5C's Que Pasa

It has come to my attention, late Sat. March 12 ( yesterday ), that Holland America Cruise Lines has dropped Mazatlan from its itinerary for the rest of the season.  This is very very sad news.  There will be NO further cruise ships docking here.  All the beach vendors will be affected and most especially many businesses that function based on the cruise visits will be severely affected.  This will certainly impact many of the restaurants here on the Isla.  What impact will this have on the local economy?

Last week a frequent cruiser posted on a cruise forum the following re her visit to Mazatalan last Wed. March 9th on the Oosterdam, Holland America ship….

Spinner 2 wrote…
“Our plan had been to stay aboard the ship for Mazatlan day; we’d been here recently and the recent difficulties didn’t inspire us to do anything at all. But my DH wandered into the terminal on a checking-things-out trip and was back in 15 minutes with interesting news

The Mazatlan Tourist Board has put together teams of volunteers. They mostly seemed Americans living in Mazatlan when we spoke with them, certainly all of them spoke excellent English. The first of the group are right at the gangway, they have maps that show specifics of the walking tour they encourage and they were very helpful.

As you follow the route recommended you’ll come to blue archways, convertible cars with signs on the doors, tables with blue banners, and the blue-shirted VOLUNTEER persons. They’ll answer questions, point you toward safe streets, etc. We felt totally comfortable as we walked perhaps 3-4 miles, going to see the opera house, the big church that you can see from the ship (Ash Wednesday today so the church plaza was crowded) and the public market. I would highly recommend this walking tour; plan on about 2-3 hours to see it all. Or you could just go part-way, to the plaza where the church is.

Tips from the Volunteers:
1. Wear good walking shoes or closed-toe/heel shoes; the very rough streets with varying curb heights and cuts in the sidewalk to shape drainage make heels, strappy sandal, flip-flops, etc. very unsuitable.

2. Watch your head and your feet; if you are walking near a building, watching your step, you may bump your head on a protruding electrical box or low air conditioner.

3. The opera house will ask for 12 pesos to enter but with enough conversation (mostly by you; the entry person spoke no English!) he will accept a U.S. dollar or two; it’s a fascinating building and you can wander around pretty much on your own. Everything else we saw was free to enter.

4. There are cabs to take you back to the ship if you don’t wish to walk; you might ask one of the Volunteers to help you.

5. The Volunteers are interesting to talk to; you’ll learn more about ordinary life in Mazatlan if you chat with them and they seemed very willing to do that.

The Volunteers start closing up shop about 1 or 2 in the afternoon; by then almost everyone has stopped their wandering from the ship for the day. Plan to go in the morning for maximum assistance.”

…so Spinner 2 seemed quite impressed.  In fact many people in Mazatlan are talking about this grass roots group…now all for not.  We have a fellow camper who had 2 friends on the same ship.  Only the one person got off, the other listening to all the negative comments about Mazatlan that were circulating on board ,chose not to disembark!!!  Even though she was being met and picked up by friends right at the dock!!!!!!!  Now here is this lady’s final comment posted at 6:30PM Sat, the 12th.

Spinner 2 writes….

“We are home now ( we live less than 2 hours away from the port) and I see over on the “other” Mazatlan thread that a letter from the Captain has been delivered to those now aboard and the contents were spelled out. So, I’ll confirm the information I was told that I kept to myself because it came from a staff member and I don’t believe it’s my place to “tell the whole internet” what I’m told in confidence, until the source has a chance to announce it. After all, it might never have come to pass and just been another rumor after all.

I was told that HAL’s corporate has indeed decided to pull Mazatlan for the rest of the season; they are substituting overnighting in Puerto Vallarta instead. The final decision wasn’t made until sometime late Friday afternoon. There was one new shore excursion offered from P.V. this time called “something” (sorry; don’t remember!) of the night and it left the ship mid-afternoon, offered a meal on the beach, stayed out on the beach as late as it could with a 7:30 pm departure. I would think with an overnight they could run this later and it might be even nicer; people said good things about it.

One crew member who also mentioned this while we were still aboard this morning (not my information source) was pleased about the change; he thought the passengers would find many more things to interest them in P.V.

Friday afternoon I was invited to one of those “Q&A” focus groups aboard the ship and one woman asked about the “show of force” that many saw out on the pier in Mazatlan on the morning we were there. I didn’t see it; either it was while we were at breakfast or after we’d gone out walking (see a posting further up about the safety volunteers who laid out a walking route; we did that) but according to her there were numerous military-types with guns and dogs out along the pier (we saw one only, no dog but she reported quite a few) and the helicopters circling overhead. Her question was, why had’t someone on the ship explained this since she believed it to be the source of many frightening rumors on board of serious trouble. The captain’s explanation was that when it happened most people had gone ashore and he wanted to explain it when everyone could listen and then things that evening intervened (the earthquake in Japan?) and it slipped his mind. But it seems the town’s police/military (I’m not sure what or who) came to the ship to demonstrate how ready the government was to protect the ship and its passengers. The individual wanted the captain to come down to see all this armament but as he had work to do he sent the security force to look instead and then suggested to the “show of force” that they go protect the town; the ship was in good hands already. So their intention of good will probably scared more people than it reassured but apparently they meant well. The town has really tried, but for now, I think the perception, at least, of danger has caused this port to be eliminated for now.”

So there we have it,  the other hand…what a cruise passenger feels when docking here in Mazatlan…what can you say but WOW!!!  Personally I have often wondered if the show of police and helicopters was a bit over the top.  Last Tuesday before the Oosterdam arrived we had a show of police here all day, parading in their power boat and sea doo…who were they protecting, were they practicing to protect the cruise people??  We never saw them the next day which was the cruise day.

They patrolled the empty beach for at least six hours!

Another little thing that caught my attention was this article, in essence comparing Mexico to the USA re safety.  Guess who is safest?  Whose crime rates are highest, who has the least number of drug offenses, etc.??????

This has been a very thought provoking day….

Don’t forget, Mexico does not participate in the daylight savings time change until April 3 rd!

I want to leave you with the peace and beauty of a set sun on the 12 th of March.

I just love that a pelican flew past on my last shot! Buenas noches!