I haven’t had a real weekend off since I arrived on Isla, a couple of days that I choose to take off rather than them being imposed, days where there is absolutely no need to be glued to my computer hoping that a last minute project will come in, and which I can truly enjoy because there are plenty of projects behind me and I know when the next ones are coming in.
I finished work around 11:30 yesterday (Friday) morning (putting in a full five hour day!) and then spent a few hours updating my professional website before giving the house a thorough cleaning. After that, I collapsed with a movie and a beer, stepping out to get some hot dogs for dinner. I went to bed early since I’d been up since 5:00.
It was 6:30 when I woke up this morning and I enjoyed the incredible luxury of fixing myself a cup of coffee and going back to bed with it! I obviously don’t bother doing that in Miranda since once I’m down that ladder, I stay down!
I stayed in bed for a good hour reading and playing games on my iPad. I finally got up, put some laundry on, took out the water bottle, brought a full bottle in, and made a ridiculously huge breakfast.
After I ate, I went over to my landlady’s house and, yay, she was finally home! I paid my rent and told her that my roof had leaked during the recent rain, just in the bathroom, and it had messed up the ceiling paint. (By the way, roof and ceiling is the same thing in Spanish, techo.)
We then discussed something important. Drum roll please… I told her I am 90% certain I want to rent this house again next winter! I’ve been looking at other options and have decided to play it safe and just come back here. I really do like the house (and location!), I have laundry and internet, and the rent, while a bit higher than I’d really like to pay, is very reasonable. She said to call her late this summer to confirm. Of course, it’ll be a shorter stay next year, five months instead of six, and so I’ll probably arrive at the end of November and then leave mid-April.
All that done, I packed up my tote bag and headed to Maz, with the plan being to visit the aquarium. I arrived on the Maz side only to realise that I had never actually looked up where the aquarium is exactly. But I’d seen plenty of signs for it and had a pretty good idea of where it was, so off I went. I’ve come a long way from the frustrated gal walking around in circles!
I took Gutiérrez Nájera towards the Malecón, got myself a grapefruit juice, and then turned northish (Golden Zonewards) one block before the Malecón. I just walked this road for quite a while, enjoying how peaceful it was. I could periodically see Avendida del Mar (what this stretch of road along the Malecón is called), so I had quite a few landmarks.
No idea what this building is, but it made me laugh.
Detail of the exquisite doorway.
And then, I spotted a big blue building off in the distance.
Could that be…
It is!
Well, that was easy. 😀
I’ll do a separate post about the aquarium!
I came out of there after a few hours and spent two hours literally just walking aimlessly. I found myself on the Malecón, the hilly part of Centro histórico, Olas Altas, Plazuela Machado, the Mercado, and then Zaragoza, at which point I was ready to go home. I had vague plans to get lunch, but it was just too dang hot!
I did get some ice cream from my favourite vendor. I now know that it is called nieve de garrafa (English article) and is a water based fruit sorbet native to Mexico. They had pineapple today for the first time, and I got that with mandarin and prune.
One of the many papier mâché statues along the Malecón.
Colourful houses on a street in the hilly part of historical Maz.
A sweet little bench across the road from the Malecón.
Devil’s Cave.
Well, that was anticlimactic.
I got in around 2:45 after stopping for fresh tortillas and made a salad with some cream cheese roll ups and a beer for lunch.
It’s been a wonderful day with lots of entertainment, sun, and exercise! I’ll finish it up by getting some shrimp burritos from Miguel’s and watching a movie.
Tomorrow will be an at home day where I’ll catch up on bookkeeping and admin tasks and do a project for Contessa. None of this counts as work in my book!
Off to prepare my aquarium post. First, I need to splice together a movie!
According to the internet the Atlantis building is an auditorium/rental hall for parties. I remember going to that aquarium 27 years ago on my first trip to Mazatlan. It was a little run down then and we were there in September and there were hardly any tourists. Interested to see what it looks like now. Back then Mazatlan was truly Mexican with no chain fast food joints like McDonalds or Burger King. I still love it though.
You preempted me to Google! 😀
I think you would be pleasantly surprised by the Aquarium today.
Maz is magical. 🙂
Hi Rae,
You may want to hold off booking in the room for a second winter until you visit other Mexico cities. You may find you like them even more! I’m not surprised your landlady wasn’t too worried. In my experience, few Mexicans book accommodation very far in advance. Certainly nothing is ‘confirmed’ until much closer to the time you plan to travel.
Just ideas … but I know Mazatlán is a pretty cool place too. So glad you’re enjoying your winter there.
Andrew
Andrew, I have a pile of reasons for wanting to return here next year rather than go somewhere new. I’ll do post about that in a bit.
My concern was that someone else might have expressed interest in the house ahead of me and I wanted to be first in line.
You like Maz and you know the city. You are comfortable and confident there and there are still things you have not seen/done so why not another winter? Andrew is also right, there is a lot of Mexico to see and most of it is so much different than the Pacific coast. Having said that, you have many years left to explore deeper into the country and it’s culture. The Mayans can wait another year!