Mexican Rivera Cruise 2024…Mazatlan

By coolgrandparent on June 5, 2024

Our 4th day of our cruise and the second port was Mazatlan. We learned a few facts about the area. The name means “land of the deer”. It was settled in 1530 by the Spanish and there are now 500,000 residents in the urban area. A German citizen came in the late 1890s and missed beer. In 1900, he founded Pacifica beer. Even though tourism is important, the main economy is still fishing mainly tuna and shrimp, which are some of the largest shrimp in the world.

Our tour for the day was to the El Faro Lighthouse. In Spanish, El Faro translates to lighthouse, so in English it would be lighthouse lighthouse. It is located on the tallest hill in Mazatlan and until the 1930s it was an island. Eventually a causeway was built to give easier access to the lighthouse. It is now a popular local hike.

The lighthouse is located on Creston Hill. Our guide was Itzel, which means Mayan goddess.

We convinced the security guard to take a picture with Willy P 🙂

The hill is 453 feet high and is covered with green agave. It is the plant that the alcohol called Mezcal is made from. The trail has markers to help you gage your progress

A third of the way up, we had a great view of the bay

Looking north…the islands in the foreground are white as they are covered in bird poop.

The hill is covered in cactus. The most intriguing one is the tall Hairbrush cactus. The flowers bloom at night and are pollinated by bats. It’s fruit is bright red and gets it’s name from the fuzzy balls, that look like hairbrushes.

At about the halfway mark…the trail has switchbacks for the first half and is all up hill and mostly in the sun. We might have been huffing and puffing…LOL

The island is home to the Black Spikey-toed Iguana and 60 domestic cats also live on the hill.

We stopped at a viewpoint looking south to the entrance of the harbor. There was a very refreshing breeze.

At the 1/2 mile point, you start to climb the 336 stairs

And just to make sure we knew how many steps, they painted the numbers.

We made it to the top!!. The lighthouse is maintained in 48 hour shifts.

There was a display about the April 8th Eclipse. Mazatlan was in totality, so there were hundreds of people at the lighthouse to watch the eclipse. Even though the boards were in Spanish, we could appreciate the info as we had just experienced the same thing in Indianapolis.

Several of the boards showed a replication of Mayan drawings depicting an ancient eclipse.

On the backside of the lighthouse, there is another view of the “poop” islands. Itzel said that tourist think they are made of salt and some even ask if they are icebergs…haha

There are remanents of an interesting glass walkway that hangs over a cliff. It is currently closed as a zipline is being built that will take you to an adjacent hill across the water. Wow, we might have to come back for that!!

We all enjoyed the views at the top…in the background is the Golden Mile, which is a large resort area. Mazatlan has a 16 kilometer seashore walkway.

Near the lighthouse, there is supposedly a cosmic tube, where you can hear an echo, when you stand on two specific stones. We all tried it and there was a faint echo. Jade tried explaining the scientific reasoning behind the echo…lol.

We had a great time at El Faro but it was time to head back down. We had to include Spuddy and Willy P’s in the adventure. At the bottom of El Faro, we convinced the security guard to help us.

Back at the port, we shopped for clear vanilla. There is nothing better than Mexican vanilla!! From the ship’s buffet, our view at lunch was of Stone Island, just south of the port. The 2000 island residents have rejected tourism development. They use the land to grow coconuts and mangos, with over 50 different varieties of mangos in the area.