Day 12 in Mazatlan - Friday 30 Jan - A walk to the mall, casinos, mega and Machada Plaza in the rain

Diane and I walked to the bank (all new territory for me)  and not too long or hot.  I did take pictures of the street signs along the way so that later I could look up on a google map where we actually walked. Gaviotas to Calle Rio de la Plata, down Del Vigil across the grassy area and to San Francisco to Sierra India.  across Sierra India

Sierra India, was a wide street and as we were crossing it I noticed a street sweepers pail and rake/broom, no street sweeper just his tools.
It makes sense to hire people to clean the streets. employment and keep the bugs down and I guess when it rains it is really something so to keep the drains clear street sweeping is a good idea. I have seen them (street sweepers) in Ireland when I was there and in Paris so I guess Mazatlan is right up there with the continent on fulfilling its civil duties.

We passed some lovely homes with different features.  Almost everyone down there has wrought iron on their houses in one form or another, gates, fences window grills. we passed a plant nursery which I thought would be nice to pop into sometime when I have time, to see how much they pay for their plants inside and out.

We came across one very bright daycare-school which you could see for a few blocks. we also passed a store with a handicap space in its parking  lot. I think it was the first time I noticed one, a handicapped space that is. Most of the people I have seen in wheelchairs are being pushed by others  on the streets as the sidewalks were not good.

I saw this wonderful large orange butterfly, very fast but I caught a picture of him. Diane (Hurray for me I got out lots of pesos).


The bank was a new experience too. The instructions were good but the security guard thought I didn't know what to do as I was reading the screens and so came over and was telling me to hit this button and that button and not giving me a chance to read the screen to make sure that I knew what I was doing with which account. Upset me a little so I left and came back after the few people who were waiting behind me were finished and the security guard was not there to bother me. Then everything went fine. He was probably used to people asking for help and so just assumed that I wanted help. We headed off to walk to the store.

The walk did not take that long from the bank to the store along a very busy road. We picked up a few things and went home via pulmonia, dropped them off and went to the expensive road to see what was there. We found a mango distillery,  the ONILIKAN, http://www.onilikan.com/en/  great place. If you are ever in Mazatlan , go there and taste a few samples of their wares. Sooooo good. On the way back, after we were finished shopping, I did pick-up a nice variety pack to bring home to share with friends and family. ( and when I got home I realized that I should have gotten a much larger bottle of the mango spirits and liquor so Called Diane who brought me some more when she came home)

We continued on and went into a few more shops. One was made to look like an Aztec temple and sold everything from jewelry to art, and table cloths to clothing, very fun and probably as close as I was going to get to a temple on this trip.

The owner, a young man whose mother did a lot of the jewelry and art in the store, said that the pictures were replicas of paintings found in actual temples, and out back was a replica temple where they sometimes put on shows. I bought a lovely blue table cloth there probably for too much but it was very pretty.

After we went  into the back where they have the replica temple and found the man who takes care of the stray cats living back there. Diane had pointed out the cats earlier in the week and told me about a man who took care of them and here he was in the flesh. older and looking a little shabby and unkempt but gentle and quiet. We gave him some coins for cat food and maybe a meal for himself. and then walked around the area enjoying our temple experience.

 I would like to go and see a real aztec or mayan temple and maybe pick up a small pebble from the area to take home as a souvenir.  An aztec rock which if you think about it I could probably pick up almost any rock in the area and it was around during the aztec reign.  I did some pose matching, called it aztec yoga, for the photos and just had fun all around.

 I believe that the aztecs were on the west pacific coast and the mayans were on the east atlantic coast.  the spanish did in the both of them with disease  and war.

 The store owner said they sometimes put on productions and shows  in the temple area and it would have been nice to see what kind of shows they put on . the area was a little depressed as I am not sure how many tourists there whereto support al the businesses that were there. looking at the restaurants and how empty most of them were was a sign for sure but I heard that at Carnaval they were all full to the brim for two weeks so I am sure that that must help.

After wandering the shopping areas for the rest of the afternoon we went into the shell museum and store. Upstairs is a museum or rather a very large collection of shells. when my daughter, Shauna, was young she wanted to collect shells but we moved away from the coast and so her collection was small. she would have loved this.

All shapes , all sizes of possibly every shell on the planet. there were at least thousand shells up there all in glass display cases and sorted by type and size, phylum class.  along with urchins, nautilus, taxidermy crocodiles, and octopus. it was pretty impressive.there was a large central pool/ fountain  covered in small mosaics with fish in it too.

 There were displays of sharks jaws with its rows of teeth. I never knew that was what they meant when they talked about rows of teeth. Very frightening to look at and imagine one biting into your leg. Yikes! will never look at a shark the same way again. there was a large piranha type fish in a tank who also looked very scary. and very large the size of a dinner plate.
We left the shell museum and went back home picking up the mango liquor on the way. we decided to go out for the evening so got showered and changed and headed off to downtown, the centro historic,  to the Machado square friday night market.

It started to rain as we were looking for a restaurant  and so we ducked into one place but it had very  little vegetarian to choose from so we ducked out and found the WE (Waters Edge) restaurant right next door and they had a lovely ambiance, menu and room so we popped in there.
As it had stopped raining we sat outside in the uncovered part of the patio and the staff said that if it started to rain they would move us very quickly. We had a glass of wine and at that time we were the only ones outside so we enjoyed the small courtyard and quiet evening.  We ordered and it continued to threaten rain but with no results until about 4 minutes after our food came and true to their word the staff were out there and had us moved so fast that we hardly felt a drop. The food was great and as more customers came into the restaurant , we could tell it was a popular spot and were glad of our choice of restaurants.
After a lovely dinner we headed off to the market in the rain although at that time it was only spitting. The market was fun with lots of tables and booths setup selling locally made jewellery, clothes, art and foods. I did not buy anything but when I come back to Mazatlan again I will know to bring more money so that I can.

 We caught a pulmonia home and I tried to get a photo of the lights across the bay but between the bumping and starting and stopping and traffic in the way what I got was more of an abstract photo of moving lights against dark. Kind if nice really, Mazatlan at night.
Got home and watched a bit of downton abbey and noticed that one of the house plants was in bloom with a really gorgeous flower.
hit the hay after downtown and making a few plans for tomorrow and sleep very well.