I didn’t have anything pressing to do today, so I decided to hop over to Maz and walk a little of its famous malecón (oceanside boardwalk). I headed out around 10:00 after a Skype call with my mother.

The plan was to walk until I was ready to drop and then take a pulmonía back to the panga. This map roughly illustrates the route that I took, a total of about 10KM (6.21 miles).

I’m really glad that I did this route and then traced it because it’s really helping me get orientated. Maz’s roads run diagonally to the compass points. I am definitely getting to know my way around to a point, but not the most direct routes.

From the panga, I headed to Olas Altas Boulevard the way that I knew to go, through the Mercado and by the cathedral. I, of course, stopped for ice cream! 🙂

The vendor offered me strawberry and vanilla. I said that strawberry was fine and did he have prune? Yup. For my third flavour, I said I wanted more fruit, not vanilla, and he proposed mandarin. Great! I asked for the prune on the bottom and after some reflection and nearly going for the strawberry next, he decided that the mandarin should be in the middle. Gosh I love that stuff, more like sorbet than ice cream, and not too sweet. At 20 pesos, it’s an affordable treat!

I did have another reason to go this way, wanting to stop into a bookstore on Constitución between Plaza Machado and Olas Altas, hoping to find a verb conjugation book. The clerk said they didn’t have any and wasn’t keen on telling me where else in the city I might find one.

From there, it was a few blocks to the Malecón. I walked till I was ready to drop, taking photos of interesting things. There were a few vendors near Olas Altas, but there soon really wasn’t much, to my surprise, just endless miles of beachfront walking with some beachside seafood restaurants.

I made it all the way to the touristy ‘Golden Zone.’ I was hungry by this point, but the only open restaurants I found were Gringo-oriented ones that were very pricey. Anything that would appeal more to locals opened later since Mexicans eat a late lunch. I wasn’t that keen on eating out, so I flagged down a pulmonía to take me back to the panga.

There were tons of pulmonías on that boulevard and many had stopped for me, so I figured that now that I wanted one, they’d be elusive. Nope! I got one in under a minute (so much easier than hailing a cab on Broadway in Manhattan!).

I’d done my research and knew two things. 1) Get the price before getting in. 2) The ride shouldn’t cost more than 60 pesos and I should expect, as a tourist, to be quoted 70 or more and then have to bargain.

So I asked how much to get to the panga, specifying the north one off of Emilio Barragán, and was told 50 pesos! Perfect, no bargaining required! We had a brief chat before it got too noisy and then the driver played loud music. He had a much more direct route back to the panga, but it was still quite a drive. That was a lot of walking!

Back on the Isla side, I picked up some tortillas and had three before I even got home. 🙂

The whole trip cost me less than 7CAD and I got some exercise and to see new things. It was really nice to go to Maz just to go, with no plans to shop or eat out or spend much money.