Mazatlan
Mazatlan - Spanish for “Tourist Trap”
The next day, we went to Mazatlan, and decided to take the cruise ship’s “Best of Mazatlan” 7-hour tour. We started with a stop in the cathedral in the older part of town. The most interesting part of the Catholic cathedral were the number of Jewish stars that were part of the decor due to the engagement of the Jews in the construction process.
We then went to see some “cliff” divers, which were younger men diving from a platform about 40 feet up and then quickly get out of the water and run to the crowd to ask for money.
Basically, it’s a point on the side of the road that comes to life when a tour bus stops there. We chose to not get off of the bus at this stop, as passengers were immediately attacked by street vendors trying to push hats, glasses, and other treasures. It actually reminded me of a similar stop on our St. Petersburg cruise where several people had their pockets picked, and we decided to take the safe route and enjoy watching the view of the divers from the bus (instead of cramming up against a hundred or more other tourist bus folks to see the 30-second show).
Old Mazatlan is pretty run-down. We did a few stops for pictures and learned about the neighborhoods. What makes the contrast in Mazatlan is between the old area and the new “Golden Zone,” named because (I guess) of all of the silver shops. (what?) This area has built up only in the last 50 years, so is all touristy and shiny. Having just seen the older area makes this area seem that much more shallow. Locals were very aggressive both in the shops and on the street to get you to buy things.
The worst part was at a “show” where they piled all of the tours from the bus together in an outdoor theater to see the Papantla flyers, which are the natives who hang upside down about 60 feet up on a pole and swirl slowly down. The sad part were the far-too-many vendors pushing products on the one narrow path that took you in and led you out. Even the flyers were there pushing a variety of products. The show host had his own gig, pushing CDs “for the homeless children.” It was almost as bad as the Great Wall in Beijing, but not quite.
After this, our tour bus broke down. Hooray. So, we had to walk to a resort hotel where we could spend the rest of our day out on the beach and having lunch (the highlight of which was a sweet pineapple Tamale.) I put my feet in the water (COLD) and talked to the hotel about their spa, where I was able to enjoy a $35 hour-long massage (as compared to the $119 hour massage on the ship).
Then, back to the cruise ship terminal, where you were forced to walk through another long series of markets and stalls for those necessary purchases of hats, baskets, Tequila, vanilla, and Viagara from one of the the many pharmacies that didn’t require a prescription.
Overall, it was a pretty awful experience. It was MUCH worse than Puerto Villarta as far as the aggressiveness toward tourists. The beach and massage were nice, and walking barefoot in the sand under the 65 degree weather was very nice.
That night, we paid about $40 to have “A Night at La Cirque,” a replication of some of the dishes from La Cirque restaurant in New York. While it was good, and better than what’s in the main dining room, it wasn’t fantastic. On other ships, when we’ve paid extra for a special on-board meal, we’ve been really impressed. This one really wasn’t worth the extra money, and we won't eat in the other upcharging restaurants.
The next day, we went to Mazatlan, and decided to take the cruise ship’s “Best of Mazatlan” 7-hour tour. We started with a stop in the cathedral in the older part of town. The most interesting part of the Catholic cathedral were the number of Jewish stars that were part of the decor due to the engagement of the Jews in the construction process.
We then went to see some “cliff” divers, which were younger men diving from a platform about 40 feet up and then quickly get out of the water and run to the crowd to ask for money.
Basically, it’s a point on the side of the road that comes to life when a tour bus stops there. We chose to not get off of the bus at this stop, as passengers were immediately attacked by street vendors trying to push hats, glasses, and other treasures. It actually reminded me of a similar stop on our St. Petersburg cruise where several people had their pockets picked, and we decided to take the safe route and enjoy watching the view of the divers from the bus (instead of cramming up against a hundred or more other tourist bus folks to see the 30-second show).
Old Mazatlan is pretty run-down. We did a few stops for pictures and learned about the neighborhoods. What makes the contrast in Mazatlan is between the old area and the new “Golden Zone,” named because (I guess) of all of the silver shops. (what?) This area has built up only in the last 50 years, so is all touristy and shiny. Having just seen the older area makes this area seem that much more shallow. Locals were very aggressive both in the shops and on the street to get you to buy things.
The worst part was at a “show” where they piled all of the tours from the bus together in an outdoor theater to see the Papantla flyers, which are the natives who hang upside down about 60 feet up on a pole and swirl slowly down. The sad part were the far-too-many vendors pushing products on the one narrow path that took you in and led you out. Even the flyers were there pushing a variety of products. The show host had his own gig, pushing CDs “for the homeless children.” It was almost as bad as the Great Wall in Beijing, but not quite.
After this, our tour bus broke down. Hooray. So, we had to walk to a resort hotel where we could spend the rest of our day out on the beach and having lunch (the highlight of which was a sweet pineapple Tamale.) I put my feet in the water (COLD) and talked to the hotel about their spa, where I was able to enjoy a $35 hour-long massage (as compared to the $119 hour massage on the ship).
Then, back to the cruise ship terminal, where you were forced to walk through another long series of markets and stalls for those necessary purchases of hats, baskets, Tequila, vanilla, and Viagara from one of the the many pharmacies that didn’t require a prescription.
Overall, it was a pretty awful experience. It was MUCH worse than Puerto Villarta as far as the aggressiveness toward tourists. The beach and massage were nice, and walking barefoot in the sand under the 65 degree weather was very nice.
That night, we paid about $40 to have “A Night at La Cirque,” a replication of some of the dishes from La Cirque restaurant in New York. While it was good, and better than what’s in the main dining room, it wasn’t fantastic. On other ships, when we’ve paid extra for a special on-board meal, we’ve been really impressed. This one really wasn’t worth the extra money, and we won't eat in the other upcharging restaurants.