Hotel California, Mazatlan (AKA Groundhog Day)

When we sketched out our cruising plan for Mexico, hanging out in Mazatlan wasn't part of it. Our plan was to head up into the Sea of Cortez and then meander down the coast to Barra de Navidad (one of my very favorite towns in Mexico) and loiter aimlessly for a couple of months. We were happy to change these plans for a chance to meet up with Isabel, and so we headed across the Sea on my birthday and arrived in Mazatlan on the 15th of December. Our plan was to head back over to Baja and spend a quick month up in the Sea, and then meet up with Noj's mom and her husband back here in Mazatlan on the 22nd of January, before continuing down the coast. Our plan to head back across to Bahia Frailes on Baja was put off by a bout of food poisoning for Noj, and then adverse breeze. We scrapped the idea. We thought we might sail down to Isla Isabel and San Blas and then come back up for the parental visit. Again, big breeze and swell put this off. We decided to stay put and 'be productive'. We would rebuild our engine! We knew it was coming, we had purchased the rebuild kit in the States, and we had a few weeks. Why not... shouldn't take that long, right? The engine project, naturally, has taken forever. It was not complete by the time Judy & Larry came to visit, and it wasn't complete when they left. Our buddy boats all left Mazatlan without us. We had plans to meet up with our friend Meggan in Barra de Navidad (remember that plan?) on the 16th of February. It became painfully clear that we weren't going to make it there. Thankfully, Meggan was able to change her flight to meet up with us here in Mazatlan. That took some pressure off the engine rebuild timeline. Then we were thinking, okay, we may as well stay for Carnaval. It's a huge deal in Mazatlan, and all of our friends that live here say we simply must experience it. The Carnaval celebration is the last week of February, and we let our friends all know that we are staying and made some plans. Leaving directly after would get us to Barra three weeks hence, given a meandering cruise down the coast. Then, we received some great news... Tom & Patty, Noj's dad and stepmom want to visit us! Happy news! They want to come down the 4th - 11th of March. That, of course, means we wouldn't actually have time to get someplace other than Mazatlan in those few days. This happened, coincidentally, on Groundhog Day. Remember that film, with Bill Murray and Andi McDowell, where he relives a day (Groundhog Day) in Punxatawny, PA over and over again and can't escape until he gets it right? Um, yeah... sounds familiar! Hahaha! So there you have it. We are likely never ever leaving Mazatlan.

Parece que estamos mazatlecos... es una buena cosa que nos guste aquí!