MAZATLÁN SNORKEL SCENE

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MAZATLÁN SNORKLE SCENE
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MAZ O MENOS
Mazatlán is mostly one big, huge, long sand beach: known more as an extremely cheap place to hang out and party than as a diving mecca. But there are a couple of likely sites, and they are interesting places unlike where you usually jump in. Read more

RUDE CUDE, DUDE

When you're eye to eye with appetite, who's gonna blink? And how do you tell the predators from the chow without a menu?
Read On, MacDuff

LOCAL WEATHER

Winter is time for "Maz". Generally reliably fair from October through May or June, but the summer months are muggy, rainy, and sticky hot. The early fall can bring storms. The later in the winter the better for water clarity. Daily forecast here or over here.

MAZATLÁN LINKS

Links to dive shops, outfitters, and places of interest to snorklers. Just click here.

MAZ O MENOS
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Mazatlán is mostly one big, huge, long sand beach: known more as an extremely cheap place to hang out and party than as a diving mecca. But there are a couple of likely sites, and they are interesting places unlike where you usually jump in. Of course, the Mazatlán image is sort of "MTV Spring Break", but actually it's not a total tourist trap: it's a real city that has a lot of music (even jazz clubs!!), a lot of foreign residents, and a very low standard of living. The town is FULL of cheap hotels (except at Carnaval--and Carnaval in Mazatlán is huge) and cheap, good food. Living here costs less than a third what it costs in Cozumel, or Cabo. Check out these reviews of the city by ex-resident "El Gallo" and other IGOUGO.COM travellers. It's also a cheap destination to fly to, and can also be reached by ferry from La Paz. A big cruise ship kind of thing, a great way to get over from Baja or to go to the Baja--check out Cabo for a quickly. Then you can come back on another ferry from La Paz to Los Mochis and catch the famous Copper Canyon train for a drop-dead mindblowing railroad trip up a gulch that dwarfs the Grand Canyon. But meanwhile, back at sea level, you can take a boat excursion or hit the two "self serve" areas worth strapping on the ol' fins and mask. The first is right in town, and is definitely an adventure-type undertaking, not a sightseeing jaunt: the rocky cliffs between Olas Altas beach and the Paseo Claussen. A less dangerous spot is also a terriffic day outing that can range from pretty cruising, suitable for family, to rougher stuff on the surf side, involves a picturesque trip by giant robot shark to the beautiful Tres Islas just off the Golden Zone. DON'T get roped into the "Stone Island" trip if you are interested primarily in snorkeling. Isla de la Piedra is a cool place with nice bars with hammocks instead of chairs and miles of empty beach to walk and skinny-dip. And you might get a kick out of the knuckleheads on your boat trip, the volleyball, the drinks and feverish MTV "we're having so much fun" atmosphere. But the snorkeling is a joke. Save your money for Tres Islas or spear fishing.

MAZATLÁN LINX
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Diving and Water Sports Hudson Snorkeling Tours One of the better operators Hudson Spearfishing Tours Freedive spear hunting. General Mazatlán Information Official Mazatlán Page Hotels, sights, all that good stuff. Mazatlán On Line More general info. All About Mazatlán Yada, yada, yada. Mazatlán Area MAPS To view or download Pacific Pearl Mazatlán's English newspaper. Online version is VERY informative. Earth View See Mazatlán from space!

OLAS ALTAS/PASEO CLAUSSEN
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SHORE SCENE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots Olas Altas used to BE Mazatlán: THE beach, fronted by THE hotels. Movie stars hung out here in the Belmar and La Siesta, idling in the boardwalk bars and cafes, swimming in the cute little half-moon cove with high hills on either end. Nowdays, the scene has moved on, but the original Señor Frogs is here, and there is still a raffish crowd in the Copa de Leche. And the La Siesta and Belmar are still decent places to spend your vacation. And this is still where they blow it out for Carnaval. There's a great little ceviche place at the south end of the beach, and it's only two blocks inland to the clubs and culture of Plazuela Machado, three more blocks to the Plaza and Market. What you do, you have a drink in one of these places, which allows you to leave your stuff there while you go out, hotfooting it across the street and boardwalk, then sliding into the surf. When you come back, there you are ready for a snack. Olas Altas is probably the best beach in town for just plain swimming. But if you swim off to the right from the beach, you start passing the rock outcroppings of the headland topped by Paseo Claussen. The Paseo is a Mazatlán showplace--a road built along cliffs with viewpoints, walkways, bridges and scads of nice bronze statues (most of them with very fetching breasts). There are small-change versions of the Acapulco cliff divers here. You can enter the water from the Paseo, most easily at the feet of the bronze mermaid with her cute little boy. But where do you leave your stuff? Anyway, it's here below these cliffs that the action is. To the LEFT side of Olas Altas, by the way, is another clifftop road called Paseo Centenario, a longer hike and much more precipitous. But if you look, you will find places you can take paths down to the water and get in. This is a little less wild than the Claussen, but not always or in all places. An area not very widely swum or even visited. DOWN UNDER THE SEA Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots The cliffs below the Paseo thrust out into open sea, creating violent, complex, swirling breaks. Olas Altas means "Big Waves", baby. There are enough challenges here to get your ass scrubbed raw, no doubt about it. Oh by the way, you might want to leave your dangly earrings or Rolex home: there are usually some BIG, I mean like 4-5 foot, barracuda lurking in the white water here--but that's another story. You can get a lot zoom through here, schuzzing in between the pinnacles and canyons. There are arches, pools, questionable passageways that might or might not connect around things--and if they do, might just connect to a sudden flattening pile of surf. It's a blast. At the other end of the Paseo, things mellow out and end up becoming Playa Norte, about where the Casa del Marino stands out from the shore with its rusty cannon. You can also get off a bus here in Playa Norte and enter here, swim around to Olas Altas. HOW TO GET THERE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots From the "Golden Zone" of big hotels, take the Sabalo Centro bus south. A nice way to do it is to get off at the "Monos Bichis", two huge naked statues by the water and continue south along the water, rising up Paseo Claussen after a few blocks, and starting to pass the cliffs and statuary. You can spot places to head for (or avoid) from up here, and it's a great stroll, one of the must-sees of Mazatlán. Eventually, you will descend to Olas Altas beach, having just walked by and above the entire break area we're talking about. Continue on past the Olas Altas district to climb up into the Paseo Centenario, where you will again be able to scope it all out before getting in. From the downtown, just head east to Olas Altas. Easiest is to take Angel Flores, the street opposite the Cathedral on the main Plaza. It's a cool street anyway, the right hand sidewalk starts climbing until you are walking three stories above the opposite sidewalk, then is slopes down to the boardwalk area. Two blocks south of the Plaza, and a couple of blocks east is the Plazuela Machado, with it's European cafes and saloons. From there just walk two blocks east from the Cafe Pacifico (and DON'T miss a look, if not a beer, if not a Margarita, in the Pacifico--it's a classic) until you hit the water.
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LAS TRES ISLAS
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SHORE SCENE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots There ain't much. Oh, there are lovely beaches with sweeping views of Mazatlán and the foothills of the Sierra Madre in the background. And you can hike and climb, as well as hitting the water. But there is no restaurant, no pop stand, no rentals. You bring your stuff with you. There's not all that much shade, for that matter, so if you're still pallid, better bring a parasol para el sol or sunblock. The mainland shore, the big hotel zone known as the Zona Dorada or Golden Zone, is literally lined with places to eat and drink, not to mention rent Hobie Cats, take parachute rides, be a total asshole on a jet ski, or just enjoy miles and miles of beach. UNDERWATER WORKS Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots This is the best "normal" snorkeling in the area, hands down. The islands, especially Bird Island, have beaches, but mostly rocky shores. They are far enough out that the water is much cleaner than in town, extremely so while the spring rains are still sluicing silt out the river and storm sewers. It's almost pointless to get into the merits of such a cool excursion site, but the calm water snorkeling on the land side here is very pretty, and if on the outside can get pretty wild. You can swim around the islands pretty easily, kind of a fun thing in itself, and swim from one island to the other. HOW TO GET THERE Shore Scene Getting There Dive Spots In this case, a lot of the fun. You ride from the Golden Zone beaches to the Islas on a World War II surplus landing craft called a "DUCK" and painted with a huge shark's mouth full of teeth. Take a pic of that home to your blasé buds. Sometimes the DUCK just cruises the beach looking for fares--and it can be pretty weird to look up and see a huge robot land shark heading for you. But they usually just wait for you on the El Cid beach, with hourly departures from 10 AM to like 4 PM, depending on how they are doing it this year. You get in, the shark wallows into the water, switches gears, and putts out to the islands. How cool can you GET?!? Be sure not to miss the last shark back to shore.
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