May 3rd - Mazatlan

Thursday is Mazatlan day! I had booked a tour through Mazatlan Frank due to many recommendations and positive feedback on the cruiscritic message boards. He wasn't available as he already had a tour booked, but his associate was. I was able to book a private tour for just the 4 of us, usually they take bigger non-private groups. We were to meet him as soon as the ship docked. Mazatlan is an industrial fishing city so we docked in where all the fishing vessels come in and out. We got aboard a tram and it took us to the duty free shops and the terminal where we pass security. Once through we saw a man holding up a sign with our name. Our guide's name was "Tomato" (Tomas' Rosa). Mazatlan Frank was next to him waiting for his party, so we got to meet him, nice guy.

First we went downtown to a famous Catholic church there. Tomato pointed out different things along the way and told us about the city. We've never been in a Catholic church, there was a lot of detail, statues and gaudy stuff, but a lot of work and detail had been put into this old church. After that we wandered around the streets, went into a Senor Frogs and a few other shops. We then were driven to some jewelry and trinket shops where I'm sure they're paid kickbacks, we didn't care. These shops had free margaritas and sodas for us. Yummmy. They do NOT cheat on the alcohol. Chad and Derek did find some wallets in the leather shop. We then went up the coastline a bit to a place that had divers, so we waited and watched the divers perform. Afterwards Derek wanted to find a place that had a shark tooth necklace, so Tomato drove us to an area that had a bunch of touristy type shops. We had fun in those, Derek did find his shark tooth necklace and we all found some trinkets to take back home. We toured some residential areas, he pointed out where a famous Mexican singer lived and some other people we were clueless about. There were a LOT of americans living here, we saw a lot of CA, TX, CO, OR and WA license plates. He went on and on about how expensive the homes were in this particular gated community, they were really nice and big, but cheap to us. We went to lunch at place on the beach where I'm sure they get kickbacks. There was another associate there with his tour. We didn't care, it was great food, we sat at a table right in front of the beach, it was all open to outside. The margaritas were huge. We took turns going down and playing on the beach. Afterwards we did some more tours of neighborhoods and then went up to the top of a hill where we could overlook the city. After this we headed back to the ship where we did a bit of shopping in the duty free shops. We really enjoyed Mazatlan.

This evening we decided to hit the Mermaid's Grill for dinner instead of the Normandie. It was refreshing to go when we wanted and to eat from the buffet for a change. We went in the jacuzzi that evening while the kids swam in the pool. The show for this night was a comedy/magic show by a guy named Cameron, and then a comedy performance by Jerome. Jerome is on Comedy Central and is in a movie that's coming out. He is very funny and we really enjoyed him.