October 14th: Mazatlan

Harbor Entrance of Mazatlan, Mexico

Our next port was Mazatlan, Mexico. We passed a mountain at the entrance to a large bay and well protected harbor. As we approached the cruise ship terminal we could see there were many resorts along the magnificent beaches that were built among many very old city buildings.


The four of us had arranged a narrated, historical and informational city tour. It included lunch at a local restaurant. The "bus" turned out to be a 9 passenger van. Linda, Cindy and I ended up crammed into the back seat. There just was not enough leg room and it was difficult to see out the window from the middle seat! Fortunately, we got out of the van quite a few times to see the sights.




 We first rode up a big hill/small mountain to get a good view of the ocean and the city. It was a beautiful day and the sights were worth the drive up. The  in the picture mountain on the left is the same one that is in the picture above. It looked smaller from up here but still impressive.


We rounded a curve at the top and were able to get a great view of the harbor, the city and our cruise ship. As you can see, the cruise ship towered over the city buildings.

The tour then headed down into the city.

Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

A highlight of the tour was the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.  Mazatlán Cathedral is the main religious building in the city of Mazatlan. It was designed in the  Baroque-Revival style of Sinaloa, Mexico, and home of the Catholic Diocese of Mazatlan. It is located in the historical center of the city.

The works of the temple-like cathedral began in the year of 1856, by order of the then bishop Pedro Loza and Pardavé. Later, the parish priest Miguel Lacarra took over the work and it was completed in the year of 1899. 

An interesting sight along the top of the cathedral is a row of stained glass windows that include the Jewish Star of David. Our guide explained that a group of very wealthy Jewish people came to Mazatlan in part to escape prejudice against Jews. They found they were accepted and welcomed into the society. In appreciation, they donated a large part of the money to complete the cathedral. They were adamant that they did not want recognition for the donation. The parish priest decided to include the Star of David stain glass windows as a tribute to the Jewish contributors. Our guide told us it is the only known cathedral with Star of David stained glass windows.

We got back in the van and toured a little of the city. The driver stopped at one of the many tourist shops. It was a very nice art gallery and jewelry store. The sculptures were quite varied and very nice. I liked these blown glass sculptures in particular. I told Randy and Cindy I thought they needed the giant scarab beetle sculpture on the middle shelf, but they passed it up.

Another fun area included quite a few sculptures of the characters from the movie Coco. The animated movie plot explains The Day of the Dead. A great movie with good music.

The gallery was even passing out free Margaritas and/or beer.

 
 As we drove through the city we passed the local shrimp open air market. The local women, and it is all women, sell their fresh shrimp caught locally. Our guide said they control the price of shrimp on the entire island and have been doing so for many years. The pictures show only some of the shrimp stands. They apparently sell a tremendous amount of shrimp.

Our guide then took us on a tour of a very large, gated, golf course community. It was obviously a very expensive place to live. Our guide said they get a lot of wealthy american snow birds coming here. It was like a different world, completely cut off from the city. I think he must get a commission on sales. The tour was way too long, especially in our somewhat uncomfortable van. Plus, we were all getting hungry.


 As we were driving to the lunch place, Linda spotted a McDonald's and her hopes soared! Sadly, we drove right past it.















Instead we went to a nice open air, sidewalk restaurant. It was a fun place that was not too fancy. Just good food and nice people.


 The decor of the restaurant was very colorful and of course a nautical theme.



 After lunch we got back on the bus and drove along the road by the beach that went back to the cruise ship. We stopped at one of the beaches and got a picture of the Mazatlan sign in the heart of the resort area. All in all it was a good day ashore!