Hate me, go on, you’re allowed to hate me

Leaving El Fuerte I catch a bus straight to my next destination Mazatlan, I wanted to go here
1. It was time to sit on a beach and do nothing for a few days.
2. Dad came here in the 1970s so I thought it would be nice to go back and see if the places he visited back then were still there.

I roll in to Mazatlan at about 10pm, I hadn’t booked a hotel but I wasn’t really worried as its not really the holiday season yet. How wrong was I. As it was the weekend every cheap hotel was booked out, even the one i was hoping to stay in was booked up. Shit! The only place I found left in the city was the biggest dump i have ever been to. ok it only cost me £8 but still I want a room with a lock on it and a flushing toilet…… Too late i already did a dump in it and couldn’t flush the evidence away as there was no running water. The shower didn’t work and the bed was so dirty I had to use my sleeping bag to sleep in that night. Yuck. I had to move a chair in front of the door as there was no lock on the inside. The funny bit was when the fat old man, fag hanging out of his mouth took my tv away because I didn’t want to pay the extra $2. He walked out of the room muttering something in Spanish under his breath. Little to say i only stayed there one night and the next day i found a lovely hotel for the same price which was clean and tidy.

Dad came to Mazatlan in the 1970s and he asked me to see if a bar were he went was still there and it is. Senor Frogs has most likely changed and is now called The World Famous Senor Frogs. It is now a chain and has bars and clothes shops all over Mexico resort towns.
Dad – they don’t have life rings in there now, just lots of fat Americans eating burgers and drinking fish bowl size Margaritas which i must say were really good. I’m guessing it is very different now than your salt sea dog days.

Mazatlan is like two Cornwall towns in one. One end of the town (where I was staying) was the old town. This is a bit like St Ives with its small roads and artist community. An absolutely stunning place, colourful architecture and cheap cafes serving local sea food and fresh coffee for all the ‘Gringos’ tourists and expats that have set up expensive art shops and galleries around main square. The other part of town I guess can be described as a kind of Newquay with its large hotels, tacky souvenir shops, fast food outlets and clubs. The two sides of the town are separated by a gorgeous 3.5km golden beach with crashing warm pacific surf. It was great to not move for three days and basically tan those white bits and watch the sun sink in to the ocean every night whilst drinking a bottle of Mexican beer….. this is the life of a world traveller.

Wish you were here.

Next stop, back in to the heart of Mexico and to the old silver mining town of Zacatecas.