May in Mexico

hound dog wrote:Dawg ~ I don't know about Mazatlán, but in Guaymas The Playa de Cortes in Miramar is exquisite. An old colonial style hotel built in 1936 in the manner of the previous century. The epitome of Old World elegance. They are on the Bahia de Bacochibampo and have their own beach. The place is exquisite.

¡SOLD!

Dawg will you let us know how it is after you stay there. I will be green with envy if it's as good as it sounds.

"Any ideas on good places to stay in Mazatlan and Guaymas or San Carlos preferably on the beach? No dogs this time , thank God so that is not an issue. Recommendations on really good seafood joints would be greatly appreciated. Down here in Highland Chiapas, the best seafood comes from the Chedraui supermarket and is cooked up at home. We have a dream of sittting on the beach under a palapa consuming great (or even pretty damn good) seafood and ice cold cerveza while enjoying the warm sea breeze. Perhaps today´s wet, chilly weather in San Cristóbal is fueling that dream"

Dawg, I am doing some serious thinking about your stop in Mazatlán. I figure I have one chance to get it right, since you have been less than generous with your comments about my town over the years. Part of my dilemma is that I live in the Centro Historico, a most lovely area, and the hotel you are picturing, with palapas on the beach, will be in the tourist zone. Maybe if you stay up there on the beach, I can get you downtown for a lovely meal someplace. My recs are forthcoming. Dee

mazdee wrote: "Any ideas on good places to stay in Mazatlan and Guaymas or San Carlos preferably on the beach? No dogs this time , thank God so that is not an issue. Recommendations on really good seafood joints would be greatly appreciated. Down here in Highland Chiapas, the best seafood comes from the Chedraui supermarket and is cooked up at home. We have a dream of sittting on the beach under a palapa consuming great (or even pretty damn good) seafood and ice cold cerveza while enjoying the warm sea breeze. Perhaps today´s wet, chilly weather in San Cristóbal is fueling that dream"

Dawg, I am doing some serious thinking about your stop in Mazatlán. I figure I have one chance to get it right, since you have been less than generous with your comments about my town over the years. Part of my dilemma is that I live in the Centro Historico, a most lovely area, and the hotel you are picturing, with palapas on the beach, will be in the tourist zone. Maybe if you stay up there on the beach, I can get you downtown for a lovely meal someplace. My recs are forthcoming. Dee

Thanks, Dee. I have never actually been to Mazatlan and know nothing about it so I´m surprised that I had anything negative to say about the city but maybe years ago when I was an impetuous youth in my late 50s when we first moved here, I rashly made snide comments on a subject about which I was uninformed but now, as a kindly 69 year old geezer, I have matured and regret even having been associated with that youthful imbecile so please accept my apologies.

Since you brought it up, rest assured that we prefer to stay in the Centro Historico in a really classy hotel and dine on a "lovely (seafood) meal" in a local establishment catering to a local crowd vs. some tourist trap on the beach featuring free margaritas and mystery fish a la Chapala´s dreaded "Little Acapulcito" restaurant row. Please, by all means, send us your recommendations and the central historic district it is as far as we are concerned. We are already committed to staying in the dowager hotel recommended by simpsca to us earlier on this thread in Guaymas so lets go for age and class in both seaside towns. I can see us now dining on great seafood while sitting in centro in fine old cane chairs under breezy ceiling fans having walked up the street from our hotel going, "In all the gin joints in the world...." if you get my drift. Since this will be July and coming back we will be loaded with all kinds of goodies from Santa Fe (after ten years without visiting the U.S.), we do prefer air conditioning and secure parking but otherwise we have no special needs. Now, you know we would not have bought a second home in San Cristóbal de Las Casas if we didn´t have a special affection for colonial centers so we look forward to your recommendations.

Besides, Dawg is a rather large person in the tradition of my hero Sydney Greenstreet and might be mistaken for a manatee and harpooned if I went swimming in the sea. Best to stay inland and fully clothed.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Dawg

I'm on it, Dawg. And, I would like to join you for the seafood dinner if you will have me. Later, Dee

Hotel Freeman

Bubba, the place for you in Mazatlan is the Hotel Freeman.

uj

Yup Mississippi. But at 333 feet we're practically a mountain in this neck of the woods! I've been lost for 13 years.....in the PNW...as long as it was clear..Mount Hood could be counted on to at least show me which direction south was! No such luck here. We're about 50 miles SE of Memphis....and I'm so very glad when we first moved here that I wasn't set on buying something with a view of the Mississippi!

Glad to hear you are safe, but sorry to hear what is going on in your state - well all the states in the south-east.

mazdee wrote:I'm on it, Dawg. And, I would like to join you for the seafood dinner if you will have me. Later, Dee

Have you, Dee? Absolutely. When we firm up our plans we´ll PM you. Please consider it a dinner date around the first week in July. The precise date to be communicated to you soon. We look forward to meeting you.

What do you think of that driving schedule of Chapala-Mazatlan-Guaymas-Tucson?

Thanks for your Mazatlan hotel input UJ.

It would be nice if this forum could mature into a reasonable alternative to other Chapala based forums. Not to defeat them but to compete with them thereby making all better products serving the community. Competition greases the wheels of commerce. Proclaimed by a dedicated but rational leftist.

What do you think of that driving schedule of Chapala-Mazatlan-Guaymas-Tucson?


Quite doable and most civilized.


uj

Uncle Jack wrote:What do you think of that driving schedule of Chapala-Mazatlan-Guaymas-Tucson?


Quite doable and most civilized.


uj

Thanks, Jack.

hound dog wrote:

sparks wrote:May is the beginning of Mango season. Got 4-5 yesterday off the tree nextdoor

The act of appropriating mangos from a neighbor´s yard during the season when that fruit at its ripe stage, the fruit equivalent of batshit dripping on one´s tortilla pie, is akin to stealing snot from a rhinoceros just returned from his morning jog. Easy to find, of value to only a few and hard to get rid of unless you ingest it.

Everyone I know who has a mango tree with proilific seasonal fruit production would beg their neighbors to steal it.

Like the zucchini season up north! But I can eat 2/3 day and it means the beach vendors will be selling mangoes on a stick for 5 pesos

Great instincts, Kip. Lizzy

Kippy...........I'm glad to hear you're up on a hill there. I used to think it would be a fine thing to be living in a place where I could watch the Russian River in CA flowing by. However, lured by a modicum of good judgment and a tasty price, I bought a house across the street and up on a steep hill where I had a peek of the water far below. The first bad winter, I watched the wreckage float by.

Stay safe and sound. Hope all continues to be well for you, your family and your critters.

"What do you think of that driving schedule of Chapala-Mazatlan-Guaymas-Tucson?
Thanks for your Mazatlan hotel input UJ."

I think your drive schedule sounds great. Everybody I know heads straight for the border with an overnight at Navajoa. A little side trip to a nice hotel is excellent!

I have a different hotel suggestion, but you decide. My friends Glen and Sharon run the beautiful Casa de Leyendas, a historic house that they converted to a B&B. I think you would love it. The only thing is, the bedrooms are on the second floor and there are some stairs. I asked her how many. Sharon says "Our stairs are a very easy climb, low and wide, there are 10 to the first landing and 9 to the top with a banister on both sides. If they choose to use the rooftop terrace, the stairs are concrete with banister and about 15 steps." They don't have parking, but there is a secure lot across the street for about $30 p a night which they and I recommend. Here's the website, check it out. http://casadeleyendas.com/

Uncle J's suggestion is ok. The Freeman (a block from the B&B) has an elevator and ocean view rooms and is about the same price. From the top, the view of Mazatlán is about the best in the city. (For some reason, you have to go up 2 flights of stairs to get to the bar and pool areas because the elevator stops at the 8th floor!) They have a nice breakfast, included in the price (but so does Leyendas.) And a secure parking lot. There is some history. It was the 1st "high rise" in Maz, all of 9 floors, back in the 40s. It has been completely renovated and is now a modern concrete building, if you know what I mean. Comfortable, I guess. I heard the beds are hard, but that's not unusual. A little sterile compared to the B&B. Here's the website http://www.bestday.com.mx/Mazatlan/Hoteles/Posada_Freeman/

Now, if I were staying here for a night or 2, I wouldn't pay a hundred bucks, I would go to La Siesta. That's another oldie from the 40's or so, when Olas Altas (this neighborhood) was the happenin place in Maz. La Siesta is a little seedy, but comfortable enough, has a really good restaurant (El Shrimp Bucket, precursor of the whole chain of Sr Frogs, Carlos and Charlies, etc) and the rooms are so close to the ocean! It's about $40 a night US, but I don't know what they do about parking. http://www.mexicohoteles.com.mx/Mazatlan/la_siesta.php

Check out the websites and send me your questions. I will pm you my personal email.
Dee

Thank you, Dee. An amusing response. We´ll have to think about it but, at least at this point in our lives the walking up of stairs is not an issue so that will not be a factor in our deciision. No matter, we do hope you will join us for dinner that night and will PM you as to when we will be passing through Mazatlan.

I am reminded, speaking of stairs, that one of the criteria we applied when we bought a retirement home back in 2001, was that it have no stairs - not because we could not negotiate them then but because we might not be able to in the future and who wants to move of necessity when they are 80 or older because they can´t climb stairs once viewed as access to a favored sanctuary. This was an important factor for us as back in the 1970s we had had an opportunity to buy a very nice home on a cliff over the sea in Rio Del Mar, California simply because the elderly owners could no longer climb the stairs to their bedroom so felt compelled to sell their home which they otherwise loved. We would have bought that house in a nanosecond but someone beat us to it.

When we retired, we chose the flatlands in West Ajijic over the expat enclaves up the hills partially because we wanted to be sure that we would not be dependent on a car for access and shopping but also because we wanted to avoid living among other old farts like oursleves in some gated community where conventional wisdom anticipated the need to be protected from our fellow citizens.

We look forward to meeting you in Mazatlan.