Day 10

Cliff Divers, Colonial Streets and Cruise Ship Trivia 🎭🚢

Going to bed early last night definitely paid off as we both had an amazing sleep, which felt overdue after all the late nights, driving, flying, gym workouts, sightseeing and everything else we’ve packed into this holiday so far. Today we were much more optimistic about our next port, Mazatlán, especially after Cabo San Lucas had failed to deliver for us yesterday. Mazatlán, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast in the state of Sinaloa, is one of the country’s oldest beach destinations and is often nicknamed the “Pearl of the Pacific”. Unlike Cabo, which felt heavily built around tourism, Mazatlán has a much more authentic and grounded feel, combining beaches, historic buildings and everyday Mexican life.

Our arrival time of 8:30am was also much better than yesterday’s afternoon arrival, meaning we could explore before the full heat and humidity of the day settled in. After breakfast, we packed up our backpack and headed ashore.

Mazatlán has one of the smartest tourist navigation systems we’ve seen anywhere. As soon as you leave the cruise terminal, there is a blue line painted along both the road and footpaths that leads visitors all the way into the historic centre and main square. It made exploring incredibly easy. There are also other coloured lines throughout the city that branch off into different areas, including routes towards the malecón, beaches, markets and lookout points. It takes a lot of the stress out of navigating somewhere unfamiliar. The locals even operate golf buggy style shuttles that transport cruise passengers from the ship itself to the start of the blue line, which was a good idea in the already warm weather.

As we’re heading further south, our destinations are definitely becoming hotter, but even though Mazatlán was warm, it was still manageable in the morning. Immediately we liked this place more. Cabo San Lucas felt like a tourist town, whereas Mazatlán felt like a real Mexican city with actual character and history. I’ve always liked Mexican culture and that definitely reflected how much more we enjoyed this stop.

The first major building we came across was the beautifully restored Angela Peralta Theatre, named after a famous Mexican opera singer from the 1800s. The theatre sits in the middle of Mazatlán’s historic centre and is considered one of the cultural hearts of the city. The surrounding streets had a lot of colourful colonial buildings, shaded plazas and locals quietly going about their day.

The blue line then led us into Machado Square, one of the best areas we saw all day. The square was lined with restaurants, trees and historic buildings. It looked artistic, slightly eccentric and very different from anything we’d seen elsewhere on the trip. The whole square had a relaxed but lively feel to it.

Not far away was the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the city’s main cathedral. The building was impressive both in size and detail, with its yellow towers, ornate façade and mixture of Gothic and Baroque architecture. It looked even better against the bright blue Mexican sky.

We were keen to see the cliff divers, so we continued walking along the malecón, Mazatlán’s long oceanfront promenade. The coastline here was fantastic, with crashing surf, rocky outcrops, sculptures and viewpoints all the way along. The cliff divers perform at a place called El Clavadista, where divers leap from a high rock platform into a narrow inlet below, timing their jumps with the incoming waves. Watching them was equal parts impressive and insane.

One thing that really surprised us nearby was finding a street and plaza dedicated entirely to The Beatles. Apparently Mazatlán has had a long-standing connection with the band for decades, and there are statues recreating the famous Abbey Road crossing, Beatles themed artwork and references scattered around the area. Completely random, but also pretty cool.

We also loved the colourful houses and buildings throughout the city. Some were painted bright pinks, blues and yellows, whilst others had balconies, courtyards and older colonial details that made the streets feel full of personality. Even just wandering through the quieter streets was enjoyable because there always seemed to be something interesting to look at around the next corner.

Eventually we wandered further away from the tourist areas and headed towards Ley Central supermarket. Hardly anyone spoke English there, but between our limited Spanish and a bit of pointing, we managed perfectly fine. On the way back we walked through the Pino Suarez Market, a huge local market selling everything from seafood and meat to spices, fruit and souvenirs. I’ll admit though, the vegetarian in me struggled a bit with the overpowering smell of meat throughout parts of the market.

As the day became progressively hotter and more humid, we returned to the ship around midday for showers and lunch. Overall we were much happier with Mazatlán because it felt like it showed us the “real” Mexico far more than Cabo did. One thing we did notice throughout the city though was the very strong police and military presence, which felt both reassuring and slightly confronting at the same time.

Later in the afternoon we relaxed in the adults only pool area on the ship, although that would have been easier without one extremely loud woman dominating the nearby hot tub conversation. I then headed to the gym before joining Ben, Brett, Jonas and another couple for trivia again. Questions included which country won the first FIFA World Cup and how many capitals South Africa has. Once again our teamwork paid off because we won. This time the prizes were a bottle opener, a highlighter or a fold-up shopping bag packed into a tiny pouch. I chose the bag.

While waiting for dinner, I grabbed some Mexican food from El Loco Fresh near the pool deck before we headed to the main dining room later on. Afterwards we decided to see another onboard show featuring comedian and magician Ed Alonzo, known as the “Misfit of Magic”. He’s apparently worked on shows like Saved by the Bell and has a reputation for combining old-school magic tricks with fast paced comedy and audience participation. Normally comedy acts can be very hit and miss for me, but this guy was excellent. He had the crowd laughing almost the entire show, his timing was sharp and some of the tricks genuinely had us wondering how he pulled them off. He also had the sort of chaotic energy that suited a cruise crowd perfectly.

We finished the night with a few drinks in the Bamboo Room with Ben and Brett before calling it a night reasonably early. Overnight we lose an hour crossing time zones, and tomorrow we arrive in Puerto Vallarta — a place that already means a lot to us, as it’s where we spent our honeymoon back in 2019.Read more