Searching for Joy in Mazatlan, Mexico

Hello from Mazatlan!

It was almost exactly three years ago on February 18, 2020, when I was last in Mazatlan. We had a day full of conversation and laughter and food and drink. And Jell-O shots and balloon hats. And joy. Pure joy. Life was carefree and fun, and I have a picture to prove it.

A face full of happiness in 2020

Then then the joy was no more. Mazatlan wound up being the last cruise port we visited before Covid shut the industry down. And sent us into our homes. Unfortunately, hubby and I never came back out and have been locked away from the world ever since. Shopping at the mall or grocery store? Amazon and Walmart grocery delivery takes care of that for us. Haircuts? Nope. I use the hair clippers to cut us both short. Going to the movies? Thanks to Netflix we’re just fine in front of our tv. Eating out in restaurants? Not until this week. Which makes this cruise our comeback tour and today's visit to Mazatlan our search-for-joy (and normalcy) day.

In the pre-pandemic years we did a lot of different things in Mazatlan. You can find that blog post here. But today we went to the place that kept us going through Covid, The Green Bar. It was the place we had held in our minds as the best last day we ever had. So today we ate, drank, had some Jell-O shots, and even got balloon hats.

  

While I think hubby found his joy, I struggled to find mine. Even though I left my assistant in charge of the business, a customer issue came up that needed my attention. (Can't have too much fun - or drink - when you’re trying to remain clear headed and professional!) Even after the issue was resolved I realized my mind - and old lady body - is just in a different place than it was back then. Hopefully the carefree joy will return someday. 

Guess today just wasn’t the day.

Still searching for joy in 2023

Royal Princess in Manzanillo, Mexico

Hello from Manzanillo, Mexico! 

Hubby stayed onboard (he wasn't about to tackle the very long and hot pier) and I headed out and rolled around the waterfront area on my scooter. This is definitely a port that would have been inaccessible to me without one. Those poor folks with walkers and canes sure were struggling. I stayed within view of the ship because once you get very far away you encounter broken up sidewalks and those are definitely not fun on a scooter. In the waterfront area the cobblestones weren't fun either, and the wheelchair curb cutouts were so steep I had to get off the scooter several times to pull it up and down the ramps. But I still had a good time and was able to see some colorful additions to the area.

New sculptures line the waterfront
(Hubby tells me these were here before?)

Just one of the sculptures depicting the horoscope signs

Otherwise it doesn't seem like all that much has changed since the last couple times we were here.

Royal Princess today

The Grand Princess in 2018

Sailfish statue today.
The people walking by give you a sense of the size of this thing.

Sailfish statue in 2018
Did you know Manzanillo is the sailfish capital of the world?

Police presence today

Police presence in 2019

Did you know Manzanillo is the busiest cargo port in Mexico? Yep, the port handled roughly 2.68 million metric tons of cargo just in 2022. That's a lot of goods!

Cargo ship watching in 2019.

Cargo ship watching today 

Today's ship traveled the Hong Kong-Taiwan-China-Korea-Mexico route.

Being today is Sunday lots of locals were out and about, with many taking pictures in front of the ship.

How lucky am I that this is my home for the week?

See you tomorrow from Mazatlan!