CRIME SOLVING CAT IN MAZATLAN

A watchful eye

Something that we did not anticipate was the lack of access to books. Good books. When we do find a book exchange at a marina it is usually chock full of poorly written romance and mystery novels. Luckily, Marina El Cid in Mazatlan also has a stack of magazines in English. But within a couple days I read all the women’s fitness magazines and Conor read every GQ issue in the stack (all a year old). These magazines are not even necessarily ones that we would choose to read in the States, but they are something. We’ll take anything! I got so desperate that I actually picked out a mystery cat novel. That’s right. I am reading a book about a cat who calls the police department with anonymous tips that solve crimes. Don’t judge. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The cat on the left is ready for action! I'll go to him first if I ever have to solve a local crime.

So if you have extra magazines or good books you are ready to let go please feel free to pass them along to us! We will be visiting Nor Cal and the East Coast in April and would loooove to take some new reading material back with us! It is impossible for us to get our own magazine subscription.

Dear Subscription Department, please send me a copy of your next issue. I am not sure where I will be anchored out next month but I would like you to find your way to my boat….

Ole!

No seatbelts required. The seats for this TAXI are in the bed of a red pickup truck.

Off to a bullfight! Although this is not bullfight season, Mazatlan always holds a bullfight during Carnaval. This is said to be the Super Bowl of bullfights. We were to see Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza from Spain face off against Gaston Santos from Mexico.

Hey, you can't park here!

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The stadium was full to the brim but not everyone in Mexico likes the idea of a bullfight

Not everyone agrees with bullfights. They can be hard to watch. In fact we arrived with a group of ten but only five of us stayed until the end.

Santa likes bullfights... and Pacifico!

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The women received red carnations to throw at our favorite picador.

.Pablo got my red carnation!

Candy... Peanuts...Cigars...

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The event was 3+ hours long and these guys never took a break!

It seems like every single event here has live music. Love it!

Picadores. Gaston Santos (Mexico) is in white. Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza (Spain) is in blue.

Each man has the opportunity to face off against two separate bulls. Pablo has the first and third bull and Gaston gets the second and last bull. The bulls were between 400- 500lbs!

As the bullfighter remains on a horse for this match, he is called a picador. Each picador must maintain a solid relationship with his horses (they each use 2-3 horses per fight) but also must be able to accurately anticipate the bull’s next move. The horses do not wear armor.

Excite the bull

The bulls are bred to fight and bred to be angry.

Tire the bull

Each picador rides on his horse and strategically plunges a series of barbed red and white sticks into the bull’s flanks. This is intended to weaken the neck and shoulder muscles. The whole time the bull is taunted to charge at the horse several times to tire the large animal.

Aye Aye Aye!

Before the final slaying, a group of bull wrestlers enter the ring. They stand in a single file line and the first man in line taunts the bull. Once the bull charges he grabs the horns and the men behind him all pile up on the bull. The last guy grabs the bulls tail. They need to do this 1-3 times per bull. The first guy in line wears a metal plate in his red sash to prevent injury. Still, the ambulance lights were on after the bullfight.

Here is the video I took of one of the bull wrestlers getting attacked by a bull!

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Celebratory drinks thrown from the crowd

Although the crowd enjoys the fight, they appreciate the brevity as well. Bulls should not be made to suffer for longer than necessary. Points are awarded for accuracy. Two ears is a good score. Two ears and a tail is the best score.

We were told that the meat is donated to local orphanages.

 

Carnaval Mazatlan 2012 Part III

FAT TUESDAY. The last day of Carnaval. The day that makes you WANT to give up drinking and/or any other vices for the next 6 weeks.

On our way to the Plaza Machado we decided to get some dinner and music in a busy but less crowded bar, GUS GUS before we headed in to the craziness. This restaurant bar is popular with the expat community. The band played Summer of ’69 and everyone on the dance floor sang with enough conviction that we knew they were all recalling their own memories of the summer of 69. Lots of drunk patrons, most notably a woman who repeatedly hiked her dress up over her hips (yes, she thankfully did have underwear on) so her husband/boyfriend/future one-night-stand (not sure which?!) could give her a piggy back from the bathroom to the dance floor. There was also a constant barrage of vendors trying to sell us goods. Gum, barrettes, or a song. I’m convinced that one boy was just pretending to sell songs so he had a reason to ask people if he could play Angry Birds on their cell phones. All the vendors looked to be 10 years old or younger. Very sad.

We made friends with a young couple sitting at the table next to us who turned out to be pretty interesting. Very fun and nice people except for the fact that every time either one of them went to the bathroom the other would tell us ”their side of the relationship” story. This was going to be a veeeery long vacation for the two of them.

Daytime photo of a pulmonia

Regardless, the four of us grabbed a pulmonia (a golf cart taxi)and headed towards the Plaza Machado. We found a bar with great music, dancing, and ridiculously overpriced drinks.

One of the 5 piece bands in the Plaza Machada

Next we headed out of the bar and to the plaza. The heart of the celebration. There were 2 large main bands and at least 10 five piece bands playing music in the streets around the plaza sometimes as close as a few feet away from each other. It felt like a Battle of the Bands and each band had couples dancing to their music. I think locals are just born with the innate ability to salsa and deal with VERY LOUD MUSIC ALL THE TIME!

We had a fabulous time, finally dragged ourselves back to the hotel, and slept the whole next day. Carnaval Mazatlan was fabulous and I’m so glad it’s over now!

Carnaval Mazatlan 2012 Part II

Fiesta de los Imperios

For our next event we went to the Aguamarina Hotel to watch the parade with cruiser friends.  The theme of this year’s Carnaval in Mazatlan is Fiesta de Los Imperios, or Celebration of the Empires. China, Russia, Rome, and France were represented. It was reported that the crowd was 400,000 strong and we were happy to have reserved seats for the parade. It was definitely a safe family event without too much drinking and nobody was rowdy. My sister’s Carnaval experience in Oruro, Bolivia sounded a little more lively! (here is the link to her travel blog).

In Mazatlan, helicopters with men carrying large machine guns on each side flew back and forth along the Malecon. A couple of years ago somebody decided that it would be a funny joke to yell GUN and let off some firecrackers. The crowd started screaming and running. Although there may have been some minor injuries, everyone was OK. They never caught the guy who played the practical joke on the crowd. “No one sees the hand that throws the rock in Mexico,” we’re told. If a crime is committed innocent and guilty alike flee the scene. Again, this year was very safe and there were lots of kids present.

Photos I took can be found HERE.

This is the best snapshot video I found of the parade online.

This night it only took us 1 hour to get home including the time we spent IN the parade to skip past the crowds.

Carnaval Mazatlan 2012 Part I

Carnaval. A week where waking up smelling of tequila, gun powder and covered in confetti is totally normal.

On the first Saturday of Carnaval we found ourselves on Olas Atlas trying to explain to a cliff diver why we weren’t willing to give him 150 pesos to jump off of a 60 foot rock in to 9 feet of water. Not five minutes before we had run in to another cliff diver who was on his night off. He showed us the deep scars on his arms, lower legs, and told us about the 18 stitches that he had to get in his scalp one time.

So, no, tonight our 150 pesos (less than $15) would not be responsible for a man risking life and limb.

Moving along with Wayne from SV Music (Wayne’s account of the night on his sailing blog) we discovered that we were roughly 7 hours early for the fireworks show. Time to bar hop- it’s Margarita Time! We listened to live music, watched over excited American men try to dance with hot locals, met a bar owner from Alabama, and watched the local vendors set up their booths. Tacos, churros, nachos made with little taquitos instead of chips, and a ton of hot dogs! Our favorite vendors were the guys selling fake mustaches, beards, and colorful mohawks.

Before we knew it there was a mini parade led by a truck carrying what looked like Spongebob Square Pants with broccoli looking hair. They had lots to say over the loudspeaker about this character and then all of a sudden they lit him on fire/blew him up in a huge explosion! As there were pieces of Spogebob/Broccoli Head on fire floating through the air, we decided to skedaddle and check out the 8 bands that they had lined along the beach on Olas Atlas. All were really good but our favorite was Skandolo. This is a sample of their music from a different performance.

At 10pm all of the bands stopped playing and it was time for everyone in the crowd to take their places for the Naval Battle fireworks show. We were packed in like sardines just four rows back from the edge of the beach and a mere 50 feet away from the mortars. Lucky us. 45 minutes later we found that we were also directly underneath the exploding fireworks. Everyone around us started screaming, not out of awe, but out of fear. Ashes were falling in our eyes, embers were falling in our hair, our faces were getting pelted with firework shells, and we were constantly engulfed by smoke. “It is dangerous. It is the Mexican Way,” we were told later by a local. I’m not sure what kept us from moving to a safer vantage point, but we stayed put for the entire show.

We were directly underneath the low fireworks in this video.

After the grand finale, the bands started playing again and we stumbled out of the smoke in a daze. As we left we passed a line ½ mile long waiting to enter the band area. Things were just starting to heat up but we were done. It took us 2 hours to get home through the crowds.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CONOR!

Conor busts a move

Birthdays are a time for reflection and celebration. Twelve months ago we had no idea that we would be on our own boat at Carnaval in Mazatlan for Conor’s birthday. (It really was nice for the whole city to have a week of celebration in honor of my husband!) The last year has been full of spontaneity, hard work, and planning and we hope the next year has more of the same!

We spend the morning of this special day relaxing and the afternoon doing flips in the pool at Marina El Cid.

Splash!

Yes, my husband is still a rock star and can do backflips like no other. I tried to do a front flip and almost accidentally drowned myself. Apparently I need a little more practice to catch up in skill to my older and wiser husband.

In the evening we headed to the Aguamarina Hotel for dinner with cruiser friends and a seat in the hotel bleachers to watch (Conor’s) parade.

Marni from SV Two Pieces of Eight gives me a mask to celebrate!

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Conor scores some new shades from a Pacifica girl

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Freshly dudded out

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The crowd is filling in

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Mazatlan skyline Carnaval 2012

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More Pacifica Girls

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NIghttime Pacifica Girls showing up to wish Conor a happy happy day!

 

GONE FISHIN’

Conor and I are not natural fisherman (as per our fishing article), but given the right conditions (ie: a speed boat with professional fishermen perched on a fly bridge trolling with 5 lines) and we are excellent!

Bob on SV Tres Jolie graciously invited us to join his family on a fishing charter Friday, February 17^th. 5:30am came very early that morning as we spent the previous night at a farewell dinner for SV Dejala with plenty of wine to go around. Plied with coffee and snacks, we pulled away from the dock on board Aries II by 6:30am and found ourselves heading towards the open ocean. We are heading for the water temperature break about 30 miles from shore. This is where we will hunt for marlin. And hunt is indeed the accurate word for this kind of fishing. Mimo is the Captain and Carlos is his crew.  Carlos sets up 5 poles for trolling.

5 trolling lines set up

We stand on the fly bridge, eyes peeled, scanning the surface of the water for marlin fins.

Marlin fins

There is no “Here Fishie Fishie Fishie” method to this type of fishing.

There’s one! There’s one! Carlos excitedly announces. Captain Mimo moves the boat in to position as Carlos grabs one of the poles and violently jerks the line to attract the marlin.

Carlos works his magic

FISH ON!

The marlin is hooked and jumps clear out of the water in an attempt to break free from the hook. And he succeeds. Carlos pulls in the line and replaces it with another lure with fresh bait.

huge lures with fresh bait

We get to know our new friends who are from Alaska and Montana and have sailed their Catalina 36 down from San Diego.

I move to a fighting chair (there is a place to secure the base of the pole while you reel in the large fish) and watch the lures skip on the top of the water behind us at 7 knots. I see a set of fins following a lure beneath the water and then I see the fins jerk up and out of the water.

FISH ON! FISH ON! I yell.

Carlos quickly instructs everyone to help pull in the other 4 lines. Carlos grabs the live reel and since I’m the closest he gives me the rod. I’m so excited to be pulling in a marlin!

FISH ON!

The next 10 minutes feel like a workout. My right arm is aching. Reeling a 125lb fish in is a lot more work than I had planned for even with Carlos helping me. I pull the rod back, then move it forward and quickly reel in the slack over and over.

Bob! I yell. Take over! Bob encourages me and says to keep going. I try to palm off the responsibility of working the reel for the next 5 minutes and I finally yell, SOMEBODY please take over!

Conor knows this tone of voice from me. He jumps in and takes over my spot on the fighting chair and finishes the job.

What a beautiful fish

Carlos and Captain Mimo pull the marlin on board and hit it with a bill club. Lonnie and I cringe.

Sorry, Carlos says.

The marlin lays against the transom flopping it’s head and tail for 5 more minutes and I feel bad for it. The bright blue stripes on its side quickly fade away.

Time for the next one. We put all 5 lines out again but decide to release the next one. About one hour later we hook another.

FISH ON!

This time Dave grabs the fishing rod. This marlin is a fighter. Three times in a row he gets the fish close and then Mr. Marlin decides he does not wish to join the company of Aries II and runs away from the boat again. Dave works pretty darn hard for this marlin and all we want to do is release him! Finally Mr. Marlin gets tired and finally comes in. Unfortunately we cannot release him as he has completely swallowed the hook so he comes on board with us.

Carlos casts all 5 lines out again and we get a couple bites but don’t catch a third fish. We had 10 bites in all that day. Finally it is time to return to the harbor and we head east. It is a wet ride on the fly bride as we are heading in to the waves and they are washing up over the bow. We get soaked but are loving the ride. We see a pod of about 100 dolphins move across the bow, turtles, humpback whales, and sting rays.

Back on the dock. And soaked!

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Posing by our catch. Lonnie, Lanea, Conor, Bob, Dave

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We asked Carlos and Captain Mimo to pose for us.

Our marlins weighed in just slightly less than a 1213lb marlin caught in Cabo in September 2011! http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/30401/monster%20blue%20marlin%20caught%20after%2028-hour%20battle%20off%20cabo%20san%20lucas/

 

Back at the dock Carlos cuts a couple of pieces for us and they offer to donate the rest to a local orphanage. We are thankful of this option and accept as there is no way we could possibly eat this much fish! At the end of the day we had a great experience, great company, and did a good deed.

 

Carnaval!

Carnaval starts today in Mazatlan!

The modern conception of “Carnaval” is historically traced to the public street celebrations of over a century ago, which in turn were based on the purifying seasonal rituals dating to antiquity. These early celebrations featured participants adorned in colored eggshells and scented flour and ashes, which reflected a transition from the humoristic mood to that of the grotesque. This early expression of Carnaval also carried with it vestigial features of the archaic traditions, which spoke to the dictates of chaos in the world and the tearing down of social barriers. Carnaval thus marked a brief moment when the rules were relaxed and transgressions were forgiven. Merchants and dock workers took to the fields in stone throwing confrontations.
Towards the end of the Nineteenth Century, the festival took a sociopolitical turn. The most popular form of Carnaval was organized by the military and celebrated in May of each year, to commemorate the victory of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza over the French army in Puebla.
In 1898 an assembly of Mazatlan dignitaries led by a local doctor implemented the use of carriages and bicycles in the parade, and replaced the scented flour with confetti. The Mazatlan newspaper, “La Lechuza,” published the first account of the Mazatlecan Carnival.
That same year, a celebrated American beauty, Wilfrida Farme, was crowned the First Queen of the Carnival of Mazatlan, her reign supplanting the Ugly Kings and Buffoons of the grotesque era. Queen Wilfreda made her grand entrance into the city seated atop a trolley car drawn by mules, and escorted by chamberlains, ministers and an entire operatic company. Carnival 1898 also marked the first celebration of the Grand Ball of Costumes in the ballroom Círculo Benito Juárez.

-www.gomazatlan.com website

Here is another blog with details about Carnaval happenings in Mazatlan:

http://vidamaz.blogspot.com/2012/02/carnaval-de-mazatlan-why-we-love-it.html

A beach bum day with promise of drugs and women

At Marina El Cid we are a one minute water taxi ride away from the beach.  We say good morning to our one-winged friend, Mr. Pelican, and hop on the 50hp barge that shuttles us across the waterway.

The one-winged marina pelican is fed by local fisherman

Unlike our last marina in San Jose del Cabo, we do not have the beach to ourselves here. It is lined with hotels and littered with tourists. Regardless, the beach is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the water is refreshing.

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We met crabs and birds and were surrounded with shells as we strolled along the water’s edge, frequently dipping our toes in.

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Nearing Playa Bruja

On weekend afternoons this place is a popular local spot. Families turn out in large numbers equipped with extra tables, umbrellas, and an impressive spread. It reminds me of family parties at Spring Lake as a child.

Playa Bruja

After our 3 mile stroll we reached Playa Bruja and decided to hit the street in search of coffee.

Coffee and surfboards apparently go hand in hand here

As I browsed the street vendor shops Conor was busy avoiding a different type of street vendor.

Hey man, do you want a Cigar?

Sorry man, I don’t smoke.

Do you want a money clip?

I don’t have any money.

Do you want a pipe?

I don’t need a pipe.

Do you want drugs to put in a pipe?

I don’t do drugs, either.

Hmmmm…. The street vendor squints at Conor and finally says, Do you want any women?

I’m here with my wife!

Oh, just leave her here! Let’s go downtown!

Needless to say, Conor did not disappear and leave me in search of strange women willing to do strange things and I had someone to watch the sunset with.

Landfall in Mazatlan

Ahhh.... Mazatlan

We left on a calm morning the first Wednesday of February at 3:20am. The security guard waved to us as we slipped quietly out of the Puerto Los Cabos Marina. So long San Jose del Cabo. We made lovely new friends here and enjoyed a quaint town full of treasures. It has been fun.

The sail across the Sea of Cortez was 180 nautical miles and the crossing would put us the furthest we have been from land thus far. Luckily the weather was on our side. Aside from the beginning and end of the passage we were able to sail a good portion of the trip. Moondance couldn’t be happier. She was free of her dock lines and played in the sea like a puppy would play when unleashed at the dog park. Run free, Moondance! Run free! With her sails taught from a steady 12-18 knots of wind, she scooted up and over the 2-4 foot beam seas.

I was very grateful that Moondance performed steadily and happily because the same could not be said of her crew. Conor, of course sailed like a champ. Unfortunately the same was not true for his wife. For the first time in our boat I was inflicted with mal-de-mer. I have been fine in much worse conditions but for some reason the wave pattern, or frequency, or direction, or all of the above were enough to send me to the edge. Literally. I stood over the edge of the boat making my offering to Neptune thankful that as a policy we wear our life jackets and safety tethers at all times at sea.

Regardless of my condition, I was blissfully happy to be out at sea. Both of us were. There is something very calming and soothing about being out at sea listening to nothing but the wind whistling through the rigging and the waves crashing under the bow. On Wednesday night the moon was so bright and we could see for miles. It was so clear that we were able to turn off our radar (radar takes a huge amount of power to operate). After the moon set in the wee morning hours we could clearly see new stars from the southern hemisphere.

On Thursday morning we saw whales not more than 300 feet away from the boat. Their bodies and tails moved slowly and deliberately above the water and back down to the deep sea. Mid morning we spotted Isla de Pajaro and Isla de Venados. We were almost there.

El Cid Marina is right next to the El Cid hotel. They offer us yatistas full access to hotel amenities: towel service, pools, hot tub, showers and laundry service. We also get a 20% discount on all hotel food and drinks.

When we were just an hour outside of the small marina we called Marina El Cid on the VHF and when we arrived they were waiting to ‘catch’ us at our newly assigned slip.

Swim-up bar pool

Suddenly realizing how eager I was to get to land and settle my stomach so I could finally eat, I leapt off the boat. After checking in we headed directly to the pool for lunch and happy hour. There are two pools, one with a swim-up bar and another with a hot tub. Yes, this place will be alright for us.

The hotel beach

Recuperating from our passage under a palapa

Sitting by the dock of the bay watchin’ the tide roll away…

 

One of our neighbors