A Town of Contrasts

Children's Choir - a photo with Santa

Cute Children Clapping and Singing

Christmas Lights in Town Square

Families enjoying dinner in Old Town Mazatlan

We enjoyed some pre-holiday celebrations before departing Mazatlan, including a Christmas Sing-a-Long for gringos in “Old Town.” It seemed strange singing “Frosty the Snowman” and “White Christmas” while wearing shorts and T-shirts. Santa was there too, he was wearing sunglasses, sporting his usual red suite which no doubt kept him uncomfortably warm even during the evening hours. The town square was decorated with Christmas lights and children from the local orphanage sang Christmas carols in front of the lovely colonial-style Art Museum. Arts and crafts were available for purchase along with food vendors. Proceeds went towards benefiting the children’s choir so we purchased a homemade apple pie and some yummy Jalapeno preserves. The children in the choir were absolutely adorable, clapping their hands and singing carols, looking longingly into the crowd for someone to call their own. – I wanted to take them all home with me. My thoughts for them stood in contrast to those more fortunate who live in lovely homes along the canals of Mazatlan. We had taken our dinghy down the channel from Marina El Cid and discovered a labyrinth of canals similar to Newport Shores in Bellevue, Washington. The estuary and man-made canals are lined with beautiful homes and condominiums. Areas left in their natural state attract various species of birds and we saw iguanas hiding in the trees and sunning themselves on the rocks. On our last day in Mazatlan, I was invited to a lady’s tea party aboard one of the neighboring sailboats. It was a nice gathering of women from all over the U.S., Canada, and even Australia – a fun old-fashioned cookies and tea tradition with shared memories of home and family.