7-30-09 - Mazatlan - Day 4

4th day at sea, and all is still well………..docked in Mazatlan around 8am, Alex & I on the top deck watching us come into the harbor. Man, it stinks here in the harbor. Major refuse, sewer, fishing and industrial smells. Once we get off the exposed decks and to the inner sections of the boat, including the pools, order is gone. About 85 degrees at 9am, sun blasting, not so humid as Puerto Vallarta, but still a bit muggy. Nice city to view from the deck - major beaches with high-rise hotels, hillsides covered with nice homes as well as shanties & huts, poverty is visible, yet mixed with suburban elements. Bustling port of commerce, with multiple cargo ships lined up in the harbor.

Here's what you see from the ship when you are on either side:



Everyone except me and the boys left the ship today. Two went deep sea fishing early, the rest disembarked around 10am, and it's now 5pm and they're due back any moment (boat leaves in less than a ½ hour - hope they make it. Me & the boys did very little; swam, ate, napped, swam, played miniature golf, swam, played in the video game room, swam, listened to live music, watched a Moody Blues concert on the big screen, swam. Got a nice tan going, and none of us are sunburned, because we weren't in the pool for more than 15-20 minutes at a time.


Nice and relaxed today, not thinking much about anything, lost in my book of a Million Pieces, and doing the occasional Sudoku. With only a few days left on this tug, starting to think about the real world again, yet doing so with anticipation and not regret. I am so grateful (still) to be be here at all, blessed to be with my family, and even enjoying friends, learning to laugh with them and not at them (as they are quite inebriated most of the time). But all in all, still a good time is being had, and while there's always something that could be better, I'm just happy for all that is right.

Tomorrow's a big day - Cabo San Lucas. Not sure at all what the day will hold, but I am in a poker tournament at 4:30pm, which is really all I am planning. Don't know if we'll get off the ship as a family or not. Yesterday, in Puerto Vallarta, did about ½ hour of shopping with the boys; it was about a 100 degrees, and that's all they could stand. I did treat myself to a silver crucifix, which I've wanted for quite some time. Price started out at $90 (cross + chain). Guy threw in a large bottle of Vanilla (Cori wanted this), and walked out at $40 for all of it. Probably could have done better, but we heard before we left the ship the merchants are hurting, as swine flue and low cruise attendances have hurt everyone in these port towns. In Cabo, if we do go shopping, will look for the golf cap, t-shirts, and rest of the tourista stuff - not sure if there's really anything else I want/need.


Signing off now - wondering if the gang made it back to the ship, or if they're blotto'd in a bar and will have to rent a car to get to Cabo for tomorrow. LOL - that would be an amazing story to blog about if it happens, let alone a wonderful story for the kids to remind their parents about frequently over the next decades….jeez, am I grateful I am no longer part of that mentality, and survived it all when I was…..