order to make it more palatable. I asked our guide if you could sell it at 65% and she laughed at me and said "no". I'm guessing it must just be awful ... either that or gringos can't handle it!

Eatin' and Drinkin' in Mazatlan, Mexico

You know what they say: when in Rome…. So if you hate chips and salsa and margaritas, um, well – Mazatlan may not be for you.

Plaza Machado in Old Mazatlan has a cluster of restaurants.  We needed some refreshment and food and settled on Pacifico taco bar, which didn’t really have much in the way of tacos. The food wasn’t bad and the beer was good. It was charming to see Coca-Cola still served in the returnable glass bottles. Ahh… the good old days! Also around the square was  Pedro y Lola’s. P&L’s comes up on most of the guides as a great place to stop, but the menu didn’t impress me: lots of “American” dishes like hamburgers and such. The people watching in the plaza can be fun: we saw three different groups of school kids go by and all sorts of locals and U.S. retirees.

 Coca-Cola in a bottle: so retro and awesome

North of the Old town is Zona Dorado (Gold Zone) - which is also often called "Tourist Zone" on some maps. In the Zona, we had the worst timeshare hard-press sell of our entire trip in Mazatlan. Unfortunatly, we were at a restaurant when it happened and we were trapped. We had a very good dinner at Gus y Gus: the garlic shrimp was to die for and the salsa was spicy with good flavor. The corn tortillas were a bit bland, but the margaritas made up for that. We were one of about three tables with customers, so it was a quiet night. We'd enjoyed ourselves and were waiting for the bill when the manager on duty (or whatever he was) came by to see how things were ... and then it happened. A good 15 minutes of timeshare blah blah blah blah blah blah. I was livid. We were paying customers in the restaurant, we couldn't leave because our bill had not arrived and the guy ignored all of our "not interested" statements. So while the food was good, that soured the whole group on ever going back.

Also in the Zona, we stopped in for some guacamole and drinks at Arre Lulu. Not bad, the guac was a bit bland but the margaritas were good! We journeyed to the The Sheik one night at the south end of the Zona, only to find it padlocked. It was a Friday night, so I'm not sure what was going on - they may have been shut for low-season. If anyone stops by there and they are open again - let me know! The Sheik came up a highly recommended, most romantic, etc. so we were really looking forward to trying it. With The Sheik closed, we wandered until we found Las Lupitas. It looked nice, menu looked good so we tried it. Big fail. The service was friendly but they forgot about 50% of what we ordered or got things wrong. The food was over-priced for what it was and boring at best, bad at worst.

Outside of the Zona, we visited Seafarer, on the El Cid Marina. This is a sister restaurant to Pedro y Lola and has a nice atmosphere, built on the water and over the water. The wine menu was "meh" but the steaks were decent. Mine came with a white sauce that was actually a little bland, but the steak didn't really need it. Heading further north, the Palapa bar at the condo resort, Paraiso Costa Bonita, had an AMAZING fish and chips: the fish was a whole filet, lightly breaded and pan-friend. Very, very tasty.

The best experience though, was in La Noria: the molcajete at El Sazon de la Abuela Tina. This was so good, I wrote a separate blog post about it (with video). It was, by far, the best meal I had in Mazatlan. 

Molcajete - the best!!

Overall, chips and salsa and margaritas were everywhere. Most of the salsa fresca was very mild, though occasionally we'd come across something with some kick, like the salsa we got at Gus y Gus. The margaritas varied: a couple of places seemed to use seltzer water or Sprint in the drink, most places used lime juice and only once or twice did we come across a place that used the nasty "sweet and sour" mix that is used in the U.S. The guacamole was usually just avocado and maybe some cilantro and a touch of lime. I like mine with jalapenos and tomatoes and onions, so we would often mix the salsa fresca with the guac and ended up with a winning combo.

Mazatlan bills itself as the "shrimp capital of the world" and it did live up to that - the shrimp was extremely good everywhere we went. Skip the burritos and enchiladas if you find them, go with the local seafood and dishes when you can and try to find the places outside the tourist zones!

-- Cheers!

Airport Report: Mazatlan (MZT)

Tiny little airport! It is so small, it is actually kinda cute. Overall, I have to say it was better than the Cabo San Lucas airport. When we landed, there was not a swarm of people trying to "help" us and then box us into a timeshare tour - in fact, we only had one guy chase after us for a couple of minutes. Also the air conditioning seemed to work much better in the Mazatlan airport. Yeah!

Arriving in Mazatlan:
Landing and getting through customs was pretty simple - we played the "push the button" game and won! Yeah! No customs inspection for us. Not familiar with this? As you go through customs you will be asked to push a button. If the light (which is suppose to be random) comes up green, you get to go - red, you get your luggage searched.

Once you clear customs, there is a bar just outside the arrival area near the ubiquitous Senor Frog's, along with an ATM and currency exchange counter. The car rental counters are also right here and the actual car lots are just up the way. On a good day or when the heat isn't too bad, you can probably walk over there in 10 minutes or less.

Leaving Mazatlan:
Coming back to the airport, plan some extra time. Traffic can be heavy getting through Highway 15 in Mazatlan but the route is clearly marked and very direct. Depending on the airline, you may be in for some long lines at check-in. Mexicana was showing their stellar service with humongous lines on the day we left. US Airways only had a few check-in counters but things went relatively smoothly. Alaska Air had the self-service kiosks and a few more counters and seemed to be going well.  All airlines will do the hand search of your checked luggage before you get to the ticket counter. This slows things down and if you had trouble getting your bag to zip close before you went to the airport...well, just be ready to sit on it again to get it to zip up.

Once you are checked in, there are a couple of places to grab food upstairs, but Medas was not impressive. Service was slow (not just for us, but those around us too) and the food and drinks were seriously sub-par. Do NOT buy water or soft drinks unless you plan on finishing them before you get on the plane - TSA will not allow you to bring these onto the plane even if you bought them after the security checkpoint. I cannot actually find this clearly documented, but the rule seems to be if you buy beverages or liquids past security in countries outside the US, you will not be able to board with them.

The security checkpoints do not require you to remove your shoes, but the prepartion area for the x-ray is small and the baskets are tiny compared to what you find in the US. There are no reminders to remove your 3-1-1 baggie of liquids and your laptop, but we took things out anyway and didn't get in trouble. ;-) Once through security, there are restrooms but I did not see any food, drink or newstands. There is free wi-fi advertised, but when I tried to connect it was pretty slow and it appeared that only the first 15 minutes were free.

If you have a "SSSS" on your boarding pass, you will get the extra - special - additional security search at the gate. Your whole party won't be searched and cannot stand with you while it is done. Your carry-ons will be searched, you'll get the wand and maybe a pat down, and might then be asked to sit down and remove your shoes.  How do I know this? What do you think? I won the random boarding pass printing of SSSS, looked suspicious, or both and was thoroughly searched.

Your plane may not have a jetway, so be prepared to lug your stuff up those lovely rickety stairs that are provided for you to get up to the door of the plane. On the day we flew out, Mexicana and US Airway had jetways, Continental did not.

Best advice: give yourself plenty of time so you aren't rushed and plan ahead. Be ready for the differences in security and things will go smoothly... um, assuming your plane takes off on time.

-- Safe Travels!

Molcajete: Best. Ever.

While at Los Osuna blue agave distillery, we asked for a recommendation for lunch. We were sent to "El Sazon de la Abuela Tina" - jut past the archway into La Noria. This truly felt like a locals' place - spoken English was limited but they did have menus printed in English. Problem: Molcajete was translated as "Molcajete". LOL! Some quick look-ups on the cell phone said it meant "mortar" as in mortar and pestle. Hmm. When I asked our server for details, she really didn't have the English (and I didn't have the Spanish) to figure it out. She finally said "it's very good". What the hell - I ordered the shrimp molcajete.

What came out was this:



Tomato sauce with maybe some cream, shrimp, whole jalapenos and some subtle spices I could not place. It was served with fresh blue corn tortillas and was so amazing! There were wood-burning ovens in the back where the molcajete was cooked, then it was placed on a wood platter and brought out. It bubbled and and boiled a good 20 minutes after it came out and the heat coming off it was stunning.

Without a doubt, this was THE BEST dish I had in Mazatlan.

Oh my gosh! I can't complain: US Airways

Please, please don't allow US Airways to merge with an airline as crappy as United or American. I flew USAir for the first time in ages and was HAPPY. That wasn't a sarcastic happy, that was happy HAPPY.

After Mexicana Airlines totally failed on our flights to Mazatlan, I booked tickeds with USAir out of Oakland International (OAK). Last minute tickets = same price as the early booking I had with Mexicana. OK, off to a good start USAir!

Checking in online: This was a bit slow, but I am willing to accept it might have been my Internet connection since I was having trouble with other sites. I switched to Safari (vs. Mozilla) and it was better but still not great. Their luggage fees pretty much suck ($23 for the first bag online or $25 at the airport) but that is comparable to most other airlines. They do hold back seats at the front of the plane so for a few extra bucks you can grab an aisle or window at check-in time.

At the airport: Oakland is so low-key compared to SFO, which is a good thing. We dropped off our luggage in no time and were able to get through security pretty fast. Of course, it was 5:00am, but you know...

The staff: In general, everyone was friendly! Shocking. I mean, how dare they like their jobs?? ;-)

On the plane: Leather(ette) seats which seemed to have a tad bit more legroom than most airlines. Food and drink are available for purchase with a credit / debit card. They had Stirrings brand drinks - yummy - which was a point in their favor. Our flights were all under two hours, so there was no entertainment but I was OK with this. I never plan on there being good (or working) entertainment on board. 

After landing: Smooth, no issues. No one was locked in the plane afterwards for hours (that we know of) and our luggage appeared in one piece with the obligatory TSA notice that it had been riffled through.

Thumbs up US Airways! My expectations may be pretty low these days, but you did well!