We are still in Mazatlan. We like it here a lot but we haven't "fallen in love" with it like we hope to do when we meet and get to know our new home.

The Centro is nice - but in comparison to a lot of Mexican cities we've known, the plazas in Centro are very small. We were really hoping for some wonderful plazas that would make bench-sitting part of our daily entertainment. If you've ever been to Colima, you'll know what I mean!

The malecon is actually 6 miles - not 17 as we had read several places. It is a great place to walk - nice and flat and right on the ocean.

There are A LOT of gringos here, and most of the restaurants speak English which is kind of a bummer! I really like working out my questions and communicating with people, and if they all speak English it turns into a kind of dumb exchange where we speak in Spanish and they in English and no one learns anything!

We fell in love with a house one day, and maybe out of love with it the next day. We went out with a an American realtor - and one of the houses he showed us was very interesting....two bedrooms, two baths, with an interior courtyard, etc. It was an 1898 home in Centro that had been totally redone. But our problem is that there are so many Americans and Canadians here that in a few years we think we might as well be at home.

The B & B where we've been staying is great - just 6 rooms, and we have had a lot of fun getting to know the hosts and the guests. Yesterday we went to see an Elvis impersonator with a bunch of them that made us feel that we were in the Midwest! (Ok, except for the huge palapa and the ocean just outside) Then today we went whale-watching with two other couples and saw several humpback whales. So that has been fun.

But to return to our decision making process...we are way less sure that Mazatlan would be the place for us. If we decide on the coast, we might be more likely to select Manzanillo or Zihuatanejo for its affordability and location than Mazatlan.

All in all this has been a great trip so far. We are still here Friday and are possibly going to a shrimp party with some other people from the B & B. If that doesn't happen, we will probably just explore Centro some more. There are some places to go to that we've only driven by - a larger city park with an aquarium and aviary is probably top of my list. The Venados season is over so unfortunately there isn't any baseball to see.

Carnaval is in the air here - starting next week. Mazatlan has the third largest Carnaval in the world, and they are preparing like crazy. There are huge banks of bathrooms being constructed and paper mache (sp?) statues everywhere. Just not the kind of event we are interested in being a part of, so we are glad we'll be gone by then. I guess some people charge people 5 pesos to use their bathrooms during Carnaval and practically get rich!

We are really looking forward to heading to Queretaro on Saturday. We'll keep you posted!