June 1, 2021
The plan was to go down to Bones after the 2019/2020 school year and bring her up the Californais to Stockton. Corona put an end to that. The entire Marina and Hotel El Cid were shut down for 3+ months. No telephones answered, no emails answered, nothing.
Then, in mid-June things gradually crept back to life. Too much of the world was shut down to be able to come south, so I resolved myself to wait another year and try in the summer of 2021. That didn’t mean that I couldn’t go down to visit Bones before then. So I started planning. My School District initiated its first ever “Fall Break” in early October 2020. Fortunately…. A) Bones was still there, nd B) Bones was in reasonably good condition for having pertty much no one abouar for 18+ months.
Son Los Tres Juans went down to explore. Here are the Juans (Juan Pequeño, Juan Medio Y Juan Grande, from left to right).
Juan Grande has the “gift of gab” and can make friends anywhere anytime with anyone. As we arrived in mid-afternoon in Mazatlan in early October, it was a “90/90” day. What’s that you ask. Well, anyone from the tropics, particularly the closer you get to the equator will tell you that translates into 90 degrees and 90% humidity. At tis time of the year, Mazatlan has little wind. Simple cultural reference: As Adrian Cronauer would put it “It’s Hot, DAMN Hot”.
So what to do on a mid afternoon in the still humid heat? Explore our surroundings. This is the hotel above the marina:
Not a bad place to stay. In fact, just downstairs from the main lobby was an amazing “nautical sports bar.
Wait. A nautical sports bar… What’s that? Well, think about the below decks space on an old wooden man-o-war, outfitted with a bar and a bunch of TVs playing Futbol. Not NFL mind you futbol. Dark, woody with a pool that has a cover to suit a party of eight (yeah, the whole Corona protocol is a bit like General Relativity.
Mexico’s response to the Covid. Virtually everywhere we went it was very logical and seemed to be designed to ensure public health and safety without being draconian. At any establishment, first: temperature scan. Next, walk through a shallow tray of disinfectant, Third: get a squirt of hand sanitizer.
If you were checking in luggage, they had a ‘fumigator’ kind of device that they sprayed your stuff with. Easy peasy and done in about 30 seconds. At this point, the rest of the world might have had a bit of learnin’ to do.
So, we proceeded to the ‘sports bar’ where it seemed to be a brisk just above freezing temperature. It actually was about 72 degrees. A very welcome environment.
Having been exposed to the 90/90, we were parched, so we took a seat on what looked like a wooden ship’s wheel with a round glass tabletop. Immediately upon sitting down Eríc, one of the waiters came over to assist. Eríc was every bit as gregarious as Juan Grande and the two immediately hit it off (more about that later).
We had a couple of cervezas and Eríc came by with an appetizer menu. It was only about 4:00 PM, so we obliged with his recommendations. And a couple of more cervezas. Eríc knew how to play the game. He and Juan Grande were becoming BFFs. After a bit, Eríc sat down and explained that the hotel had been closed for 3+ months and his day off was Wednesday (we arrived on Monday), and he would gladly show us the part of Mazatlán that only the locals know. Eric said that since he had been out of work for three months if we would pay him what we thought was fair he would take us.
It sounded great (although Juan Grande had been reading about the Sinaloa Cartel and was a bit concerned at first). We agreed and Eríc Said we would meet at 9:00 Wednesday for breakfast.
Briefly, it was an amazing look into what the locals know but the touristas will never see. The countryside (including a cockfighting rooster training ranch), a tequila factory, an old town in the hills, a leather goods factory and “the best seafood in Mazatlán.
Now, it wasn’t all fun and games. We would have breakfast (mostly on Bones) with cereal and fresh fruit. I would get to work on inventorying and starting to service Bones and the Juans would explore and get to the pool by about 11:00.
Plus much more. Usually by about 1:00 PM it was so stiflingly hot I had to stop. Overall, it was a good trip with great friends and much boat progress made.
The Captain and the Kid 