When we went on our annual journey to Mazatlán, I had no intention of writing the trip.  We have a timeshare there so we go every year. It is usually just a relaxing time without anything special going on. 

We get two weeks a year so sometimes we have friends or family join us and we use both of our weeks in the same week.  Other times we come for two weeks by ourselves which is what we did this year.

We have been coming to Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay since 2008 and have found we enjoy being there in December when there are fewer guests. 

That makes it easy to move around and find lounge chairs by the pool. Our favorite waiter by the pool this year was Armando. Those drinks are Miami Vices – half strawberry daiquiri and half piña colada.

As I said, I didn’t have any intention of writing this trip but some things happened that were just interesting and fun. 

While lounging on our third floor balcony, peeking through the palms at the Pacific Ocean, this guy walked by! That was the opening salvo!

We started looking around and saw many iguanas on the building ledges and in the trees nearby.  Our room was at a good height for seeing them in the trees and we were on the end of the building. We had trees and ledge exposure on two sides.

It didn’t matter if the wind was blowing, they’d just sway in the breeze.

This is an older male. He was on the ledge every day. Seeing eight or nine of his clan was the norm. One day we saw twelve!  We were starting to think there was a nest or colony nearby.

It was all fun until one morning I went out to have my coffee and croissant on the balcony.  One guy surprised me by already being on our side of the balcony fence!  

We had seen a small green one on the balcony once before but it scurried away quickly when we came out. This one was not deterred. 

I think he was a teenage male because he had the draping under the chin that the large orange males have, but not yet the full orange coloring. And he was naughty!

He was NOT intimidated at all by my presence and wouldn’t be shooed away. When I gave up and went back inside he actually tried to get in our room. He acted like he’d been inside before – maybe when some previous guest left the screen door open.

I was trapped inside drinking my coffee.

Randy went out and shared the balcony with him for a while.  Soon a second iguana joined the “fun” times.

A bit later the maid came by and brought out her broom.  Randy used it to scurry them off.

We were used to iguanas being on the resort grounds, and had enjoyed them for years, but this was the first time we had such up close and personal interaction!

Our maid’s name was Selene, pronounce “suh LEN ay.”   My name is pronounced “suh REN ay” in Mexico.  I showed her how my name was spelled just one letter differently and how mine and hers were pronounced in English.   She spoke even less English than I do Spanish but we understood the iguanas and our names.

Another first time event in Mazatlán for us on this trip was a food tour through Flavor Tellers guided by Eduardo.  We went to six or seven places with the first being the best.

It was a taco breakfast cart.  They only have the license to be in the location until 11:00 am so have to start breaking down at 10:30.  Our tour began at 10:00 and we went straight there.  

Randy and I are veterans of food tours so knew to eat very little prior to the tour.  We also know that it is usually best not to eat the entire offering to pace ourselves.

However, these tacos were most excellent.  Randy had one with beans and a hint of chorizo. Mine was made with machaca. Notice the plastic covering over the plates – an interesting alternative to paper plates or to washing the plates.

Our second stop was for fish stew or another taco.  We did the tacos. These were far moister and seemed almost like enchiladas.  We paced ourselves at this stop.

The third stop was to a real tortilla factory. 

We learned how the tortillas are made from sun dried white corn and cooked with limestone.  

The corn is rinsed and then the corn is ground. A small of amount water is added to make the dough. 

The dough is formed into circles by machine and put through a multi layer baking process.  The tortillas are stacked and sold immediately.People come and buy them from the shop as soon they come out of the oven. 

Tortillas are considered an essential staple so the prices are regulated by the government. The sign says 25 pesos per kilo.

Our next stop was a shop selling only fresh fish.  Any fish that is not sold the first day is smoked over night and then sold as smoked fish.  If it isn’t sold that day it is made into a fish paté and there is never any of that left.   We both tried a bit of the smoked fish and Randy tried, and enjoyed, the paté.

Our next stop was to visit the shrimp ladies.  There are other kinds of gross sea creatures as well – gross because I don’t like any seafood and gross because there were flies everywhere! The picture only shows about a third of the tubs with seafood.

We were offered dried shrimp.  I declined but Randy tried it and, even though he loves all kinds of shrimp, he didn’t like this sampling enough to finish it.

Our main eating venue was a Mexican restaurant with a lot of Mazatlán family history and lore.  We had seen one of the locations near our resort but had never eaten there.  

We had a collection of typical breakfast foods for the table and could have what we liked.  Again, I preferred the machaca, dried beef cooked in seasonings, shown on the right in this plate.

Our last stop was Tres Islas (three islands) Brew pub.  

We were offered two tastings each and we shared.  The first, on the left, was a plumeria.  The second two glasses of beer are the same because we both wanted the beer made with coffee and vanilla.  The last was a vienna beer reminiscent of those we had in Europe.  

A day or two later, we went to a Venados baseball game.  The Venados (deer) is the Mazatlán city team and we had been to another game years ago.

The old stadium was taken down and replaced by a great new one!

Besides the game, there was non stop entertainment happening including the Mexican Chippendales.   As someone who usually cares about the outcome of games we go to, I’m glad I didn’t care about this one! I would have found the non stop distractions annoying, if I cared.  After being no hit for the first half of the game, the Venados roared back to win!

I have had it in my Mazatlán trip notes for years to go to the Christmas program at the Angela Peralta Theatre. It isn’t possible to order tickets online and this year we were there in time to get tickets for two shows.

First we need some history on the theater.  It is a luxurious opera house named for Angela Peralta, a beloved Mexican singer who lived from 1845-1883.  She was a world-famous soprano, composer, harpist, and pianist.  She married a cousin who soon died in a mental institution. Then she had an affair with her manager.  The affair was so scandalous that religious citizens in Mexico City derailed her career.  

She still enjoyed success elsewhere. She arrived in Mazatlán and died of yellow fever at age 38 before ever having a chance to sing in Mazatlán.  Seventy-six of her troupe and many citizens of Mazatlán also died of yellow fever. Some people believe that Angela Peralta was married to a singer in her company on her death bed, either after she was unconscious or after she was deceased. 

The theater that bears her name was built in 1874 and named the Rubio Theater.  It fell into decline during the 1920s and was completely unusable by the 1960s. 

The theater was completely renovated in 1992 , named the Angela Peralta Theater. It is lovely! The seats look like a painting, but this is a photograph we took before it started to fill up with patrons.

Due to the way they have tiered seating, even on the sides – there are great views from almost every seat.

Our first show, in English, was Betwitching Broadway.  A group of four singers and a pianist were joined by the Mazatlán symphony for a selection of musical numbers.

The common themes were witches, murder and death. We heard songs from Wicked, The Little Mermaid, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Sweeny Todd among others.  

Prior to dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants called Topolo. The setting is an outdoor courtyard with lots of color.

They make salsa for you at the table to your specifications. We go to Topolo every year when we go to Mazatlán.

We were in Mazatlán December 4-18, 2023.

Next up: More Mazatlán!