A little blast in San Blas

We left on Tuesday, direction San Blas. The reason we wanted to go to this particular town was a personal one. We have a friend who found his Mexican bride there and she still lives in Summerland. Having heard so much about it we were curious to check it out. The road going there was pretty uneventful. We stuck to the quotas (the paying highways) which charge you indiscriminate amounts regardless of state of the road or distance covered. It's a bit hit or miss mostly miss for us since it cost almost $25.00 to cover a relatively short distance of about 350 kms. We always thought that the quotas were government run and didn't mind paying the money but our friend Pedro told us that they're privately owned and that only a small amount of tax is held back for the government. Score one again for free enterprise.
San Blas itself is your typical, chaotic Mexican small town. There are many buildings in various stages of construction or destruction. Dogs of all shapes and sizes roam the streets. The sidewalks are more or less non existent and many of the roads, most in fact, were unpaved. When we arrived we discovered that the main road had been completely gutted with huge mountains of dirt and rock debris waiting to be pushed around. Work was progressing, albeit at a bit of a slow pace yet in typical Mexican fashion everybody appeared to take it in stride. It was impossible to get to the best hotel in town because of the state of the road but our luck held out. We found this adorable pension, gringo owned, only 4 sparkling clean rooms with a swimming pool, lots of plants and beautifully decorated. The price was 450 a night the same as what we were paying at the Belmar which works out to about $37.00. It was well within out budget and a little oasis in the midst of the generalized brouhaha.
If you want to score a cheap price for oysters San Blas is the place for you. A dozen of medium size oysters will set you back 25 pesos, about $2.00. We had our lucky dozen and they were very tasty. It turns out that the salty rio (river) is just full of them which explains the cheapness and abundance. Fish whole and opened up in a sort of filet style is smoked and barbecued, another tasty dish which we also sampled by the side of the road. There are all sorts of shacks leading the way into San Blas which sell these. That same day we walked to the beach but were not impressed with the sand, kind of grayish in color or the quality of the waves. San Blas is reputed to be a blast for surfers, some of the longest, continuous waves around but the time was not right for those kinds of waves not that we had any intention to try our luck at surfing.
The next day we headed out to find a boat which would take us down the river to La Tovara for a journey of about 3 and a half hours. We found our guy fairly easily, settled on a price and off we went. The rio is home to about 300 bird species and also crocodiles. It's a mangrove very rich in nutrients. The beautiful, meandering river was a joy to travel on. We saw many species of birds which he identified for us. Neither of us are birders so I won't bother naming them for you.
Suffice it to say that spying on egrets, blue and green herons, boat bill herons and crocodiles of all shapes and sizes in their natural habitat was quite a thrill.
The most intriguing bird was an owl that looks just like the branch of a tree till you see its wings flutter, very unusual. When we got to La Tovara there was a restaurant and a crystal clear pool where we had a most refreshing swim. That trip in itself was worth going to San Blas for.
Coming back was equally peaceful, giant ferns, mangrove trees leading the way. The air smelled of decomposition but it was not unpleasant signaling instead nature doing its harmonious work, something dying and something reborn in equal measure.
We enjoyed our short stay in San Blas. It's the kind of authentic, gritty Mexican town that is unvarnished and which less adventurous tourists rarely get to experience. Regardless of their town the people who live there go about their business, boisterously trying to make each day count. Everybody was friendly and open. We wouldn't spend a week there but for a couple of days it was more than acceptable, not a total blast but a little bit of a blast for sure.

Visit to Gringoland

No worries we're still in Mazatlan but we presently reside in old Mazatlan in the centre of this historic city with some freshly renovated buildings and some crumbling ones as well,many are too far gone and are beyond repair. New Mazatlan which is much further down the malequon (beach promenade) is home to most of the newly minted condos and the ever present all inclusives. This is where most of the tourists end up for their one or two week stays. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just not for us. We took a bus to see if there were many of them around and sadly, for Mexico and workers from the area, the answer is not very many. The beach was almost deserted, it's a huge beach, plenty of sand and sea but not too many bodies. The problem is there are so many of these spots in Mexico and only so many gringos to go around.

Furthermore Cancun and Puerto Vallarta have eclipsed Mazatlan in recent years. They are perceived, wrongly in my estimate, as having more panache and more allure thus their appeal to tourists who might not know any better. In the end it doesn't really matter. As far as I'm concerned all inclusives are probably all alike regardless of their location. They offer the same pre-packaged antiseptic types of environment, free of germs, lots of food and booze and easily recognizable signposts which scream "nothing threatening here". For Mexico's sake it would have been nice to see more white bodies on the beach, the vendadores walking from one end to the other are looking mighty lonely with nobody to sell their holiday trinkets to.

Today Sunday was a big day in Mexico. It was 400 years ago that the Virgin of Guadeloupe appeared to a poor peasant just out of Mexico city. She is venerated across Mexico and people traveled all the way to Mexico City to request her favours, not really sure it's working but faith is important in this country, they believe with a lot of fervor.
We went to the Cathedral to check things out and the party to celebrate the Virgin's arrival was in full swing with the usual attendant chaos.
All the childrens and there were many of them were dressed in traditional Indian costumes, cute as buttons, down to the littlest babies. There was also a concert going on with incredibly bad singers, nobody was getting paid, this was all pro bono, which party explains the lack of quality. Nobody seemed to mind with the crowd happily singing along. There was the usual array of vendors of all stripes and colors and lots of finger food to be had. It's going to be a royal mess tomorrow to clean up, nothing unusual about that. At one end of the plaza there is a huge fake Christmas tree courtesy of Coke, coke logos are everywhere on it, even the star at the top is a coke logo. Coke dollars hard at work in Mexico and they do love their Coke, they drink it by the bucket even early in the morning.
We didn't go swimming today. It was windy and the sea was rough plus the water
still hasn't warmed up that much. We're holding out for Melaque, it's further south and it should be warmer by the time we get there. Tomorrow is our last day here. I'll try and post some pictures some time next week. Was able to buy some postcards, strangely enough, not an easy proposition. I don't think people write too many of these anymore. They weren't the prettiest but they will have to do. We've really enjoyed our time here. It's been mellow and relaxed but time to move on. No worries we'll be back Mazatlan.