mitsugirly

Well, it was getting late and I knew we should probably head back. We stopped a cab that pulled up and ask how much back to the port and he said $25! Wait what? You're kidding right? It only cost us $15 from the port all the way to the aquarium. Then he started talking about a "tour"..."I can take you on a tour to see the sights for $40". Um...I didn't ask for a tour, we just want to go back to the ship. It was getting late. He kept pressing "How about a 1 hour tour...I'll show you all the things of importance. Places you didn't go with a great view of the ship. How about $25?" No, we just want to go to the ship. Finally we agreed on $14 to go back to the ship, still more than I thought it should be but at least more like it. Then he throws in, I'll take you the long way and show you the sites. Consider it a "mini-tour". I verified several times...we have agreed on $14 right? Because we are not requesting a tour...just a ride back to the ship. He confirmed. Alrighty then...you pick your route Mr cab driver...whatever that route may be for $14. 🤷‍♀️ We started heading up a winding road and I could at least see the ship in the distance: He pulled over and said "You want to get out and take pictures?" I told him that was ok, I already did. He said "You must have a fast camera"... yes, yes I do. This is Creston Hill, the highest point in the entire city and a place you can go to and climb all the way up to the top. It is 334 steps to get up there. This is also where you will find the glass bridge, that was built in 2017,and you can pay an additional cost to walk out onto it. This is one of the most popular things to do in Mazatlan. (I'm glad I managed to find a better way to spend my day than giving myself a heart attack). Since 1928 the hill was used as a maritime marker and they would have bonfires to guide ships in the port. In 1879 it was improved by using an oil lamp. Then in 1905 it was replaced by a lighthouse (El Faro) that's still there today. It is considered one the highest lighthouses built on natural terrain in the world. It also used to be an island. However, in 1930 a stone road was built that linked it to the city of Mazatlan.

Then we came to a little roundabout area and I looked across the street to find even more statues (I remembered seeing these in pictures before) and I knew we had to go over. This area is known as Liverpool Alley. This alley is a replica of England's Liverpool Street, which honors The Beatles. There are statues of the members of The Beatles that look like they are crossing the famous London Street on their iconic Abbey Road album cover. Of course the kids joined in on the fun. The Cavern Club, which is where the band debuted. The classic red British style car with flags printed on its rooftop (I have one of these replica's at home added to my "red" collection in my travel room) Of course you have to have the red phone booth to go along with it (I also have one of these) ♪ We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine ♪ ♫ After enjoying this area for awhile and sitting down to rest, it was time to move on.

We waited for quite some time and the crowd was gone. I guess no more cliff divers and my anxiety was spared. I overheard someone say that they are not on a schedule and they dive when there's a big enough crowd. "Ok, let's walk down the street and do something! I'm tired of sitting here". My little ducklings, I mean family, started following and down the street we went to see if we could find anything interesting. I'm not really sure what this was? I was sure it had plenty of stairs to climb and I wasn't really in the mood to climb stairs so we didn't. I imagine the people up there could see the same as what I could from below only they are higher. 🤷‍♀️ I looked over to the other side of the street and immediately noticed something in the rocks: This is known as Cueva del Diablo...The Devil's Cave. The Chapel of San Bartolome is right above it. This cave is known to have various stories surrounding it: It was a place they used to hide soldiers guarding ammunition in the war days Pirates used it to keep their treasures in here The devil was released when work was done at the foot of the hill and the devil was heard inside Others say people have went in and never came out even though it's a very small cave that doesn't go back very far Among other stories told... ...you be the judge! There were plenty of statues along the way...I only took a few pictures. Jack Cousteau: Of course you won't find me passing up a mermaid picture. I had Sakari stand by it because well, I'm sure they were once related back in the day. Right below this mermaid statue was a weird looking concrete (?) slide that looked like it might have went into a pool at one point? I starred at it for awhile trying to figure out just what this was and what it was used for. So of course, I had to look it up and this is what I found: It is called Carpa Olivera de Mazatlan. The pool in the sea. It says it's a pool for aquatic fun and an ocean wave pool and one of the few that exist in the world. It says it is free to the public, but precautions are taken to ensure the safety of swimmers in relation to dangerous tides and waves. They say it is a revolutionary concept and the creator brought the vision of a pool fed by sea waters. There was a restaurant on site too. The pool slide was built in 2014. The salt water of the sea flows constantly to fill the pool from the waves and since it's always refilling, it made a unique experience for those who stayed at the hotels in Mazatlan. It's one of 7 marine pools in the world. I have found pictures of it with water filling it. It looks pretty cool. I guess today was a low tide? There was nothing in it and it wasn't being used. There's video's online as well. I think it's a pretty cool concept although sliding down a concrete slide that's not wet...hmmm, I don't know about that or how it would even work.

When we first got there, there was a really large crowd in the area. By the wall at the street I noticed a guy who was standing there and was wet. I assumed he was one of the divers that had just went. We decided to have a seat along the wall and wait. They had various vendors in the area selling fruits and small gifts. We decided to get a cup of mango. It was delicious but there was a lot. We had wished that we would have just bought one and shared. It was too much for us to eat all of it. I think they charged $5 each cup or maybe it was $10. I can't remember but that sounds about right. While we were sitting on the wall eating our mango and every other bite we would throw down on the rocks below us...gotta feed the birds...I started noticing something moving. After watching for awhile, I tell Sakari there's a crab on the rocks! But there wasn't just A CRAB there were tons of them everywhere. I seen a mermaid in the distance and decided to go over and check it out. Well at least the cliff divers don't actually have to climb the cliff to get to the top.

Ok, it's been a very busy week for me and I just finished up for the day...so...it's time to get back at this review. After finishing up at the aquarium, we walked down the street a ways but didn't see much but did take a picture of a few statues: I made the executive decision to grab a cab and have them take us to the area where the cliff divers are located. We had plenty of time to spare so why not? I was pretty sure it would give me high anxiety but I was willing chance it anyhow. Our driver charged up $10 to get there. I'm not sure if this was considered one of the Palmonia cars or not but it looked like a car that had the top cut off, then roll bars and another top put on. It was all open aired. I took pictures along the way. This guy had a serious sound system in it with speakers in the roof.

No it was some type of lizard looking creatures inside a hollowed trees. 😄 Oh, well maybe I've been wrong in thinking they all go in the canal? I'll have to check more into it. I can completely understand about those perks. We only cruised with NCL for the longest time and got all the perks but eventually decided other cruise lines were a lot of fun as well. We are almost to Platinum status with Carnival. We are miles away from RC any status. LOL LOL I know right? 😄 Yes she has grown... and too fast for my liking! Really? What ship were we on together? We love Carnival as well...and RC. Heck, we love any cruise ship I would imagine. lol

Well, it's really hard to answer that question about the price. It is definitely expensive for an activity in Mexico I feel like. It's definitely more expensive than even going to our local zoo, which is HUGE and well known because of Jack Hanna. But, I guess it was worth it for us because it gave us something to do for the day other than just walk around and explore or ride around on a tour. Sakari is an animal lover and it suited her well and she was excited to go so that made it worth it. I looked at it this way, we would have spent that on an excursion had we done it, so this was our excursion for the day. 🙂

Oh ok. I wasn't sure if you had kept up with those or not. Yea, not giving up cruising but we definitely love our land vacations as well. OHHHHHH I WANNA GO! That's been on my bucket list too: Costa Rica and Panama. I would love to do a Panama cruise in the canal. Can't you do ones that start in one place and end in another for a shorter cruise? I'm going to have to check this out. It's so hard for us to leave our animals as well. Oh that sounds dreadful. Do you have an iphone? If you have one, you can get the ear buds and they seem to be really loud. I always have to turn mine down they are so loud. Maybe that would help? Oh yea, I remember that story. Yikes! When you both first posted PTSD I thought you were referring to something I had posted that we were doing. But, I get it now. That would be a nightmare! I hope some day you get to swim with the whale sharks. It's the MOST AMAZING experience ever.

I'm going to call it a night for now. I have an early morning meeting tomorrow and need to get some sleep. I hope everyone is enjoying the review and our day at the aquarium. I will try to continue tomorrow with the rest of our day exploring.

We went to another bird show and they had several birds do a few tricks. They also brought out the owl and Sakari cheered! Well, we had pretty much seen and done it all. It was time to head out and explore a little bit. It was now probably around a little after noon.

Here comes a baby dinosaur...have you ever seen a dinosaur in real life Karl? Heading over to the flamingo area: We heard a commotion in a building and went to check it out. They were getting ready for a sea lion show. I guess if I can't swim with them, I'll watch them do tricks. Of course the entire show was in Spanish so no idea what they were saying but none the less, it was funny to watch them perform. This is Toby: This lady talked and talked and talked and honestly it got quite annoying. Maybe because we couldn't understand but it was really drug out a little too long. Just have him do the tricks already. We weren't the only one watching the show... Next was Tito: I felt like Tito did more interesting tricks but Sakari liked Toby better. Eh, they were both outstanding.

They had a big stadium where they had a bird show and we headed over to watch...only they came outside into an open area. This guy had 2 birds and another guy had 1. Before long, they were talking in Spanish and building excitement and we had absolutely no idea what they were saying or about to do. Then....they released them!! Wait what??? These birds took off into the sky and out of sight. Before long, they returned and just kept flying around for a VERY long time. They would circle the buildings, go out over the street area, around the building, it was just crazy to watch. My heart pitter pattered a lot during this flight display. They all stayed together during the entire flight. Sometimes they got really close to the audience as they zoomed by. Then their trainers walked to an entirely different area and called them back and in they came. It was just so amazing to watch. I don't know how they do it! I wish Sakari could train hers like this but I would never trust that.

A lot of birds up in the trees today We decided to head to the bird aviary because Sakari is a bird person of course. She absolutely loved this little owl. We actually loved they had a huge cage that you could go into with the birds. They were flying around everywhere and a lot of them.

We really wanted to see the penguins and headed over to that building. Now our espanol is muy pequeno... meaning very little known to us but sometimes enough to understand. 😉 We followed some signs and went into a building. It went up, there was nothing. We kept going up, still nothing. It was a rather large building. Um, ok. Maybe they don't have the penguins anymore? We continued and started to head back down. Hey at least they had some cute displays right? It made me want to head to Alaska now. I mean at least there it's SUPPOSED to be cold. Then finally...we found them. Once we got out of the building, we would notice that we had went in the wrong way and that's why we weren't seeing anything. Oopsy

We decided to head outside. But first we had to stop and get pop...which will cost you $3.00 for one. We stood on the walkway and watched some type of ?duck? and it would dive under and STAY UNDER forever! Then you'd never know just where it was going to pop up. It was super quick swimming and would make it half way across the water then duck under and come back. It was pretty amazing to watch. Gatorland...I don't really care for gators. They look creepy.