Mazatlán

THE OOSTERDAM was a slow boat to Mexico Monday night, heading south from Cabo San Lucas at a leisurely pace of about 9 knots. We made port Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m. in Mazatlán.

Cabo was a beautiful patch of paradise, but Mazatlán is more my speed: It’s a small city built around three big hills on a peninsula which juts out into the Pacific. Established by Spanish settlers in 1531 as a way station for gold and silver coming out of the Sierra Madres, it’s got business and industry now, as well as tourism. Mazatlán is, for example home to the Pacifico beer brewery, which is just about a half mile down the water from where we docked.