warning – The Inn at Mazatlan, Mexico

On January 19, 2006 By Rick McIn bad news, McCharles family, product complaints, travel, travel Mexico, traveloguesLeave a comment

The Inn at Mazatlán is one of the best resorts in town, no doubt. It’s been my home in Mexico since Katrina first took me there over 20-years-ago.

It is not a perfect resort. None are, of course.

One warning to would-be condo investors in Mexico.

Consider the “carrying costs“.

I paid C$5000 for 1 week a year for 23 years. My “condo Fee” started at US$75 / week / year. Very reasonable.

But when my annual bill reached US$400 for that week, I walked away from my unit, unable to sell a time-share with such a high condo fee.

My brother bought a unit at the Inn at Mazatlán about the time I walked away. His condo fee started low and is now well over US$400. He is starting to have doubts.

Fact is, you can rent a week at a 4-star resort in Mazatlán for US$400.

Be sceptical of pretty people and pretty condo pitches in Mazatlán. Things can only get worse for those who own at the Inn. Americans may be required to get a passport to travel to Mexico by 2007. Many will stop travelling to Mexico. Money will get tighter here.

This will further stifle business in Maz, still disaffected from the decrease in travel from the USA after 9/11.

If you have plenty of money, I recommend the Inn at Mazatlán — but it is cheaper to rent as you go.

The Inn at Mazatlán official website

Inn at MazatlÃ¡n

travelogue – Mazatlán jungle tour

On January 13, 2006August 12, 2015 By Rick McIn photos, travel, travel Mexico, traveloguesLeave a comment

The most popular tour out of Maz is the boat trip through estuary mangrove swamps.

Our family took the tour, most of us for the second or third time. Excellent — especially the birds.

The boat gets you very close to bird life.

Birds are increasingly tolerant of tourists here.

This is the flat-bottomed boat used on the tours. They sometimes get stuck at low tide.

Mangey beach dog.

New on the tour is a research project growing … sea horse.

We got about 90 minutes on a pristine, protected beach.

A lovely spot marred only by the recent introduction of quad vehicles. (Gladly no one rented one the day we were there.)

It is astonishing the number of over-weight people lounging the beaches of Mexico.

Great Blue Heron.

Feeding the pelican.

These giant birds have learned to come to the boat for a daily handout.

Long-time tour guide Polo even puts a fish on his head. (I remember Polo from my first jungle tour perhaps 20 years ago. Then he had a pet racoon on the boat.)

Yvonne feeding the birds. 🙂

The pelicans truely are impressive.

Getting the fish is the easy part. Keeping it from your dive-bombing competitors is the bigger challenge.

This hat went overboard. The skipper retrieved it.

travelogue – Mazatlan

On January 8, 2006 By Rick McIn travel, travel Mexico, traveloguesLeave a comment

Back in my old hangout in Mexico. I owned a condo here for about 15 years — purchased from a pretty Canadian saleswoman while I was drinking.

A bit fuzzy from the 14-hour overnight bus ride, a flyby of local giant pelicans welcomed me home.

… Nostalgia is a wonderful thing.

Inn at Mazatlan

Next travelogue on this trip >> Mazatlán jungle tour.

photos – Mexico City

On January 7, 2006April 2, 2016 By Rick McIn Art and beauty, education, photos, travel, travel Mexico, traveloguesLeave a comment

The reputation is a polluted, dangerous mega-city.

But I find Mexico City to be tourist friendly & easy to navigate via the third busiest subway system in the world. (Stay out of the cabs.)

Having seen most of the tourist attractions in the past, this time I wandered some of the major green spaces including the largest university.

I arrived in Mexico City on Jan. 5, 2006. To my surprise the holiday lights were still up in the main square.

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Jan. 6th was “Three Kings Day”.

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The most popular hostel looks over the central plaza, an ideal location.

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Quirky. A most appropriate word for this city. Cow statues line the largest park.

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A most delicious snack outside the Museum of Anthropology

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A park spray foam battle.

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University City, one of the largest in the world with over 260,000 students.

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The signature building on campus is a library, entirely covered by mosaics by Juan O’Gorman.

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Mexican art is not always good, but it is often BIG.

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1968 Olympic Stadium.

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love the puma logo of UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico).

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Another huge building mural.

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photos – New Year’s 2005 – Warren

On January 2, 2006 By Rick McIn photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

I posted a few of Warren Long’s photos from the New Years weekend at Emma Lake. OPEN icon A fabulous time was had by all!

Warren

ALL of Warren’s photos are posted on his Flickr account (free membership required):

1. New Years Eve party OPEN icon at Aaron & Twylas.

2. New Year’s Eve bonfire. OPEN icon

3. Spruce River Highlands Ice Skiing OPEN icon on New Year’s Day.

books – Anthony Daniels UPDATED

On December 28, 2005 By Rick McIn books, travelLeave a comment

I must be the first to blog Anthony Daniels, an excellent though little-known British travel writer.

Coups & Cocaine, South America, 1986

Sweet Waist of America: Journeys around Guatemala, 1990

His 1992 book on Liberia, Africa is a shocker.

Daniels interviewed the liberator Prince Y. Johnson, an insomniac psychopath who relished showing visiting Western journalists video footage torturing predecessor Master Sergeant Samuel Doe.

The picture painted of Africa is searing.

Yet Liberia is not the worst train wreck in Africa.

Butchery, genocide, an economy ruined by stupidity, corruption & greed — this I can understand.

But the biggest surprises came from tales told of well-meaning foreign aid gone horribly wrong. Some of the worst pain inflicted on the simple villagers of Africa was wrought by tall, smiling Scandinavians.

Bono be warned.

Monrovia Mon Amour: A Visit to Liberia