Week 62 – ‘adventure restarts’

​We’re back on the road. And it feels good.
 
To begin the week, we got on the container ferry from La Paz, Baja to Mazatlan on the mainland. The boat was pretty empty (although this week was a national holiday in Mexico, so no doubt that had an impact. And also impacted on some of the places we visited – a mass of people getting away/going home during the holidays), and even though it wasn’t entirely clear where we should be, or when, we managed to get on board. It was an overnight ferry, and we arrived without any issues at all.
 
Mazatlan was quite a nice town/city. I was expecting just some industrial port town. When we arrived, we parked up on the street, and stayed there for a couple of nights whilst we explored. A massive cruise ship had arrived, and it was strange to see some local ex-pats on the street giving out directions and advice to the arriving hoardes. It didn’t really occur to me that American expats would settle anywhere in Mexico aside from Baja, Puerta Vallarta, Cancun, etc. But, I suppose expats pretty much get everywhere, so why not here? Mazatlan is famous for 2 things: 1) people jumping off some rocks into the sea below - not quite as dramatic as ‘billed’ and 2) the world’s 2nd tallest lighthouse – well, a tiny lighthouse up a high rock, so not quite what we were expecting either (but, definitely ticked off that day’s 10,000 step requirement)
 
After Mazatlan we followed the coast south towards Puerta Vallarta (PV) and decided to stop off in San Francisco (confusingly known as San Pancho). After being stuck in a traffic jam for about 3 hours, we finally made it, to a tiny little beach, with some lovely little shops & coffee places. Plus, about half of Guadalajara on holiday. We stayed a couple of nights, and whilst not particularly chilled & relaxing (due to the mass of people) we could see this would be a quaint little place during any other normal week. As such, we decided to skip Sayulita & PV which were just down the coast, as we thought they would be much the same - simply bigger, and full of more tourists (we had no interest in seeing another Cabo).
 
So, it was off inland towards Tequila. YES, that Tequila. Whilst not really a place that was raved about, we really like it. Tiny little cobbled streets, with the typical central American shop fronts dotted along them (selling fake jeans, and lots of stationary). Again, as it was the holiday week it was pretty busy, but that meant lots going on. We had a few drinks in the famous La Capilla bar (voted in top 50 bars of the world in 2014. So the barman was keen to tell us). Not sure why it is famous (imagine a small, old stone barn interior with plastic garden furniture) but there was some local musicians playing, and after a couple of tequilas we were getting into the spirit of the place.
 
The next day we hiked down towards a little waterfall. Even though, I got a bit spoilt with the one in Baja, it was still a pretty nice way to spend a couple of hours and to wrap up the week.
 
Wow, in comparison to the last few weeks, we really feel like we are back on the road, and seeing & doing a lot more.
 
Better karma all round.