We celebrated our 30th Anniversary at a Mexican Restaurant and Wine Bar located in the heart of the historic district in Mazatlan called "Topolo's". We had never been there before but had heard from many of our friends that it was a wonderful restaurant with a great atmosphere, excellent service, and delicious food and wine choices. They were right!
 |
| Douglas loves finding Iguana's - with a little help from us! |
As always we've kept busy over the last month. Here are a few photo's to show you what we've been up to.
 |
Kim finally found more Mexican flag material
He can make 51 courtesy flags with it! |
 |
| Fireworks at Marina El Cid - photo was taken from our boat |
 |
6 km walk on the beach from Marina El Cid to
Playa Bruja |
 |
| Kim enjoying Peel and Eat Shrimp at Playa Bruja |
Road Trip to San Blas and Chacala
Our friends, Bob and Bev, decided to take a road trip to San Blas and Chacala and luckily for us, they invited us to join them.
San Blas is in the State of Nayarit and is about 300 km south of Mazatlan. It is a tranquil fishing village with a population of between 8,000 and 10,000 people. Visitors go there to enjoy isolated beaches, surfing, abundant birdlife and tropical jungles reached by riverboats. We were excited to go on a riverboat tour, as we did last year. We went on the La Tovara riverboat Jungle Tour to see while egrets, turtles, giant blue iguanas, crocodiles, and all kinds of other wildlife and migratory birds. After the Jungle Tour we found a lovely motel about 18 kms south of San Blas with a gorgeous view of Matachen Bay.
 |
Jan, Bev, Douglas and Bob at La Tovara nature
preserve about to board a panga for the Jungle Tour |
 |
| Drinks and Lunch at La Tovara |
 |
Kim jumping from the 'Tarzan' swing into a freshwater
spring |
 |
| A different angle - Kim jumping into the freshwater spring |
 |
| Kim at the surface of the spring |
 |
| Bob jumping from the 'Tarzan' swing |
 |
| Bob between the swing and spring |
 |
| Kim and Douglas cooling off in the freshwater spring |
 |
| Bob, Kim and Douglas enjoying a freshwater swim |
 |
| The view from our room at Hotel Paraiso Miramar |
 |
| The store and restaurant at Hotel Paraiso Miramar |
 |
| The pool and view at Hotel Paraiso Miramar |
 |
| Kim and Douglas returning from a walk on the beach |
 |
| Kim and Douglas relaxing poolside |
 |
| Sunset at Hotel Paraiso Miramar |
Chacala is a beach town set in a small cove on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the State of Nayarit. It is approximately 80 kms south of San Blas. It is part of the Riviera Nayarit, a 290 km long stretch of coast, which includes Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerias, Sayulita and other great beach towns and tourist destinations. It has a population of around 300 people but this number triples during Christmas, Easter and high season (December to March).
 |
Kikis Comfort Hotel is only a year old and just 1 block
to the beach |
 |
| Relaxing by the pool at Kikis Hotel |
 |
| Bev, Jan and Bob cooling off in the pool |
 |
Douglas after a shower, and a long hard day of playtime
on the beach |
 |
| Jan and Douglas relaxing by the pool |
 |
Bob, Bev, Kim and Douglas relaxing on the beach in
Chacala |
 |
| Rest and relaxation on the beach in Chacala |
 |
Can you see the chicks? They were just strolling
down the street in Chacala |
2017 Mazatlan Carnival
 |
| Carnival is attended by locals, and many tourists too |
Carnival Week was Thursday, February 23rd to Tuesday, February 28th. Carnival was officially inaugurated here in 1898. It's the 3rd largest carnival celebration in the world after Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. I recently read the Sunday Carnival parade draws more than 600,000 people!
 |
| Lots of people! |
 |
| Fireworks at Carnival |
 |
Dave, Jan, Luc and Tina
These colourful statues can be found all along the Malecon
during Carnival - they're beautiful and BIG |
Farewell Dinner for Fellow Cruisers
 |
| 32 people attended the Farewell dinner |
Three of our fellow cruisers decided to have their boats freighted home at the end of this season. One has been in Mexican waters since 2008, and the other two have been here for 4 years. On February 24th we had a farewell party for them at La Mona, which is a very popular pizza restaurant. All 3 left Marina El Cid on February 26th to sail their boats over to La Paz. Their boats will be freighted to Vancouver Island (from La Paz) sometime in early April. We miss them already!
 |
| Good food and wonderful company |
Boat Upgrade
 |
| Welder installing Stainless Steel Lifelines |
We decided to replace all of our vinyl coated lifelines with 1" 316 stainless steel tubing. It addresses a safety issue with the vinyl coated lifelines getting rusty and possibly failing. Stainless steel is structurally stronger, and it looks great too! We hired a local welding company and they did a terrific job, at a reasonable price. Kim is very pleased with the result.
 |
| The work is completed |
 |
| Just needs a good wash now |
What's Next?
Douglas and I will fly home on April 16th. Kim will continue his tropical vacation after we leave for about another 5 weeks, with a sail to La Paz, then various anchorages in the Sea of Cortez. Jason and our friend Bob will accompany him on the journey. We have a lot of work to do to get the boat ready for the trip. Kim has a number of sewing projects on the go, and everything will have to be safely stowed before the boat leaves Mazatlan for the 200 nautical mile trip over to La Paz. It's open water so can sometimes be pretty rough. Kim, Jason and Bob plan to do some scuba diving and snorkelling in the beautiful and clear waters of the Sea of Cortez. Kim will fly home on May 20th.
That's all our news for now. Hope our family and friends are staying healthy, happy and warm! We've heard it's been a much cooler winter back home.
