A Spork in the Toad

• Gary Braunbeck asking me to time him on how long it took him to guess the titles of episodes in the Twilight Zone Marathon - he averaged about six seconds from the first camera shot before having the title, and he never missed. (Lucy got him the boxed set for Christmas last year ....)
• Contributing to the "Songs on Hell's Music Playlist - my selections were "Kung Fu Fighting" and "Saturday Night" (is nobody else haunted by the Bay City Rollers?).
• Bursting into harmony with Karen Jackson (OK, almost-harmony) on "Close to You" during the game mentioned above (to the obvious bewilderment of a young lady home from her sophomore year in college, who had clearly never heard of The Carpenters.).

No sea-life to report today (great or small), just a nice relaxing day wandering around Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, a city of somewhere between 350,000 people (the official estimate, probably outdated) and 700,000 (our cab driver's estimate, and it feels accurate to me). Mazatlan is on the same latitude as Honolulu, but it has the humidity lacking in the island paradise. Not uncomfortable, mind you; not perfect but pretty damned close when compared to central Ohio.

No excursions today, we just caught a cab to the resort area, walked the beach and found a few shells (and some fairly serious incoming waves) then caught the same cab back over to the old town for a bit of a walkabout.  Pictures were taken in the Immaculate Concepcion cathedral, trinkets and souvenirs were bought, about a thousand vendors were rebuffed (including the guy who wanted to polish my tennis shoes for me).

Kathryn and I had enjoyed similar strolls in ither towns - most notably San Juan, Puerto Rico - in the past. Mazatlan is not as old as San Juan (the Cathedral was completed in1899, to give you an idea) so the streets are not nearly as narrow. But for sheer sidewalk congestion and steep curbs, I'll put Mazatlan up against most cities I've seen. There was one point we were sort of swimming upstream against a tide of people and I made the tourist mistake of pausing to look at something, and got body-checked by some local lady making a dive for an available cab.

By the way, all the stuff I've heard about the male-dominated, macho culture may be true behind closed doors, but when it comes to a head count of people out on the streets doing stuff, the vast majority of the Mexicans I've seen have been female.  Maybe all the men are driving the cabs (which occupation seems may bear some resemblance to the traditionally male role of matador).

Tomorrow, Cabo San Lucas, probably more wandering about, and then back up the coast toward L.A.

Tonight, rumor has it there is a trivia contest somewhere on board, so I may get to see if my brain has recovered from WGS (the claims payment system used at Anthem, for you non-BCBSers) yet.

 

Today was the one excursion we had scheduled for this cruise, so I expected out most tourist-y day.  But it turned out to be full of unexpected riches.

This morning the ship was toyed with by more dolphins - just a few dozen this time, and of a sleeker, all-black variety.  These guys were going for hang time - coming straight up out of the water and riding the waves with just their tail fins submerged (sort of "hanging one," as it were).  this went on for the better part of an hour.  A good way to start the day.

Puerto Vallerta is more modern and clean than many more established cruise ports we've seen, but the street vendors are just as numerous and sometimes more aggressive.

The snorkel excursion was very nice: we were just off the shore of some exclusive resort, and the fish population (if  not the water clarity) reminded me of Hanama Bay in Hawai'i. Kathryn and her sister Margaret did some kayaking, and the lunch on the catamaran (Mexican, of course - chicken fajitas) was quite good.

The second half of the excursion was a stop at Yelapa, a village on the same bay as PV (Banderas Bay, and no, it was NOT named after Antonio ....) but reachable only by boat.  It's a village of 1,100 to 1,200 people, formerly a fishing village but now getting into the tourist trade. Our guide said they just got electricity six years ago, so they made it into the 21st century without being wired.

The three Wissman sisters decided to stay on the beach (Mary had booked a whole separate excursion) while I took the hike up the mountain to the waterfall, then back down the mountain to the beach - about an hour and a half' walk, with frequent photo-op and shopping stops.

The walk through the village was revealing.  The groups of happy kids in school uniforms reminded me that one tourists idea of grinding poverty may be another persons norm.  But when it comes to things like health care and hygiene, is it really cultural imperialism to call it poverty?  Let's just say I didn't drink the water.

The beach was OK, the water was cold, I think some of the photos of the walk through the village will come out well.  (I saw several interesting butterflies, including a huge, solid white specimen - that I just could not get to hold still for the camera!)

When we boarded the catamaran Susan had asked the captain if there was any chance of seeing whales.  He had assured her that, sadly, it was too early and there was no chance.

On the way from the beach back to the ship, a whale (blue whale?  I'll have to look it up) breached, blew spray, and flipped us his tail a couple of times!  An absolutely confirmed, no other possible explanation whale sighting!  Kathryn tells me she got video of it, so that's pretty danged cool.

I learned tonight that story I had out to market did not sale, but that's OK - there are other markets. It's been a good day anyway.

Tomorrow, Mazatlan.  With no excursion scheduled, In hope to get in a bit more exploring.