We had planed to spend Christmas and New Year in one place and we both thought we would like to spend it on the coast.
The first place we could see on the map was Mazatlan. We arrived in town around mid afternoon and after a couple of false starts in finding a Hotel over the holiday period, we eventually found a place we could stay over Christmas but not over the New Year. Given the apparent lack of rooms we decided to stay here and move after Christmas. The Hotel was in the Historical district of Mazatlan and was called La Siesta. The hotel was built around a Spanish style with all the rooms around a central open court yard. The courtyard contained a number of large trees which protected the rooms from the sun.
As usual we asked where we could safely park the bikes and we were directed into the court yard. So the bikes were swiftly moved in and we unpacked. The hotel also had a restaurant attached to it called the Shrimp bucket!! so we ate there for the first night before wandering around the town
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Bikes in the court yard...
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View of a road in the Historical district of Mazatlan
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The local Taxi's.. No Tarrifs.. A different price every ride.. All completely out of tune so plenty of Carbon monoxide poisoning as well!!!
One of the main things we wanted was to have a good rest, as due to the problems in Colorado, the exit from the US had been a big rush. So we headed for the beach and both covered in factor 30 were stretched out for the day. In the evening, Christmas Eve, we had a trip to the local Walmart for some supplies and Christmas decorations. We decorated the bikes and headed into the old town square for something to eat.
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Us and the decorated bikes...
We were awoken fairly early on Christmas morning by a band that was playing downstairs. It was traditional Mexican music which was a bit lively for that time of day for us! With no option to sleep longer, we got up and headed downstairs for breakfast. The Hotel had laid on a big buffet breakfast for the guests in the court yard, so we settled back to having a big meal and try and enjoy the band.
Apart from the difference in music one of the things that is different with Mexican band is they have a break in-between each song for a few minutes. They don't do anything they just stand there looking bored before starting the next. Its quite amusing watching these guys trying to kill time.
After a big breakfast, there was only one thing to do and that was to head to the beach for the rest of the day. Boxing day was the same but without the big breakfast. Thats the life
The following day we had to move and we found a hotel further around the bay called La Hacienda. The hotel was a lot more modern and expensive and lacked any character. The rooms were larger but the main drawback was they looked out directly over the sea and the noise at night of the sea didn't help with the sleeping...but we countered this by lying out on the beach all day (Picking up on the theme yet )
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View from the Balcony...
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La Hacienda... We were half way up the tree...
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View of Mazatlan from the Hotel
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Sun set from the room...
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Pelicans gliding across the bay...
Settled into our routine we were well rested by New Years Eve and were looking for a good night. After several nights eating in various restaurants we booked the best one we found for New Years Eve so all was set.
Apart from the restaurant testing, we also tested the beach bars and found one that cooked some amazing fresh shrimp so after obligatory sun bathing on New Years Eve and eating shrimp, we had a quick afternoon snooze before heading out to dinner.
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Just another sunset....
The meal was great and we headed over to the area of town called the Golden Zone. This area had all the night clubs and most of the bars. We arrived at the night club around 11 and after paying the entrance fee we wandered in. The club had made no effort for New Year and there was no atmosphere in there what so ever. I know I'm getting old and all that, but the music was extremely loud (it was distorting the speakers) and the DJ just laid the same bass track over every song and I do mean every song!!!
The atmosphere didn't look like it was going to change so we left.
Eventually we found a restaurant with minutes to spare, got in and New Year happened before we could get a beer! The atmosphere was great and just rescued the evening.
We eventually headed back to the hotel at about 1:30 as there was a massive power cut in that part of town, so we headed back to our hotel party which had a traditional Mexican band with a full horn section. We had a couple more beers and enjoyed the Mexican atmosphere before the party stopped at three and we finally called it a night.
After being up so late the previous night, we didn't get up till late and hit the beach around lunchtime. New Years day isn't complete without a film so we sat back late afternoon with a DVD to watch the Fantastic Four on the laptop.
New Year over, we had to move to cheaper accomodation as we were going through our budget fast, and at checkout time, we finally found a room at the Hotel Belmar, which was half the price of our current hotel and closer to the Historical district of town that had the nicer beach and restaurants.
The Hotel Belmar was the place that John Wayne used to stay when he went sea fishing. The sad thing is that was the last time anyone spent any money on the place. You could see how the place used to look and you could feel the character of the place within minutes of entering but everything was just slowly deteriorating.
Shots of inside the Belmar...
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Fully refreshed from all the days on the beach we had to get back to reality and complete an oil change on the bike, (Due to the cold temperatures in the US, the handbook recommended an oil change after 3000 miles) and some adhoc maintainance.
Whilst we were servicing the bikes we met an ex-pat American who came over to chat to us. The conversation meandered but we started to discuss, that every time we tried to get passports etc stamped at the boarder we were waved on and we didn't have anything which seemed strange to us!! He said it was and we should have immigration stamps and paid a duty for the bikes. We discussed with him that where could we go to get this rectified. We said that either we drive all the way back to Nogales some 600 miles away and pay a lot of money in bribes or keep a low profile and get out. Given the risk of going back, the distance to get out through the southern route wasn't that different in length and we were already behind schedule we decided to continue. He gave us some advice about the police and army to help us. He said the local police, if we were stopped would only want payment of the fines. They would not ask for papers. The army checkpoints were only looking for drugs and again would not ask for papers. The Federal police were the ones to worry about as they would ask for papers but they have been told by the government not to hassle tourists unless they were clearly breaking the law!!!!! Also the Federal Police, if they were corrupt, tended to stick to the toll roads as there is better pickings there! So we decided to take the free roads and keep a closer eye on the speed.
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Bikes services and the best set-up to date...
We had a quick vist to Walmart again to get some oil but most importantly for us, some holdals for our clothes! Since fitting the new panniers we were unloading 4 bags of clothes and bits every night! We found some cheap bags that were the right size.
The next day was spent on the beach and repacking using the new bags. Everything fitted!
It was finally time to move but we had relaxed and settled into living on the beach and it was gone luchtime before we final left the Hotel.
John
The first place we could see on the map was Mazatlan. We arrived in town around mid afternoon and after a couple of false starts in finding a Hotel over the holiday period, we eventually found a place we could stay over Christmas but not over the New Year. Given the apparent lack of rooms we decided to stay here and move after Christmas. The Hotel was in the Historical district of Mazatlan and was called La Siesta. The hotel was built around a Spanish style with all the rooms around a central open court yard. The courtyard contained a number of large trees which protected the rooms from the sun.
As usual we asked where we could safely park the bikes and we were directed into the court yard. So the bikes were swiftly moved in and we unpacked. The hotel also had a restaurant attached to it called the Shrimp bucket!! so we ate there for the first night before wandering around the town
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Bikes in the court yard...
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View of a road in the Historical district of Mazatlan
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The local Taxi's.. No Tarrifs.. A different price every ride.. All completely out of tune so plenty of Carbon monoxide poisoning as well!!!
One of the main things we wanted was to have a good rest, as due to the problems in Colorado, the exit from the US had been a big rush. So we headed for the beach and both covered in factor 30 were stretched out for the day. In the evening, Christmas Eve, we had a trip to the local Walmart for some supplies and Christmas decorations. We decorated the bikes and headed into the old town square for something to eat.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/127977408.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Us and the decorated bikes...
We were awoken fairly early on Christmas morning by a band that was playing downstairs. It was traditional Mexican music which was a bit lively for that time of day for us! With no option to sleep longer, we got up and headed downstairs for breakfast. The Hotel had laid on a big buffet breakfast for the guests in the court yard, so we settled back to having a big meal and try and enjoy the band.
Apart from the difference in music one of the things that is different with Mexican band is they have a break in-between each song for a few minutes. They don't do anything they just stand there looking bored before starting the next. Its quite amusing watching these guys trying to kill time.
After a big breakfast, there was only one thing to do and that was to head to the beach for the rest of the day. Boxing day was the same but without the big breakfast. Thats the life
The following day we had to move and we found a hotel further around the bay called La Hacienda. The hotel was a lot more modern and expensive and lacked any character. The rooms were larger but the main drawback was they looked out directly over the sea and the noise at night of the sea didn't help with the sleeping...but we countered this by lying out on the beach all day (Picking up on the theme yet
)<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/127976989.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
View from the Balcony...
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La Hacienda... We were half way up the tree...
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View of Mazatlan from the Hotel
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Sun set from the room...
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Pelicans gliding across the bay...
Settled into our routine we were well rested by New Years Eve and were looking for a good night. After several nights eating in various restaurants we booked the best one we found for New Years Eve so all was set.
Apart from the restaurant testing, we also tested the beach bars and found one that cooked some amazing fresh shrimp so after obligatory sun bathing on New Years Eve and eating shrimp, we had a quick afternoon snooze before heading out to dinner.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/127977066.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Just another sunset....
The meal was great and we headed over to the area of town called the Golden Zone. This area had all the night clubs and most of the bars. We arrived at the night club around 11 and after paying the entrance fee we wandered in. The club had made no effort for New Year and there was no atmosphere in there what so ever. I know I'm getting old and all that, but the music was extremely loud (it was distorting the speakers) and the DJ just laid the same bass track over every song and I do mean every song!!!
The atmosphere didn't look like it was going to change so we left.
Eventually we found a restaurant with minutes to spare, got in and New Year happened before we could get a beer! The atmosphere was great and just rescued the evening.
We eventually headed back to the hotel at about 1:30 as there was a massive power cut in that part of town, so we headed back to our hotel party which had a traditional Mexican band with a full horn section. We had a couple more beers and enjoyed the Mexican atmosphere before the party stopped at three and we finally called it a night.
After being up so late the previous night, we didn't get up till late and hit the beach around lunchtime. New Years day isn't complete without a film so we sat back late afternoon with a DVD to watch the Fantastic Four on the laptop.
New Year over, we had to move to cheaper accomodation as we were going through our budget fast, and at checkout time, we finally found a room at the Hotel Belmar, which was half the price of our current hotel and closer to the Historical district of town that had the nicer beach and restaurants.
The Hotel Belmar was the place that John Wayne used to stay when he went sea fishing. The sad thing is that was the last time anyone spent any money on the place. You could see how the place used to look and you could feel the character of the place within minutes of entering but everything was just slowly deteriorating.
Shots of inside the Belmar...
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Fully refreshed from all the days on the beach we had to get back to reality and complete an oil change on the bike, (Due to the cold temperatures in the US, the handbook recommended an oil change after 3000 miles) and some adhoc maintainance.
Whilst we were servicing the bikes we met an ex-pat American who came over to chat to us. The conversation meandered but we started to discuss, that every time we tried to get passports etc stamped at the boarder we were waved on and we didn't have anything which seemed strange to us!! He said it was and we should have immigration stamps and paid a duty for the bikes. We discussed with him that where could we go to get this rectified. We said that either we drive all the way back to Nogales some 600 miles away and pay a lot of money in bribes or keep a low profile and get out. Given the risk of going back, the distance to get out through the southern route wasn't that different in length and we were already behind schedule we decided to continue. He gave us some advice about the police and army to help us. He said the local police, if we were stopped would only want payment of the fines. They would not ask for papers. The army checkpoints were only looking for drugs and again would not ask for papers. The Federal police were the ones to worry about as they would ask for papers but they have been told by the government not to hassle tourists unless they were clearly breaking the law!!!!! Also the Federal Police, if they were corrupt, tended to stick to the toll roads as there is better pickings there! So we decided to take the free roads and keep a closer eye on the speed.
<IMG SRC="http://pic4.picturetrail.com/VOL784/4062504/8448420/127977366.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">
Bikes services and the best set-up to date...
We had a quick vist to Walmart again to get some oil but most importantly for us, some holdals for our clothes! Since fitting the new panniers we were unloading 4 bags of clothes and bits every night! We found some cheap bags that were the right size.
The next day was spent on the beach and repacking using the new bags. Everything fitted!
It was finally time to move but we had relaxed and settled into living on the beach and it was gone luchtime before we final left the Hotel.
John
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