Tourist Trap?

12.12.08

Ferry (Chihuaua) from Pichilingue to Mazatlán (450 km, 16 ½ hours) 3km by bike

The ferry-ride was pretty uneventfull. We boarded the ferry already at 7:30 pm, parked our bikes between many truck-trailers and made ourselves comfortable in our cabin. By the time the ferry left Pichilingue (around 11:30 pm) I was already asleep. Because of the aircondition it was very cold in the cabin, but I slept like a rock until 7:30 am. I got up, walked around the ferry for a while and was surprised that it was already warm outside.

For breakfast I still had some food from the bakery in La Paz. Later I had a nap for about 3 hours!!! I was pretty exhausted. Around 4 pm we got of the ferry and before we new it we were already in Oldtown Mazatlán. Looking for a hotel we stopped near the Plaza where Alex who worked for a restaurant there started to talk to us. And, he, like so many other people here, thought we were gringos norte-americana. We don‘ t really like to hear that and told him right away that we‘ re from France and Germany. Then he explained us the way to a hotel, the Hotel Cientro, a few blocks away. We checked the price there and stayed for 100 Pesos each. Unfortunately we had to carry our bikes up 2 stairs. They didn‘ t have wi-fi in the hotel, but in our room we could receive the wi-fi from a store across the street.

For dinner we walked back to the Plaza. There were many people, mostly tourists. Usually we try to avoid the typical tourist-places but this time it was ok. There was life music and there were many people selling mexican handcrafts.

We picked the Beach Burger Restaurant for dinner. I ate garlic-shrimps served with vegetables and garlic-bread – and it was really good. When we got the bill we were kind of upset because they added 10 % tax to the amount. We are not in the USA anymore!!! We never had that before here in Mexico and since it didn‘ t say anything about it on the menu we weren‘ t sure if it was a tourist trap. That‘ s why we rather eat where the locals eat!!! But: the food was good anyways;-).

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