Mexican Ports of Call

In my last post, I mostly covered the cruise ship Astoria, and discussed the trip itself in very general terms. I was thinking this time I'd tell you a little about our ports of call and my interaction with our stops. Besides my previous entry above, I've also found another online article about the trip you can read here. At left is the Astoria at anchor in our second-to-last port of call in Santa Rosalia.

Our itinerary included 7 stops in addition to Puerto Peñasco as the starting/stopping point. From the "top" of the Sea of Cortez, we travelled south a full day and a half to Topolobampo (no, I had never heard of it either!). It is the port city for Los Mochis, a moderate-sized city on the east side of Cortez. Very similar to our last stop in Guaymas, I found both to be gritty working-class cities, and not especially appealing to travelers. After taking the 40 minute (free) shuttle bus to Los Mochis, we walked a few blocks to the Benjamin Johnston Botanical Garden, built by an American businessman who jump started the local economy by building a giant sugar mill 100+ years ago... Interestingly, the area gets only 2" of rain a year, and of course, it started raining on us, so many headed back to the ship - highlight was buying a bag of freshly-made churros (with neither of us speaking the other's language) from a street vendor for a dollar - delish!

Another full day at sea before reaching Mazatlan. This was the stop where we were docked next to the behemoth holding 5500 passengers... Margie refused to leave the ship, so my usual travel companion Susan (shown at left) joined me leaving the Astoria. As soon as we got dropped off at the dock entrance, we met a very nice American working for a tour company who roped us into a 3-hour van tour (cue the theme from "Gilligan's Island"!). It was a GREAT way to hear and see the highlights of Mazatlan, with plenty of time to stop and visit a half dozen spots. I took a number of shots from the moving van, some better than others. An example at right a mosaic representing Mazatlan - meaning "place of deer". Preparations were in full swing for Carnival, which was a couple weeks away. It looks as if it would be quite the party place!


From one of the hills overlooking the harbor, turning towards the city the big cathedral in town stood out. Shown at left it was soon our destination where our driver gave us 45 minutes to walk around and explore, including a couple shopping options. ALL cathedrals in the Baja area are worth a visit. This one was no exception - the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Work on it began in 1856 and finished in 1899, its consecration as a basilica in 1941.  It was a pretty amazing place, every place you looked just held your attention.



I wandered around about half of the 45 minutes, then walked the 2 blocks down to the Mercado - not much that interested me. Before heading back to the van I did stop at a convenience store for some bottled water... The faucets in the ship's rooms looked a little brown, and waiting for meals to drink water left me dehydrated, so got a couple tall bottles. Interestingly, nearly 800 miles south of the US border, the local OXXO stores (pronounced Ox-o) seemed glad to take dollars, but gave change in pesos... After touring through town, the guide took us to a restaurant that specialized in seafood. About the only seafood I seek out is shrimp, and the Sea of Cortez is a "hotbed" of shrimp fishing, so was straightforward enough to decide!  Couldn't beat (in my mind) garlic shrimp and a Mexican beer!  We even had a view of the Sea of Cortez and strolling mariachis!




Another night at sea and we pulled into Cabo San Lucas early the next morning. It was a beauty of a day, and the stark contrast of water and sky against the desert tans was so striking! Caught Susan smiling (at left) as we passed by "Land's End", one of the postcard views of Cabo. The Astoria anchored in the harbor and used its own lifeboats to shuttle whoever wanted to go ashore into the dock area. You can tell the difference between Cabo and our previous stops - THIS was a pure tourist town, a land of time shares, condos and hotels. There was little sign of industry or otherwise "normal" city life. The part we hated once we got ashore is that you couldn't walk 30 feet without being accosted for a whale watching tour, or snorkeling, or fishing... It was a constant barrage of competition for the tourist dollar. We ended up just shopping at some of the shops and grabbing a bite to eat along the docks. We were also amazed at the number of swordfish and sailfish that were trundled by that sport fisherman had caught and were unloading... My fave trinket were the t-shirts hawked at one store, shown at right!


Since we spent so little time ashore, I set up my little scope at the fantail and took some close-up views of the mountains, structures and beaches. The ship is NOT a dull place to spend the day if you don't go ashore - besides the mealtimes, there was a small library, movie theater screening Oscar-nominated movies, and a constant roll of activities - 3 trivia contests a day, table tennis contests, and night time musical extravaganzas... The ship got underway again right about sunset and I caught some very nice views of the Land's End rocks with the sunset glows... At left the "arch" can be spotted on the left side, and on the right, I included another passenger enjoying the sunset with me...

Well, I figure I'm about halfway thru the coverage of the ports of call, and rather than make a marathon post, will close it out and work on part 2 in a couple days... Stay tuned!