Mexican Riveria

Our cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallerta aboard the Dawn Princess was nice.  We hadn't been on the Dawn in 10 years, (when we were aboard for her first trip through the Panama Canal) and were happy to find that the ship has lost none of its lovely granduer. 

We boarded at about 1:00, found our cabin, and moved in.  Then we spent the afternoon taking pictures for Evan of the forklifts loading baggage and supplies into the boat.  The Dawn set sail for Cabo at about 4:00.  We hung out on deck, located the shuffleboard courts, watched the pilot jump off back onto his little boat, and we treated to a beautiful sunset. 

We signed up for the traditional dining, late seating.  Happily, we had a good table and, over the course of the week, became friends with our tablemates and would meet for bingo, dance until way too late at night, have pre-dinner cocktails, and traded tips on what to do in port.

The cruise had three days at sea - one on the way to Cabo and two on the way home from Puerto Vallerta.  We whiled the time away with shuffleboard, sitting on deck looking for whales (spotted! the first morning at breakfast and on our way home right from our cabin window!), bingo (I never had to chicken dance!), eating (way, way too much eating), watching the silly art auction, I did ceramics, and a fair amount of aimless wandering and sitting, watching the waves go by.

CABO:  Cabo San Lucas was our first port.  The Dawn anchored in the bay and passengers were tendered in using the lifeboats.  We're not really group tour people so we set out on our own.  The first challenge was working our way through the gauntlet of people who were selling things.  Men with silver necklaces draped off their arms, "Mi amigo!  Good price!  Good price!"  Women with big iguanas with miniture somberos strapped to their heads who came up to Brian (good thing it wasn't me!), tried to put the iguana on his shoulder and get paid to have his picture taken, t-shirt sellers, rugs, staw hats with "Cabo San Lucas" ribbons on them, ceramics, dolls, jewelry . . . the variety was amazing.  Throw in the people who were offering snorkeling, city tours, glass bottom boats, water taxis to other beachs, sailing, diving, drinking, food . . . it all became a little overwhelming. 

Whew . . . we made it through.

It was hot in Cabo.  And once we were away from the ocean, the lack of a breeze made it hotter.  We wandered a bit.  Up ahead, we saw what looked like a mall, a new mall, and therefore, we surmised . . . air conditioning!!  (And maybe even a clean bathroom!) 

The mall was new and clean and had really nice stores and yep, it was air conditioned and there were clean bathrooms.  I wound up shopping.  The Liz Minelli store had beautiful things in the window and I couldn't resist going in.  A gorgeous red cocktail dress caught my eye.  I just had to try it on.  I was forced to come out of the dressing room since it didn't have a mirror.  I sheepishly peeked out.  The sales girl was waiting (as was Brian) and finished zipping up and arranging the dress.  As I was admiring it in the mirror, the other girl appeared behind me with a sparkly red shall that completed the dress perfectly.  Next, shoes appeared on my feet.  Wow!  I wish shopping at home was like that!  I walked out with the entire outfit.

Back out in the heat, we continued our aimless wandering.  Time to eat.  By this point, we were far from tourist world.  On the road leading to the school (Ninos de hereos?  Hereos de ninos?  I can't remember.)  We found a restaurant that met our requirements - no other tourists and looks clean. 

Oh my God, what food!!  Brian had a shrimp stuffed chile relleno - no battering and deep frying like they do here at home.  It was a huge chile, bursting with fresh shrimp, grilled quickly and served with the chile still crunchy.  I had chicken fajitas which were served with fresh, homemade tortillas.  And the guacomole - I could have eaten bowls and bowls of that. 

After stuffing ourselves, we meandered back into the street and walked a bit 'til we found an internet cafe to send an e-mail to Evan and Ella.  Then, we kind of decided we were done with Cabo.  On the way back to the ship we stopped at a supermarket.  I picked up some coffee.  Supermarkets are a great place to find cheap, unique souveniers. 

MAZATLAN: My "Mexico" Lonely Planet guidebook informed me that Mazatlan is home to the second highest, working, lighthouse and that one could hike to said lighthouse.  Sounded like a good plan to me! 

On board, the cruise director staff had informed us that, for those of us who were going to explore Mazatlan on our own, when we got off the ship, there would be a sign listing all the places the taxis go and the appropriate price they should charge.

We got off the boat.  Problem #1: The lighthouse, "El Faro" wasn't listed on the taxi price board.  Problem #2: I wasn't about to wait in the line, which had to be at least 30 minutes, to hire a taxi.  We walked through the 15 foot tall steel gates that enclosed the port area.  The street was teeming with taxis!  I approached one, "To the lighthouse?"  "Yes, 5 pesos."  "5 pesos each or 5 todo (for both of us - my apologies for my misspellings; my written Spanish is worse than my spoken Spanish!)?"  "5 each."  "No, too much," I said and began to walk away.  "O.k., o.k., 5 pesos todo."  We climbed in.

A few minutes later we were at the base of the mountain the lighthouse sits atop of.  It was right by the sewage treatment plant.  We started up.  It was hot.  Now, why "second highest lighthouse in the world" didn't translate in my mind to "super long hike with multiple switchbacks that end into at least 500 stairs", I never will know.  Brian asked me that at least once or twice.  I still don't know.  Let me repeat . . . it was hot.  Not a breath of breeze in the air.  I felt better seeing "Se vende agua y refrescos" written in magic marker on the stairs every now and then.  It meant I could drink all the water we had brought with us.  There was quite a view from the top.  The lighthouse keeper lives there and I happily gave him a dollar for a cold bottle of water out of the little refrigerator in his living room.  We saw two iguanas (these didn't have stupid mini-sombreros strapped to their heads).  I took pictures of cactus on the way down.  Mostly, I spent the hike back down wondering how on earth the lighthouse keeper had lugged his total body gym machine up there. 

We grabbed the one taxi waiting for silly gringos who had hiked to the lighthouse.  The Lonely Planet guidebook had also informed me of the large central market so off we went.  5 more pesos.  Downtown Mazatlan reminded me of being in the garmet district in downtown Los Angeles - hot, crowded, sticky, dirty, air clogged with exhaust fumes.  The market is a collection of individual booths selling everything you could possibly want and lots of stuff you don't.  "What are you looking for?  Good price, mi amigo!  Maybe a dress for your wife?  Come in, come in.  I help you.  Good price!" 

The hike to the lighthouse had left us starving.  We settled on tacos at a little lunch counter.  Again, no other tourists.  And, while it certainly wasn't as clean as the restaurant in Cabo, we figured we could always ask for the meat to be grilled longer and we'd skip the salsa.  Again, amazing!  Good carne asada.  Fresh, handmade tortillas.  Three tacos set us back $2.  We finished off lunch with tamales from a different stand.  Wish Mario's at home made tamales that good!

The cathedral was a few blocks away so we walked it.  The cool, quiet, interior was refreshing.  Again, we hunted down an internet cafe to say "hola!" to Evan and Ella.  After a bit of souvenier shopping back at the central marketplace, we headed back to the ship. 

PUERTO VALLERTA:  Getting off the ship here is easier - no hoards of taxis or mobs of people trying to sell you something, anything.  Our plan was to make our way to a little place just south of Puerto Vallerta called Mismaloya and try to go snorkeling.  After some debate, we hired a taxi for the 30 minute trip.  Our taxi driver dropped us at the door to his friend's dive shop (which was really little more than a shack). 

I had really hoped to see giant manta rays that are supposed to be in the bay at that time of year.  I was disappointed (but admittedly, also a little relieved) to find out that the mantas were in the north end of the bay and fairly far out into the open ocean.  Having been "snorkeling" in the open ocean, its not something I wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

A quick boat ride had us (and every other snorkel boat in Puerto Vallerta) at Los Arcos National Park.  It should be noted that I'm a very nervous snorkle-dorkeler.  So, I hesitated when our guy stopped the boat and said, "o.k., jump off!"  I looked at Brian, "What does he mean, 'jump off'?!  Just jump off into the water??"  Now, mind you, snorkeling had been my idea.  Brian just rolled his eyes at me.  He's heard this before.  Finally, I jumped off.  The water felt so good after two days of hot, gritty cities.  Our guy tossed pieces of bread into the water near us and beautiful blue and bright yellow fish came up from the depths.  After a little bit, our guy's radio cackled with a message from the shop that there were four more people who wanted to go snorkeling.  "O.k.?" he asked us.  "I be right back."  Ummm . . . o.k.  "Want a noodle to help float?" Well, that's more than I got in Zanzibar, I figured, and here, the shore or other snorkel boats were an easy swim away.  He threw us a noodle and motored off with our backpack, which contained our passports, money, etc.  We waved.

He came back!  And, all our stuff came back with him.  After a bit more snorkeling, it was time to head back to the beach.  The new snorkelers were left with noodles. 

Lunch was on the beach.  It was good, if you could ignore the salespeople who made constant rounds on the beach.  Rugs, t-shirts, hats, wood carvings, jewelry.  We gave into the little turtles carved out of pink onyx.  We couldn't decide what to do next so we ordered another Pacifico.  Hmmm . . . that didn't really help to motivate us.  I went off to track down "The Pie Lady".  Turns out The Pie Lady sells cake - chocolate, orange, lemon chiffon, cheesecake, coconut (well, that one was pie).  I settled on orange, being a little worried about the chocolate and cheesecake having been carried out in the sun for the afternoon.  Orange was yummy!  The stray, tan-colored, dog with floppy ears who magically appeared at my side, agreed.  "Stop petting it!" Brian repeated.  Another Pacifico!  Looks like the day was going to be spent right there on the beach in Mismaloya. 

We asked our waiter where to catch a taxi back to the ship.  Sizing us up, our waiter suggested that we could take the public bus.  We rousted oursevles out of our lounge chairs and headed up the road.  We waited, looking for the blue bus.  I took pictures of Brian, which annoyed him.  Bus came!  The buses are private and this one was decked out with red velvet curtains across the front window with white fringe.  Nice!  We rattled into town.  Eventually, after a ride on the green bus, we arrived back at the ship. 

Our two days at sea on the way home were pretty much like the first.  I could have spent another week.