Merry Christmas from Mazatlan

It has been a long time since the last post. That is mostly due to us having too much fun in this beautiful city and not enough time to focus on another update. But, here we are, at long last. Christmas in Mazatlan seems very "north american" to us - probably due to the large number of expats who live here. Decorations and Christmas music is the norm where ever we go. It's very festive here. The photo on top is from the El Cid area in Mazatlan.

Mazatlan has been amazing. We have met so many new friends and most of them have become instant family. We go out to have fun, dance, and listen to music more often that we stay at home and cook a meal. Our social life has become exponentially more busy when compared to any other place we have lived. We have come to know and follow many of the local rock and roll bands and love listening to them with friends.

We have had friends arrive from the great white north for a visit here, and then find that they have agreed to sign on to a leased apartment for a year because they love it so much here. Yep - it's that good.

Mazatlan is full of great restaurants and pubs with awesome food choices. We never get tired of sitting at the beach enjoying the view and the warm breeze while sipping on a cool one. We do that in many locations throughout the city. And then there is the historic area that is full of interesting architecture and cuisine choices that would satisfy any food critic. Buildings are lit up at night and are strikingly beautiful. The photo in this paragraph was taken at Plaza Machado which is full of great restaurants where musicians play until late in the evening.

The shopping here is better than any other place we have visited. Shelves are full of everything we could want and the prices are half of what we paid in Vancouver. The fresh vegetable shelves are stocked high and so is the meat department. The only things we can't seem to find are packaged hollandaise sauce, kitchen bouquet gravy browning, bottled cole slaw dressing, and occasionally there is a shortage of sweet relish for hotdogs. Of course these things are not needed for our every day lives here and we have learned to live without them until someone from up north comes for a visit.

We have met friends who are musicians and we are now part of a new rock and roll band. We play private parties and one-off events for charities and are having a blast.

We have started buying things that won't fit into suitcases (guitar, amp, stage lights, bicycles, kitchen appliances, powered speaker for our walkman music player, etc.) and it seems we are growing some roots now. We are sticking here for a long time and will wait patiently for others to follow.

The weather here is very different from other places we have lived in the past few years. We have less rain, less humidity and more sunny days here in Mazatlan. The temperatures in the winter months are nice and cool - drops down to 15 C at night and warms up to 28 or 30 C during the day. It's nice to feel a cool and warm "season" again - big change from living in the Caribbean where the temperature varies only a few degrees 365 days per year, and the humidity is always high.

We have not included extra photos in this post as there are just too many beautiful places to see and experience. We hope some of our readers will come for a visit to see for themselves. We love it here. See you soon.