2022 February Vacation: Part IV - Mazatlan

The ship didn't dock until 9:30am for our day in Mazatlan, so we walked around the deck that morning enjoying the sights. 

We checked the kids into camp at 9:00am then checked them out again at 9:45am. They were both having a lot of fun and complained when we picked them up. Allison was in the middle of a craft and Tyler was playing Minecraft. Sorry kids. Those things aren't worth missing out on your one day in Mazatlan.

We had a hike planned to El Faro lighthouse, and we figured we should get going on it as soon as possible before the heat of the day. They complained since it was steep, but I think they enjoyed it more than they wanted to admit. Allison kept saying she was too little to do this big hike when a girl even smaller than her passed by. That girl was also called Allie, short for Alizele." We told her if that little girl could do it, so could she, to which Allison replied "that girl has invisible stamina coming out of her body!" 

This was the first pretty lookout close to the beginning. 

Oscar helped engage the kids by pointing out this cactus tree. They'd never seen anything like it before (neither had I), which definitely increased their interest.  

Attitude wise they were fine once we made it to the top and the hike wasn't so strenuous anymore. There was a  neat glass bridge to look out from. It was a bit of a wait since only so many people can be on it at once, but it was definitely worth it.

We definitely appreciated the views more on the way back down now that we weren't huffing and puffing. 

The hike wasn't too long, but it was plenty steep. I had to go down pretty slowly to make sure we didn't slide.

We hadn't planned anything else besides the hike, but there were some advertisements for a local aquarium at the cruise dock, so we decided to check that out. We caught an open air taxi which gave us a beautiful sightseeing tour of the coast on our way to the aquarium. The taxis were really reasonably priced in Mazatlan. It was $8 to the hike, $7.50 to the aquarium, and $12 back to the cruise dock. 

The aquarium was also very reasonably priced. It was only around $28 for all 4 of us. A comparable aquarium in US would have been around $28 a person. We started off in the Pinguinario. 

As we were leaving the pinguinario, there was a sign that said "Acuario Mazatlan thanks you for your visit. Have a great day!" We thought "oh. That's it? I guess that explains why this place was so cheap."

Then we walked out the doors to find there was a big outdoor area too.

And to our complete delight, there were animal shows. This was the sea lion show. Tyler wasn't happy about everything being in Spanish, but we still enjoyed watching the sea lions do tricks. I was also surprised by the number of volunteers they invited up to get sea lion kisses. It must have been around 15. We'd just paid big money for sea lion kisses in Puerto Rico, and here they were giving them away for free at this low priced aquarium. 

There was also a bird show and a predator show, each of which invited several volunteers as well. In a comparable show in the US, you might get 1 or 2 volunteers. Tyler didn't want to see more shows since they were in Spanish, so I took Allison to the bird show and Oscar took Allison to the predator show.

The python put on a bit of a show for us while we toured the reptile area. 

There was even a little playground area, which is always nice. My kids can appreciate museums and aquariums, but sometimes they just need to run around and play. As we arrived a little Mexican boy on a swing said something to Allison, which she interpreted as "come push me." 

We saw the alligator and crocodile and Allison and I fed some birds in a big caged area before heading into another indoor part of the aquarium.

I loved the landscaping of penguins swimming in the ocean made out of rocks.

Some of these fish were huge! If it didn't blink occasionally we would have thought this one the kids were staring at was dead.

When the jaws open wide and there's more jaws inside that's a moray!

 Allison requested all these photos then only looked at the camera for two of them.

There was also a neat area with marine fossils and jellyfish in various stages of development.

By then we figured we should get back to the ship. We saw a few more birds on our way out to the exit. 

Oscar took this neat timelapse video of the sunset as the ship sailed out of Mazatlan onto Cabo San Lucas.