Mazatlán

We had a quite uneasy night because our spot for the night had been right at a spot near the highway where the trucks use their motor breaks 🙈 But the breathtaking drive through the mountainous Sierra in the morning sun absolutely made up for that 🥰 Unfortunately there weren't any proper viewpoints indicated so we didn't take any pictures.
Then we drove (in the middle of the rush hour) into Mazatlán that greeted us first with lots of traffic and then with a beautiful old town. It is impressively large and even the areas that haven't been recently renovated are beautifully decorated. We walked through the little alleys and to the cathedral. We spent the whole morning there and eventually walked up and down on the Malecón (the second longest in the world). The other main part of the city is about 8km North of the old town with a big beach and a hotel strip. It felt a little bit weird to be among tourists again because we haven't seen many since we're in Mexico (except for Los Cabos and a bit in La Paz). The beach is really pretty and quite busy, I liked that the waves are a bit wild 😁
We walked along the beach and through the tourist shops until we got hungry. I was looking for a local speciality called Aguachiles, shrimps with onions and cucumber in a acidic, spicy marinade. It was really well made but I exaggerated a bit on the chili 🙈🥲

But I prefer the beach less crowded so we continued on further South where there's basically no towns at all, just the beach. Playas El Caimanero is a beautiful unspoiled Sinaloan beach that stretches for more than 20km and has a very long beach. Unfortunately this pristine paradise is a bit spoiled with trash on the beach. We had a great beer right on the beach and then walked along for a while before hitting the road again.

The last stop of the day was San Blas, which we were supposed to reach before sunset. But because we (apparently) crossed another timezone this morning it started getting dark already at 5:30pm 😅 So we had an hour of stressful driving (other cars, speed bumps and super deep potholes) in the dark. But the little town made up for it with a very welcoming atmosphere on the main plaza 🥰 We had a walk through town and to the famous Muelle de San Blas (the song by Maná) and then a little streetfood dinner and a house made popsicle.
It's been very warm the whole day and it was still more than 20 degrees by 21:00. We spent some time looking for a spot to stay as there was either nothing, it cost or there was music blasting super loud. When checking out one spot we almost got stuck in sand and the clutch behaved weird as it wouldn't go up anymore. Ultimately we found a great spot near the ocean under some palm trees, the only downside were the bugs but they're apparently everywhere in San Blas... We were woken up just half an hour later by police that said we could stay but it's safer to be closer to the main street and with lights. And they're also patrolling all night. So we moved a little bit before falling asleep exhausted.Read more