casi gratis...

...a phrase we were trying to figure out all weekend. it literally means "almost free", but really does that even have a meaning??? it was the joke of the weekend in lovely mazatlan - "casi gratis"...

so we embarked on our 12 hour bus trip at 8:30pm and truthfully is wasn't that bad, aside from some irritating passengers that luckily fell asleep rather quickly. we pretty much slept on the bus and arrived in mazatlan at 8am, to a beautiful, warm beach. we grabbed a taxi and headed to our wonderful hotel. the hotel "la siesta" was right on the beach front, with a cute little balcony that overlooked the ocean view. we kinda unpacked, showered, walked around a bit, ate breakfast and then napped. we found the cutest little place by our hotel, it was the center of old mazatlan complete with a tree and bench filled square and tons of restaurants surrounding it. the weather was divine, cool and comfortable - not humid, just divine...

day1
we walked around a while longer and took the bus into town, walked on the beach, shopped a little. i bargained a lady down from $38 dollars to $20 for a sassy lil dress, that i will be wearing to work in the near future... needless to say i was proud of myself... sooo after that we took the bus home and found a cute lil place to eat, the waiter was adorable. he was a big muscular guy, but totally soft spoken - we found it rather endearing.

we headed to the beach for a bit and stayed until we watched the sunset. it was spectacular, simply gorgeous.

for dinner we decided to get dazzled up and go out... we made it to the hotel restaurant for dinner and could barely walk upstairs after dinner we were soooo tired!!! i had a delightful margarita, that was PACKED with tequila... it was yummy, but one was enough!!! a man with a guitar asked us for a song so i paid him to sing "la bamba", always the classic... when we went back to the hotel, we slept quite soundly that first night.










day 2
we slept in and woke up to the sounds of the ocean... we hung out a little while on the balcony then headed out for breakfast. what a fun little place. the restaurant overlooked the ocean and had the most delicious food!!! to start we had fresh home baked bread... OH that was the best bread i have ever had... and for those of you who know how i love food... yum - i couldn't stop murmuring "mmmmm"... then i had fresh pancakes with fresh fruit and boy was that good, so sweet i couldn't even finish them, and a fresh squeezed oranje juice to wash it down. it was a breakfast to die for. not to mention how sweet and sincere our waiter was - sooo friendly.

so mazatlan is famous for it's numerous statues, as well as being a center for culture. along the shore there is a huge sidewalk - one could equate it with the boardwalk in a sense. so along this sidewalk are the countless statues of mazatlan. we walked from our hotel (where they begin) for about 2 and a half miles, by which time the sun and heat had become too much we needed to catch the bus. we stopped and took photos of the statues and posed like them for fun, we had a good time... so we went to la zona dorada, which is like the newer section of mazatlan with super expensive hotels and such. we rented an umbrella and hung out on the beach all ding dang day long. it was sooo nice. you can't imagine how many random items i was offered to purchase. if i wanted sunglasses, a hat, a sarong, a towel, jet ski lessons, parasailing tours, jewelry, you name it i was offered to buy it on the beaches at mazatlan. and what is the price of all these fine items??? simple "casi gratis" - "almost free"... there was even a mariachi band in full dress with all their instruments walking up and down the beach playing songs for vacationers. i didn't get a song, but i took a picture.

we bussed back to town and got dolled up for another lovely dinner. we went to the famous pedro and lola's restaurant and i had fish again, with a tasty pina colada... mmm mmm good!!!! mind you this restaurant is in the squre in old mazatlan, so all the tables are outside the actual restaurant and you are dining with masses of other people from neighboring restaurants and taking in all the festivities of the square as well. so while we were finishing up our meal i noticed a mime and a guitarist walking through the square. they saw us and walked right over and the mime did a bunch of card tricks, one in particular that breanna figured out and called him out on it.... he didn't get mad, he did another trick, a better trick... it was really funny, we had a good time. another nice enjoyable day. we went back to the hotel and hung out until we fell asleep.

day 3
ah check out day :( the weather wasn't fabulous for the beach, so we showered and packed and headed to breakfast. our hotel was kind enough to hold our bags at the desk until 9pm when we came to pick them up. well it was hot and humid on monday - ick! not a good day to be without a hotel and air conditioning... but we did it anyway, we had breakfast at the same place and this day we got fresh homemade biscuits YUM!!!! and we had the same sweet waiter....

after breakfast we walked ALL around town, haggard and sticky we finally came upon a cute little cafe and got cold beverages... that was a nice pick me up. we hung out there for a while then headed out again. realizing how much it sucked having bad weather and no hotel in a town not our own plus 5 extra hours until our bus left, we went to the bust station to see if there was room on an earlier bus. alas there was not, but you know what we ventured on yet another bus and took up some waiting time.

from there we found a taxi and asked the driver to take us to his favorite restaurant for dinner. he chose wisely! we ate at the tastiest little place. oddly enough called Panama... it was like a mexican diner in the sense that it had a huge menu and really good prices. it was a very good choice on the part of our taxi driver. afterwards we walked around town a while. i ahd wanted a reall cute halter top sarong dress, so we tried to find one for the right price - but it just wasn't happening. i was extremely dissappointed, because i like dresses and this one in particular was sooooo pretty. but alas, it wasn't meant to be. so we got our things together and went to the bus station.

what an unfortunate surprise to arrive at 9:45 thinking the bus leaves at 10.... we got there and saw it didn't leave until 10:35, ok we were a tad ruffled, but nonetheless fine. so come 10:30 we go outside to catch our bus - what does he do but refuse us entry and drive around the side of the station. curious, after about 10 minutes we walk to the side of the station and there is aour bus getting the royal bus washing treatment... that lasted for an HOUR!!!! at which point, we were more than ruffled and extremely tired...

so we enter the bus and find the bus driver's wife and two kids and their luggage sitting in 2 of our 4 seats. the bus driver tells us to take seat 16 &17 in the back instead (which brings one to the question - why bother to pick your seats when you buy the tickets anyway???) i digress... so breanna and jenna grudingly obliged only to then be kicked out of those seats by other passengers. so breanna goes to the driver and explains the situation, to which he replied "vete" which is a really nasty response, pretty much meaning "go away"... but what are you to do when customer service and professionalism is not upheld in mexico?? i'll tell you - you grin and bear it, because no one cares, especially if you have already paid for the service... so that's just what we did.

the ride home wasn't wonderful, because the driver kept on turning the air conditioning on and off so i was getting a little nauseous. and this bus didn't have a foot rest which proved to be extremely painful. i didn't know this was even a possibility, but my calves and feet were burning from lack of movement in the middle of the night. by morning when we FINALLY approached torreon and i stood up my feet hurt soooo bad. im not even exaggerating in the least, i had the swollen feet of a pregnant woman nine months in... i have pictures to prove it. all day today i have lying on the couch with my feet elevated. and exactly 12 hours later the swelling has gone down, but my ankles are still wider than my toe span...

well folks that was my weekend... the good, the bad, and everything in between. we only have a 3 day week this week WOO HOO... just the break i needed. i hope all goes well, tune in later this week to find out.... i'll put up some new pix tomorrow, for now it's off to bed for me.