Sunrise on Wednesday, October 5, taken from the marina

There was recently a hurricane that hit Mazatlan. The hurricane died out, and the only effect that we’ve experienced up here was large swells from the south, which hit last night and this morning.  Eric didn’t sleep well from the motion, and all of us have been lethargic this morning from the rocking. 

We didn’t mention this last time, but Santa Rosalia harbor is not protected from the south. Last time we were here, which was at a time of the year when south swells were common, the harbor had been more rocky. This time, the prevailing swells have been from the north, and up until last night, it has be mostly calm. 

We spent the morning doing chores. Our big outing for the day was lunch at El Muelle, so we could try another soup. This time, it was potato and cheese soup, which was basically vegetable soup with big chunks of potato and small chunks of a non-melting cheese. The cheese texture was like firm tofu, but it definitely tasted like a rich, buttery cheese.

We stopped by the bakery, then went to a locally owned grocery store in downtown called Dalya, which we were told had higher quality meat than the big-box chain store on the outskirts of town. Dalya certainly didn’t have as much selection of general products as the big-box store, but it had many locally produced goods that weren’t stocked at the supermarket, such as coffee.  

Thursday was another cool morning. We decided to take advantage of the coolness to check another thing off our to-do list: watch the sunrise over the harbor from the a viewpoint at the top of this staircase.

We got off to a later start than we would have preferred. The clouds were already very red when we left the marina, and it looked like the sun was about to poke over the horizon.

We were surprised to see that there were a couple of houses along the staircase. These houses had no road access — the residents had to climb up and down the stairs to get to a road. The viewpoint was covered and had benches.

Sadly, the sun was mostly up by the time we got to the top, but it was still a pretty view none-the-less.

From the viewpoint, we walked out to the road on the top of the hill. A few short blocks down the road was another staircase that led into downtown. Here is the view from the top.

This staircase had several more homes with no road access.

Since the weather was still relatively cool, we walked to the west end of downtown. As we walked along, we saw at least a couple dozen people scattered here and there who were sweeping the sidewalks and streets. There was also a small army of people working in the park adjacent to the library. The first photo is the building at the end, and the second is the park across the street.

We went to one of the many cafes for breakfast, called Chilaquiles.

We felt it was appropriate to order chilaquiles, which are corn tortilla pieces that are fried, cooked in salsa, sprinkled with cheese, and topped with eggs. They are usually served with a side of black beans. Keith got a horchata, which is an aqua fresca made with rice, sugar, water, and spices. It looks like milk, but its dairy free.

On our way back to Kosmos, we briefly went inside the historic church (exterior photo, history).

To be continued…