The University of Blog

I went to Mazatlan, Mexico, which is considered the “Pearl of the Pacific.” After trekking 3,000 miles across Mexico two years ago, my brother said that we should visit Mazatlan. To fill my dad’s desire to visit Portugal, we chose Mazatlan as a cheaper option—maybe Portugal will happen later down the line.

We arrived at Pueblo Bonito, Emerald Bay. It was beautiful and the staff was so friendly- gave me an opportunity to practice the Spanish that I had been studying forever. However, while I had plenty of opportunities to speak Spanish, traveling with my brother gave me less of an opportunity to speak – especially with the drivers of the open-air taxis called “la Pulmononia” (which means pneumonia—a joke started by the competing cab companies). He took every opportunity to speak Spanish—a quality of which I am jealous.

It was great to be with the fam–he first family trip that we had taken in quite awhile. Even my brother came—which made it exponentially more fun. We went to a little tequila factory and saw how it was made. It was next to a small village of Quelite with a bakery and some delicious homemade ice-cream. They also had a place to train roosters for cock fighting. It was nice to get out of the touristy part of Mexico and into the villages. Another of my favorite part of Mazatlan was the Machado Square in the historic district. It had a European feel (or what I would imagine feels European since I’ve never actually been there).
In the historic district we met up with Antonio Lopez Saenz- who happens to be one of the most famous artists of Mazatlan. His art is hanging in the Museum of Art there. We met him because a painting was hanging up at the hotel and my dad asked about it. The concierge set up a meeting for us at his house. I translated and it was a wonderful visit- the man was so generous and open. He signed three posters for us to bring back.

My brother and I went out for a couple of nights. The first night we went to Mambo Café, with plenty of live music and salsa dancing. The next couple of nights we went to Bora Bora “a discoteca,” to dance to disco music. I learned some moves and had a great time dancing with some locals. My brother was so tall I never lost him. And he definitely danced with some locals. Seems like everyone wants to dance with a gringo.

(a gazebo in the middle of the market)

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.