Mazatlan: Owls, Shopping, Beach Walks, and More!

 David took me downtown to go to a huge indoor open-air marketplace. It was cool! I took pictures of a lot of the owls I saw, along with some other things.

I give you, the owls of Mazatlan 🦉...

This one tempted me a little—I'm a sucker for things made out of shells, especially when those things are owls—but I resisted and took a picture instead.

The wood carvings were beautiful.

Cute mini bananas

I found nativity sets! In porcelain cacti! And I bought one because I collect nativity sets from other countries. My collection is small, but growing every so slowly with worthy acquisitions like this.

Seashell chandeliers

Mr. Lionso is the open-air restaurant we ate at every night. The food was filling and delicious and as authentically Mexican as you can get! (Obviously.)

Horchata

While we waited for our food, David and I walked down to the beach. It was a nice, soft, sandy one, and we got some pretty pictures.

Time to eat!

This was a big nativity set that I saw in a shop near the restaurant. I'm in it too! Ha ha.

Where's baby Jesus, though? The most important piece seems to be missing!

One of my favorite things we did on the whole trip was a beach walk at the sister resort of where we were staying. There was a much better beach there that was so nice to walk along. I loved it!

A pretty butterfly-shaped shell

One seagull

Many seagulls

The sand had golden flecks in it!

This was a neat pattern. Nature makes the best art.

David photographing me photographing the sand.

David looks kind of like a dorky tourist here, but it's okay, I still love him.

"The Sweet Life"

It's David's kind of boat! He has one of these in Montana. Only his has a sail (and other things that this one is missing).

We sat under a beach hut for a few minutes, where I bought two pretty bracelets from a sweet woman.

My bracelets. Green and blue are my favorite colors.

Another evening, another dinner at Mr. Lionso + browsing in the nearby shops.

And another owl!

David, Ginger, and I split this tequila shrimp. It was muy delicioso!

Mazatlan is a beautiful place. My next post will wrap up the rest of our time there!

Mazatlan, Mexico: Our First International Trip Together!

 Last month, David and I went on our first plane trip and our first international trip as a married couple. We went to Mazatlan, Mexico for five days, and it was so much fun! I'd never been to the western coast of Mexico before, and I hadn't seen the Pacific Ocean since I was a kid. We stayed in a really nice three-bedroom, three-bathroom villa with David's sister, her husband, and one of their daughters. They own the villa, and they go every year... so hopefully we'll be returning in the future!

We had to get up at around 2:30 a.m. to get to Boston for our 5:30 a.m. flight. 😴 This was my new Away carry-on suitcase as we waited to board our flight. It's nice!

We had a short layover in Dallas/Fort Worth, and a few hours later, we were flying over the western mountains of Mexico.

We met up at the airport with Ginger, Herb, and Katie (they were coming from Alaska and Utah, respectively), got a big taxi van to fit all of us and our luggage, and were off to Mazatlan, which was around 30 minutes away.

We stopped at Walmart to get groceries for the week. It was a big, nice, clean, well-organized Walmart—better than many of the Walmarts I've been to in America.

(That's David on the left, in search of something.)

I liked the English and Spanish names on the products.

The prices were in pesos, not American dollars!

Sam and I like "Feastables" bars!

"Mujercitas" = "Little Women." So cute! I'd never realized that that was what the translation was.

The resort where the villa was was beautiful. More pictures of it to come in my posts this week.

Sunset glow

Here are some pictures of the villa that I took the next morning when David and I were the only ones up. 

We went to church! It was neat to go, and I met some nice people. We were immersed in total Spanish for two hours.

I snapped this picture of a flyer for their ward's temple trips. It's neat to see the church running the same way in other parts of the world.

Taxi selfies

Much to my amusement, the taxi driver had a row of gangsta ducks lined up on his dashboard. 😆

Speaking of gangstas, the night before, Mexico's "most powerful drug kingpin" was killed about five hours away, and riots ensued in popular tourist spots like Puerto Vallarta. It was major news. Friends and family who were worried about our safety contacted me. Mazatlan was fine and was not affected, just some stepped-up security the first few days. Crazy that that happened when we were there, though!

We went for a walk on the beach by the resort. The beach wasn't great — it wasn't a soft, sandy one with turquoise water or anything like that. Hardly anyone was on it, and a worried worker came down and told us and a couple of others in Spanish that there was something dangerous down there. We think it may have been an alligator? I don't know, it was weird. Needless to say, that was our only trip to that particular beach for the rest of the week! 

David made this nice heart in the sand.

Do you see an alligator anywhere? 😅

A tiny little hermit crab, so cute!

On our way out to dinner later, we stopped at the spa, where Ginger, Katie, and I made appointments for the next day, which I'll say now was a really nice experience. The spa was great. Ginger made me do a cold plunge for the first time! I didn't like it very much, but the tingling sensation of going right into the hot tub after felt really good. I also got a hot stone massage that felt amazing.

I didn't realize until I saw this picture that my dress made me look kind of chubby. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. 😄

The restaurant where we ate dinner was so good! It's Ginger and Herb's favorite, and we ate there every night for the rest of the trip. The food was delicious, and the fresh air and views right on the ocean were beautiful.

Tomorrow's post will include owls, shopping, and a couple of nicer beaches and beach walks than the first one!