Mazatlan, Jan 2003

Part III

Wednesday was a truly "beach day." I didn't put on clothes until dinner time! Here are Katie and John doing some lounging in the sun and shade (respectively). Katie is the other primary photographer - she may have some shots of me lying around but she hasn't shared them yet. (Not her fault - she had a business trip immediately after picking up pictures.) But rest assured that I did my share of chilling out. I read 6 books, which implies a lot of lying around time.

We wandered up to the pool area for lunch, then back to the beach! This picture is one of those "Well, I know what was there!" moments that I decided to share even if you can't see anything. In the afternoon, there were 2 dolphins playing with a jet ski. They were following it around and jumping out of the water. But they were a bit far out to get a picture and, of course, you had to have split second timing to hit the shutter just as one jumped. So, I felt obliged to label the itty bitty black dot that was the dolphin. The larger "smudge" is the jet ski!

One of the things we did all week long was to spend some time watching an artist at work. Antonio Lopez Avila set up his table in the hotel 3 or 4 nights a week and did wonderful oil finger paintings on tile. It was amazing to watch - you can see the cardboard "palette" he worked from. And did it all with his fingers. He had an album of previous paintings that we could use to select from or he would create whatever you wanted while you watched. Here he is working on our beach sunset scene - palapas, pelicans, Deer Island in the background, seen through an arch with lots of flowers around, much as we saw from the hotel. Great memories. That evening we dined at Vittore's Italian restaurant just across the street. Very upscale but wonderful food, served beautifully. Desserts to die for!

Thursday morning was bright and sunny. We had already arranged with Katie and Dave to go over to Deer Island - the other snorkeling place. Part of the fun was getting there on this amphibious vehicle! It was expensive ($8 each), and slow, but unique! This beach really is undeveloped - it is supposed to be a conservation area, although I'm afraid too many people are running boats out there now and the wildlife may be disrupted. The snorkeling was very good for a while but then the tide (and the additional folks showing up with tour groups) churned up the water and made it a bit too murky to see well.

On the left, the little dots you may be able to see are snorkelers in the sheltered area along the rocky shore. The best snorkeling is on reefs (which are scarce on the Pacific coast) or around rocks where the fish have lots of places to hide and breed. The right picture is just a view of the beach area - while one of the tour operators has set up a canopy and some chairs, that's about it. Anything you want to eat or drink you have to bring with you. Very peaceful.

We walked back from the El Cid Hotel (where the amphibious vehicle launched from), stopping at Panama to get some lunch (tuna pastries) for me and breakfast for tomorrow (everybody). Then John and Dave hit a Sushi Bar for lunch; Katie and I stopped at Pura Vida for a smoothie and headed to the beach for the last sunny afternoon. Gail went parasailing - I stayed safely on the ground with the camera. But you can see her buckled up and ready to go (at left) and then the liftoff on the right!

This was another day that I didn't get dressed until dinner time! And it was a memorable sunset. Had dinner at Poncho's, in their upstairs terrace room, where we could once again watch the waves on the beach.

Friday we had to check out and head for the airport.   But at least it all went smoothly and we did have a wonderful week!

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