Day 4 - April 17 (Tuesday)

We learned something new today, or rather we learned a lesson! Isn't it said that you should learn something new everyday of your life? We landed in Mazatlan today and disembarked to look around the town. Since our group of explorers included the "Moms" today, we didn't want to have a lot of walking involved. So we hired a van and a driver, Hector, to give us a little tour and to take us where we wanted to go. Very interesting when your hire a driver in Matazlan! We don't recommend that you hire one from Drive and Guide Tour Services. Yes, it was air-conditioned, but read on!

Every place Hector took us, even to the bathroom (called bandos), it appeared he had connections and probably was receiving a commission from anything we purchased. It wasn't too bad until we stated we wanted to go to lunch. He immediately recommended this wonderful (or so he said) restaurant that served fresh seafood and Mexican food. When we suggested other restaurants, he insisted that this was the best! This is where we learned the lesson. The place or restaurant, called El Captaino, was a dive! It was filled with other unsuspecting tourist and the food was horrid! I mean really horrid, as the food tasted old, it was cold, and tasted awful. No one in our group finished their meal. So - don't trust a tour guide on where to eat!

Photo on the right is inside the El Captaino restaurant.  BEWARE and AVOID this place!

One of the places that I wanted to visit was the Public Market in Old Town. Don and I walked through the food section so I could take some photos. Lucky for us it was a cool day, as I wondered how the flies would have been with all the exposed meat and seafood on a hot day. I imagine the smell would be a little different than we experienced also! The food market was very interesting, and it reminded me being in a different era (1800s) of America. Not one piece of meat or seafood was wrapped in plastic like in our supermarkets. All the meat was cut right there in the market. Check out all the photos below:

Dinner - Our dinner this evening was excellent! Every since we changed tables and locations in the Vista Dining Room, our meals have been great. Why is this? We are puzzled by this, but happy! Our wine steward continues to bring the Riedel red wine glasses for us every night. Our head waiter, Made, is collecting the dinner menus for me. Service has been excellent! I forgot to take many photos of our dinner this evening.