Mazatlan, Mexico

Roof-top garden and sea view in downtown Mazatlan

Mazatlan means “place of the deer” in the ancient Nahuatl language. It’s a more of a working-person’s city, and less of a resort town than its more glamorous and famous “Night of the Iguana” neighbor Puerto Vallarta. There’s more actual culture here with the Angela Peralta Opera House, which has nightly performances of all kinds. There are also numerous arts organizations in the city. Mazatlan is considered to be the only working Pacific coastal town with a strong manufacturing infrastructure along with a rich cultural and arts community.

Old Mazatlan Inn - A Great Place to Stay. www.oldmazatlaninn.com

Fountain and Courtyard at Old Mazatlan Inn

If I were going to stay or live here for any extended time it would be in El Centro, the more interesting, historic city center and the spiritual, cultural, and emotional heart and soul of the city. And the place I’d stay would be the Old Mazatlan Inn, an artfully designed residence with a spectacular hilltop view in a charming, though hilly, neighborhood. Guests can either rent a unit or purchase one — all smartly furnished in rustic Mexican chic and with kitchens (www.oldmazatlaninn.com). Living in El Centro, however, one sacrifices the beautiful beaches of the suburban “gringo zone” to live downtown.

Strolling in the evenings in lovely Plaza Machado, one would think they were in some affluent North American city because it has been taken over by gringos.

Of course there is the presence of the drug cartels, and in fact I heard what I didn’t know was a shoot out the other morning. Apparently someone — not drug related — was trying to steal the car of the mayor’s body guard. They caught the thief. I’ve seen no crime or problems here, otherwise, and it feels peaceful and safe. Sadly, the cruise ships have stopped coming because of the drug wars, which is really a shame and hurting the economy here greatly. But as far as I’m concerned and from my recent visit I can report that Mazatlan feels totally safe.

Entrance to Old Mazatlan Inn

Window Trim Detail at Old Mazatlan Inn

Mexico House Swap – Alzeimers Cat?

Baby

Here in Mazatlan, Mexico, I’m house and pet sitting. I connected with a condo owner who wanted to swap houses with someone in Boulder, CO, where she lived for many years. I jumped at the chance to escape the onset of winter and stay on the beach. So my furry charges are a cat named Baby and a dog named Funny.

Baby. Is anything but. At 13 this sweet, demure, diminutive kitty seems the perfect lady. Until night falls. Despite her feather weight and demeanor she packs a yowl that would wake the dead. She sounds like a nubile cat in heat, strutting the red-light district of notorious cat houses. Of course this Jekyll and Hyde transformation only occurs at 3:00 a.m., and continues until dawn.

For the last two nights Baby has caterwauled in the wee hours keeping me awake and/or reawakened every 15 minutes. Needless to say, I woke up this morning mad at Baby. So then she later disappeared. After searching on three floors of this giant condo building with three sets of stairs I went to ask Judy, a neighbor who helps find Baby when she wanders off. Baby or any other pet is not allowed to roam freely throughout the condo.

After the last two nights I was hoping that Baby had flung herself off a railing from the 9th floor to the concrete below. In fact in the middle of the night when she kept caterwauling relentlessly, I had thoughts of flinging her off my 9th floor balcony. This morning during the search for Baby, I looked down from the dizzying heights hoping to see a cat pancaked on the ground. Don’t get me wrong. I love cats and have four of my own, but Baby is ready for an asylum or the old cats home.

So Judy and I began a sweep of the entire nine floors of the condo building, which has three wings, separated by three staircases. Apparently, Baby will go down stairs but doesn’t like to go up. So Judy started on the ground floor hoping to sweep her upward.  I started on the top floor to sweep her downward or intercept Judy’s “upsweep.” No Baby.

Baaaaaaa Beeeeeeeee, Judy sang loudly and embarassingly through out the echoing hallways. I did a quieter version. After we met in the middle with no luck I gave up and went to the unit. As I fired up the laptop Baby came strolling out from under the couch where she had been sleeping. This was after we had returned once to the unit to call Baby and make sure she wasn’t in it. So then I had to go find Judy, who was still sweeping the condo hallways singing Baaaaaaaaaaa Beeeeeeeeee, kitty, kitty, kitty in a very loud voice. Judy was good natured when I told her about Baby’s reappearance after Judy had walked up and down nine floors and all the hallways.

Baby is now sitting placidly out in the sun on the front step washing herself, oblivious to the disturbance she created.

I e-mailed my neighbor who is a vet. She says such caterwauling is caused by deafness, hyperthyroidism or senility. Baby might have all three.

Dogs and Aliens

El Marina Tenis y Yate Club has a nice beach and marina.

Here in retirement central up in Cerritos Beach, brown and leathery old ladies bask out in the sun like iguanas and become ever more brown and leathery. Although there are lots of very nice people at the condo here, there are also a few psychotic old biddies. I’m in charge of an adorable old dog, a rat terrier a little larger than a big cat, with a shy and gentle personality, well named “Funny.”

Funny, who comes from the Planet Cheron, whose people appeared in Star Trek

With his face evenly split black and white he looks like one of those early Star Trek characters — the people from the planet Cheron. It’s a good thing that he’s adorable because he has some really revolting habits like eating poop and his own vomit — not to mention fish bones and other assorted garbage.

Chief officer of the Commission on Political Traitors from the planet Cheron. White on the left side of his body and black on the right, Bele harbored racial bigotry against those of his people whose coloring was the reverse. For 50,000 years he pursued an alleged traitor named Lokai across the galaxy, and caught up with him on the U.S.S. Enterprise in 2268.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Previous     Next

Bele and Lokai

 

Caption: Bele

Bele hijacked the Enterprise to take his prisoner back to Cheron, but when they arrived they discovered a world long since destroyed by racial hatred. Lokai escaped to the surface, and Bele followed to continued his obsessive and meaningless pursuit. The Enterprise left them there to decide their own fates. 

There are lots of rules here at the condo. One is that dogs must be leashed on property. I thought I could sneak out the other day at the crack of dawn with Funny not on a leash. The place was absolutely deserted with not a soul up and about. The sun wasn’t even up yet. But the old biddies were and watching from the ninth floor. I was later warned by one of the nice folks here that a certain person had complained that she was “too terrified to go out for a walk”  because Funny exited the building not on a leash. God only knows what would happen if she saw a loose Great Dane . . . and she wasn’t the only one who complained.

EGYPT

EGYPT

Smaller than expected

When we approached Egypt, my cruise mate declared that he didn’t really care about seeing the pyramids because he had seen plenty of photos of them. Incomprehensible! He preferred to visit the historic battleground of El Alamein and its museum and cemetery. To each his own.

The $189 Egypt, tombs and pyramids tour was well worth it. Our guide, a 40-something Egyptian woman was an engineer who stopped her professional life to have a family, then later  decided to become a tour guide, which required four years of study. Fluent in English she gave us an insider’s view of Egyptian life and culture and even taught us some Arabic words and phrases. Her name was Hala and she was excellent in every way — personable, intelligent, amusing. After about a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride from the port of Alexandria we reached Cairo and the pyramids. Somehow the pyramids weren’t as big as I expected — perhaps because our cruise ship was the size of Alaska, and by comparison everything else seemed small.

But still magnificent

 

 But they were wonderful nevertheless. It was a tourist/vendor war zone around the pyramids. Since no tourists had been there for eight months during the revolution, the vendors were ravenous and it was a feeding frenzy with the new crop of tourists. Anywhere you pointed your camera some vendor with or without camel and/or traditional Arabian outfit was planting himself in your viewfinder asking for money. We were well prepared for this on the ship and told not to look at or talk to any vendors unless we wanted them to follow us in perpetuity. Engaging in any contact meant that you wanted to buy something.

 

Not far from the pyramids on the Giza Plateau is the Sphinx, surrounded by mobs of people and fenced off, so you cannot walk right up to it.

 

Equally fascinating were the tombs of Sakara, where we actually entered an semi-excavated pyramid, crouching down to walk through a dark downhill tunnel to a chamber within. In another tomb beautiful hieroglyphics decked the walls.

 

Hieroglyphs

 

 

Mediterranean on the Cheap (sort of)

Norwegian Jade, docked at Katakolon, Greece

GREECE-ING THE WHEELS FOR EGYPT

When I saw the Norwegian Cruise Lines 10-night Mediterranean cruise from Rome to Greece, Turkey and Egypt for $499 I had to go. Of course that was for the cheapest inside cabin with no window or porthole, and of course the airfare to Rome was nearly $1,000. Ever since majoring in art in college and spending lots of time on Egypt I’ve wanted to go there. Turns out most of the other people on the ship were there for the same reason — mystical, alluring, magnificent Egypt! Having visited Istanbul, Ephesus and Athens on a previous cruise I was pleased that our itinerary included some different ports: Izmir (formerly called Smyrna, one of Turkey’s oldest and largest cities and a major shipping port). Besides Athens we’d stop in Katakolon near the site of Olympia and the original Olympic games.

Ionic columns

Our tiny cheapo cabin was fine — well designed with  shelves in every available space and lots of mirrors to make it seem larger. Two single beds could be converted into a queen and there were even pull-down bunks that would accommodate two more people — although four adults in this cabin was unimaginable, but two adults and two children would work. A TV channel tuned to the ship’s bow web cam provided a window on the weather and daylight. The bathroom was adequate with a roomy enough shower. Large people would probably not be happy in this economy cabin, but if budget is a consideration it was perfectly acceptable — a new experience for me, after staying only in suites or cabins with balconies.

KATAKOLON

A small, pleasant village of only two main streets, Katakolon is a tourist shopping town offering access to Olympia about 30 minutes away by bus or train. At Olympia visitors will see sections of the original 2,000-year-old Doric, Ionian and Corinthian columns and the Olympic stadium — mainly a grassy field reached through an arched entryway. Wild cyclamen were blooming in the fallen leaves.

Wild cyclamen

Our Greek guide, Apollo Ono look-alike

Our guide was a rotund, elderly Greek guy sporting a little chin stripe of a beard like Apollo Ono. Although he was a font of historical knowledge, his monotonous, droning voice put us all in a stupor. The nearby contemporary village of Olympia looked quite charming, but instead of staying in this appealing town, we whizzed through it and headed back for our “lunch in a local rustic cafe” in tourist-clogged Katakolon. Greeting us in a charmless upstairs room, no doubt designed for handling large cruise ship tours, was a cold lunch of felafels, feta cheese, pita bread, sausages and salad. The highlight was traditional Greek dancing by some local women drably dressed in ordinary black street clothes. The other highlight was a large bottle of ouzo on each lunch table — the only free alcohol we’d see on the entire cruise. So, I filled my water bottle with the leftover ouzo, since drinks on the ship were overpriced and watered down.

RECOMMENDATION

Instead of the $99 ship’s tour with a boring, droning guide to the almost equally underwhelming site of Olympia, the smart ticket here would have been to take the local train or bus to Olympia, wander around on your own, view the ruins, then lunch in that lovely little village versus the tourist trap of Katakolon. Some other passengers did this and told us about it.

Greek hats

Shopping, however, was good in this tourist trap of Katakolon with reasonably priced Greek icons, jewelry, clothing and intricately painted ceramics.

GETTING SMART IN ATHENS

After such a dud of a tour, my Canadian shipmate Kaitlyn and I took the local city tour bus when we docked in Athens. For 21 Euros (dollar was around $1.37 to one Euro) you got an all-day tour of Athens on a “hop-on, hop-off” double-decker, open-topped bus. We decided to take the whole route to see what was what, then on the second loop, get out where we wanted. This wasthe smart ticket. Ship’s tours, of course, included the Parthenon,

Acropolis and Parthenon

the Plaka (historic district and shopping area), and city sites — a must for first-time visitors and probably worth it. I’d already been, so this time enjoyed the long view of the Acropolis and Parthenon, which was wreathed in scaffolding anyway. Kaitlyn and I found a local flea market and enjoyed wandering around with the locals out on a Saturday, and having a baklava and cappuccino at a little cafe.

IZMIR

Izmir central square

Izmir is a lovely, clean, Turkish city with the ruins of an ancient Agora (market place) being excavated. Most of my shipmates took a tour to Ephesus — well worth seeing — but I’d been there. So, again, I got off the ship and took the local city tour bus for 10 Euros. As in Athens I did the full route first to get the lay of the land. These inexpensive city tours

Izmir clock tower and local folks

Exotic fruits in Izmir

Lovely Turkish outfits

 are wonderful. They give you a map of the city with its attractions and include ear buds and a recorded tour commentary in various languages. I decided to hop off at a local bazaar (souk) or ordinary marketplace. It was filled with shopping Turkish women in headscarves. I bought a cheap, pretty scarf and donned it, looking like one of the locals. I buried my camera beneath my clothes and was basically invisible. Instead of vendors hassling me as a tourist and hawking their goods, they thought I was a local and spoke to me in Turkish. I loved it.

  Turkey is scarf central since about 99.9 percent of the women wear head scarves, and I picked up some lovely, inexpensive ones. It was the day after a big national holiday and the whole city was decked out in the national flag and photos of Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey — even over the bathrooms in the park. Unlike many cities with industrial ports, Izmir has an elegant waterfront “corniche” lined with sidewalk cafes and a view of the sea.

Taos and the Smoking Loon

The Smoking Loon Bike

When my friend called my room to say she had met a woman in the coffee shop and was headed to an ashram, I thought it was one of her typical, wry, East-Coast jokes. My friend is not the ashram type. The pleasant-looking, salt-and-pepper-haired woman led us across the plaza, pushing her snazzy, red and yellow Smoking Loon (like the wine) cruiser bike.

I knew we were in for an adventure when my friend asked the woman what she did in Taos, and the woman replied, “I don’t answer that question,” and went into a philosophical diatribe about a person’s misguided identification with what they did vs. who they really are (with which I actually agreed), and then her spiritual basis and teacher for her beliefs, on to her great respect for Mother Earth and the perversion of homo sapiens, the “gestapo” that had ruined the planet and destroyed intact host ecosystems (but more on that later). In fact, she said, “I don’t like to answer any questions.” Hmmm, I thought. “What’s she hiding?” Being of a somewhat private and secretive nature, my friend expressed that she thought this was great and agreed with her. I, on the other hand, (being a Sagittarius)  like to get everything out in the open.

So, off we went down the back streets and alleyways of Taos, admiring old and new adobe houses.

Turquoise seems the trim color of choice in Taos

Beautiful Taos Home

Our guide took us to the very humble abode of author John Nichols (“The Milagro Bean Field War”) requesting that we NOT take a photo (no reason given — privacy issues?). Our guide expressed disgust for the newer adobe homes, which looked great to us and in keeping with the architectural style. I’m not exactly sure why she didn’t like them — I think it was the people who went with them. A woman in an SUV drove past us, and our guide motioned to her to slow down. I didn’t think she was going excessively fast. Whatever, the woman driver behind closed windows shouted “F*** You!” and sped past.

Finally, we crossed a lovely, tree-shaded creek to the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram. A tiny adobe hermitage sat off in the woods. The ashram houses the Hanuman Temple, named for the revered Hindu monkey god in the Ramayana story.

Larger than life-sized statue of Hanuman the Monkey God

Hanuman is the embodiment of service and devotion. A dread-locked young man who introduced himself as “Israel” (but looked more like a Chad or a Jeremy) welcomed us, and our guide offered us some chai and homemade bread. As we sat in a field behind the ashram she discussed prairie dogs and how they are the keystone species holding all 150-some other species together. She discussed how homo sapiens had destroyed all the native grasslands, now replaced with sage. Of course, being from Boulder — “prairie dog rescue central” — we agreed with her.

Our agreement, however, did not seem to satisfy her and she became more evangelical about the issue. Finally, we had had enough of the lecturing and needed to leave. We thanked her for her great tour of Taos and her “insider’s view” of things there. Despite this, she rode off in a huff on her Smoking Loon, saying she didn’t know why she was talking with outsiders and we should go back to Boulder. We later learned that she had been banned from a certain grocery store for yelling at a young mother about her noisy child. Of course, being from Boulder — our beloved city of evangelical eccentrics — none of this seemed that surprising to us.

Heavenly Stairway

Some of our local hosts who had emigrated from various urban centers said the New Mexico moniker of Land of Enchantment should be “Land of Entrapment.” There’s a lively “expat” community of rat-race escapees, artists, spiritual seekers and nonconformists, which we also experienced first hand at the Greater World Earthship, a sustainable, off-the-grid community just outside of Taos — another entire blog posting in itself. Their homes are built of recycled car tires, bottles, aluminum cans, earthen berms and adobe.

The scenic desert drive over the 650-foot-high Rio Grand Gorge bridge spans the chasm to another world — a world, however, that our Smoking Loon guide disdained because the remotely located Earthship people had to drive everywhere in their nonsustainable vehicles. You, too, can visit the Earthship community at http://earthship.org/

Oh well, utopia does not seem to exist anywhere on the planet. All we can do is keep trying.

Earthship Visitor Center

Making old tires, bottles and cans into great architecture

Purple Potato Salad and Green Chili Lager

La Veta Inn, La Veta, Colorado

On a recent trip to Taos, NM, a friend and I stopped in La Veta, CO, for lunch at the La Veta Inn. La Veta sits in a Shangri-La setting, nestled in a lush, green valley surrounded by majestic, snowy peaks. On a lovely, sunny adobe-walled patio strewn with flowers and gurgling fountains we enjoyed a lunch of delectable, creamy purple potato salad

Purple potato salad and savory sandwich

– made with purple potatoes grown locally in Center, CO, in the San Luis Valley, and possibly enhanced with sour cream in the mix. Our sandwiches were of goat cheese, roasted red peppers, pesto and tomatoes on a crusty whole-grain bread. But the coup de grace was Green Chili Lager, brewed at the Valle Caliente microbrewery in Alamosa, CO. It was light, not at all bitter, with a springy, fragrant flavor and a definite hint of green chili. I know, it sounds awful, but it was really good. Probably not the beer you’d want to drink every day, but definitely a thrilling novelty — and probably the most unusual beer I’ve ever tasted.

Green Chili Caballero - Valle Caliente Green Chili Lager is made in Alamosa, Colorado, at the San Luis Valley Brewing Company.

A brew to remember