More wandering around Mazatlan.

Big weather change here. We are on our second day of heavy overcast - no sun yesterday until late afternoon. This morning it is just gray out. Miss the blue sky. 

Probably won’t get many steps in in the next few days while making sure Willie is completely well. Have errands to run – to catch up on supplies, go to a farmacia for my pills and TelCel to see if I can get an account set up to make getting our GBs easier.

More on that later. Going back to our walk in the Golden Zone Friday. Love when the vendors talk to the other vendors. Are they comparing business or trying to sell each other something?

This is a neat idea for you crafters out there – license plates cut into strips then put together to say something. I like the Forever Young one.

We are walking towards the beach past a lot of stores leading to a restaurant on the end. There is this rock feature with the neatest benches in it. All different tiles.

Lots of vendors out on the beach. And the parasail people…

More colors and patterns going back into the mall.

Across the street in the Sea Shell Museum/store. Doesn’t everyone need this turtle in their garden?

Back to the ocean side of the street again. In front of the restaurant Lucky B’s – this is one of the owner’s vehicles. I like the front end.

And his motorcycle with a paint job by Gilberto. (Wrote about him last year when he painted a frog on our friend’s car.) He is the person who got Bill interested in the air brush painting.

Gad, everywhere you look there is a new OXXO. Looks out of place here.

More colorful wares for sale.

We stopped into Michaels Gallery to look around and Bill found some 4” x 4” tile he likes for his window box project. While he and the clerk were counting tiles I was wandering around. This headboard is leather – quite pretty if it was in the right room.

Also the guy- looks mean. The spikes look like toothpicks.

That concluded that day’s walk. Got in a little over 7000 steps for the day.

On Friday we started out the day at Torres restaurant on the beach. For lunch.  Watched some people parasailing. Most were mature people. All wore life vests and no shoes. Getting her strapped in and in position for take off. Makes me want to try it even more.

Take off.

They want 40 US dollars

Didn’t get a picture of the landing, but it was smooth and easy looking. If I hadn’t of just eaten I’d have done it.

Friday evening we got the Willie, the Jeep, back. Seems to be running good and smooth.

Saturday we took it for a trial ride into Centro. Along the Malecon the bleachers for the first big parade on Sunday were being set up. Lots and lots of them.

And some people were already staking out their places to watch the parade. Wonder if they plan to spend the night there?

When we got to the gates we were turned up the street – no more through traffic.

Going into town a different way. If these trees get much bigger cars won’t be able to get through. No trucks could make it now as they lean out into the street too much.

We made it fine to our favorite parking lot and discovered it too was set up for Carnaval. A food stand

And a men’s bathroom. Draw your own conclusions – I hope that is a sewer grate. Inspect the picture.

The whales tail was still there too. Posted about it yesterday. 

From there we walked towards the Plazuela Machado. More vendor stations set up along the street.

Not much going on in the plaza. Looked up and saw these neat clouds. Bill calls them bridal veil clouds.

Then turned towards downtown. Came up on the central market from a different direction.

As we walked through I noticed a candy store.

Wondered if they carried the candy we’ve been looking for. A hard caramel candy called Tomy. And they had it. We got four bags of it. See the empty space on the bottom shelf.

Didn’t buy anything else, While heading back to the car we noticed this sign in front of the government building. In January the TV stations switched from analog to digital. So the government is encouraging people to bring their old analog sets here when they get rid of them. Instead of just throwing them out in the trash.

This hotel is right at the beginning of the north end of the Malecon. It is fun to watch their pricing.  When there is nothing going on in town it is 360 pesos a day, during Christmas and New Years it was 560 pesos. This week for Carnaval it is 860 pesos! Quite a difference from 20 US dollars a day to 48 US dollars a day. Can you say Price Gouging?

Yesterday morning at 8:30 a.m. the sun was trying to come out. Lots and lots of clouds in the sky. And so far no plans for the day. Oh, I did get my pills – shock – one box contains enough pills for one week. US dollars $21. And the pharmacy only had one box. And I thought that US$50 for 30 days at home was expensive. Ended up having a busy day yesterday.