Necessity is in Mazatlan

Necessity
Eva and Jan Fr. Mack
Wed 2 Mar 2011 22:53
Our position is 23:16:19N 106:27:30W
We have now crossed the Sea of Cortez. It is not a tough crossing, but the sea was choppy and somewhat uncomfortable for a short period. That is not unusual. The prevailing wind is from the north while the swell comes in from the Pacific to the south-west.
We don't think much about a crossing like that. The 190 miles takes something like 30 hours. It is in fact almost exactly the distance from Bergen to the Shetland Islands in Scotland. That is, however, the only similarity.
Mazatlan seems very nice, both marina and city. That may be a little deceiving. This has been a kind of hot-spot in the war between the drug cartels. We are told that one of the cartels has invested in local tourism which then becomes the target of the competing cartel. It seems that the only casualty among tourists was a Canadian caught in the cross-fire. He was shot in the foot. We don't feel particularly threatened.
So we still think it is pretty nice here. There is an old colonial town center with a beautiful church and nice plazas. And not least; the carnival starts tomorrow. It is said to be really big (Mazatlan itself is not small at 500.000 inhabitants) - the third biggest anywhere. We have bought tickets which should get us a really good view of the parade on Sunday.
We will come back with more on that. For the time being we are planning an excursion to some of the small colonial villages that are common in the neighborhood.
jfm 02.03.11