Mazatlan and Hotel Lerma

It was a two hour ride from where I parted from Billy and Trish to the busy little city of Mazatlan that has about half a million people. It is right on the beach in a large sweeping bay with some high-rises at one end and the old town on the southern shores.

I rode through some old one-way streets following the directions from Trish and came across the street I needed to be in and ended up going the wrong way…it was just easier. I pulled into a large central courtyard through a pair of solid gates, found a spot and parked Ziggy. There were three other motorcycles there, a KTM 990, a Suzuki 1200 V-strom and  another 1200GSA under a cover. I knew I was in the right place.

Dwight was the first to come out and greet me and he was surprised to see me initially because no-one was expecting another bike, nor an Australian. He explained how they had just farewelled a couple of Australians and I told him I had met up with them. Dwight rode the KTM and he had been at the Lerma for about three months. Later I met all the others. Lee, a Canadian with the Suzuki, had also been here for about three months; his partner Rebecca who was visiting from Canada; Alex and Allison from Malaysia who were waiting for parts to repair their bike; and finally Shoey from the US and his wife Sandra from Costa Rica. That made up the ‘family’ that Billy and Trish had spent the last three months here with.

I was immediately welcomed and had the same conversation about Billy and Trish leaving that morning from each of the others in turn. It was the beginning of a fairly long stay for me but short by everyone else’s reckoning. I stayed for six days.

They were six days that were important for me. I spent time hanging out with each of them separately and all together and was shown all the places to eat, exercise, the markets, the supermarket, and of course the bar where all the locals gathered to hang out and play pool, including a distinguished older gentleman who was apparently in shipping and the wealthiest man in Mazatlan.

I also had plenty of time to myself, with all of them very respectful of space and no-one ever disturbed me when I was in my room. There were lots of great discussions about everything, with Dwight, Lee and myself equally poor at Spanish, so we would walk around town and fumble our way through ordering food and other conversations with the locals.

I could see why people stayed here. The Lerma was perfect for motorcycles with the big courtyard that was locked each night and a night watchman at the gate. It was cheap. For a single person it cost 160 Pesos (US$12) and the rooms were basic but clean with new linen daily. Dwight did an oil change on his bike there and that was fine, as were any other repairs that needed doing. Another rider had left his bike there for a week while he stayed elsewhere and wasn’t charged.

This is how I saw Mazatlan over the next three days

There were so many local eating options and with the street vendors it is easy to eat three good meals a day for under $20. You never go hungry here. Each morning Dwight, Lee and I would by a take-away coffee from the Oxxo store then sit on the shore watching the fishermen selling their catch and feeding the hundreds of seabirds that gathered for the scraps as the fish were cleaned. The bay seemed to be teeming with life. Everyday there were birds swooping on schools of fish and the fishermen were bringing back decent catches both in numbers and sizes, each morning. If I was around for a bit longer I would have set up some type of barbeque at the Lerma and bought some fresh fish to grill on it.

It only took me a couple of days to fit into the routines but I’m not really a routine type of person so by the weekend I knew I was ready to keep riding. I only had four weeks until the yacht leaves Cancun for Cuba so I wanted to get going again and have plenty of time to see the other places on my list. You would think I had been there three months by the farewell I received from everyone on Monday morning, as I was packing to go. 

Amidst hugs, farewells and photos, I finally left at about 10.30am to head towards Puerto Vallarta, a place everyone seemed to talk about as a great seaside region.