The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

Started the day off by searching for the pasteleria we had gone to a couple days ago. It seems like Mexican’s don’t understand how someone parallel parks. Every time I’ve tried to parallel park so far in Mexico, I put my indicator on while approaching the spot, I pass it, and then try to reverse into it. But whenever there’s traffic the car behind me stays right on my butt and doesn’t let me park. I now try to do the somewhat more messy front-in approach. We parked and a few stores away was a good looking restaurant for breakfast.

It looked like someone’s kitchen that oppened up to the street with a few tables. There was a stove, a table with cutting board, and food ingredients in boxes. As we were looking in, the owner waved us in. After a “cuanto cuesta desayuno” he replied – so cheap, it’s like it’s free – 25 pesos ($2 US) (he said this in English – we’ve found Mazatlanians to be far better English speakers than other cities, even in the non-tourist districts). I had huevos mexicana (scrambled eggs with peppers and chilis) while Katie had huevos revueltos con jamon (scrambled eggs with ham). Along with a 6 peso 600mL soft drink the bill was an amazing 56 pesos. We decided to pay 60 pesos ($4.80 US)

We found the pastry shop and I got a vanilla filled donut while Katie got a sweet bread. Again, an amazing price of 7 pesos for mine and 5 pesos for Katie’s. We bagged them, walked the few blocks to the ocean, and ate them on some stairs by the ocean. We were trying to figure out the word for pig, so I asked some nearby Mexicans “en espanol que es la palabra para puerco que viva” (in spanish, what’s the name for pork that lives) and after a bit of silence I said “oink oink”. They told us “cochito”.

We went souvenir shopping for a while and after being in the same store for a while, Katie was a feeling dehydrated and was sitting on the curb outside the store. After Katie responded to the store-lady asking her what was up, the store lady left her store, crossed the street, bought a bottle of water, and brought it back to Katie. We thought this was really nice. We also passed a stand that had something I hadn’t seen before – mango on a stick. I figured it was picture worthy.

Went home, siesta’d for a few hours, then left the hotel and drove/walked 15 blocks or so in search of a restaurant. We found one selling dinner for 35 pesos ($2.80 US). I had bistec (beef) while Katie had chili revuelto (stuffed chili – an actual stuffed chili pepper). Along with a 500mL fanta it came to 80 pesos ($6.40 US). Now back at the hotel about to leave to grab a cerveza and watch the sunset from the beach.

Planning to drive Mazatlan – San Carlos tomorrow (a very long distance. We spent 2 days doing this before.) We’ll stay a day in San Carlos, then drive back to the States and do some camping and hiking around some of the California/Arizona/Oregon national parks. Yosemete, Redwood, and the Grand Canyon are all possibilities.