MAZATLÁN Mexico FUN GUIDE to the HOTEL ZONE!

Hola! Bienvenidos! Welcome to beautiful Mazatlan! Buenos dias, good morning Country Collectors and welcome back to the beautiful coastal city of Mazatlan Sinaloa! If you tuned in last week you know we explored the Centro Historico. So this week we thought we would take you up north to Zona Dorada also known as the Golden Zone or the Hotel Zone. We can't wait to show you around but before we get started make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures. It's Saturday today. I'm sure you can already hear it. It is very loud, noisy. There's a lot of people around. There's excitement in the air. There's a cruise ship in today! So we hope you are ready for some fun. You know we are. Let's do this! We are starting our day down on the malecon. It runs 21 kilometers through the city. We're on Playa Norte right now where you can see some people already enjoying the beautiful sand and water. Just down a little bit are Palapa restaurants that serve some delicious seafood. This is also a wonderful place to catch a sunset. Definitely make the time to come down here and check it out! And we hope you are ready for a lot of walking today. I wore my little Fitbit here so we can see how many steps that we do. This is one of the most walkable cities we have been to so make sure to wear comfortable shoes because blisters are no fun! Oh hey! Need a ride home fry? All along the malecon you are going to find fun statues like this one. This is a pulmonia. It's one of the unique taxis that they have here which is one of the funnest ways to see the city. Before you hop in make sure to negotiate the price because they're not set. It is worth the ride though. And while you're sitting in the car you may just think this is a backdrop but it is actually very special. I don't think Adam has even seen this yet! Look at this! Oh wow. There is a relief here. This is actually the hill with the lighthouse on it El Faro which is located in the old town. It seems like the lighthouse has fallen off. b=But there's a beautiful woman, there's deer, there's some stuff from Carnaval and some marine animals. So it's a lot of character, you know the characters that make up this city. Something else you'll notice while you're walking down the malecon is this beautiful blue bike lane. It's a great way to get around and see the city. We've actually seen a few bike rental places around around so definitely consider that when you're here in Mazatlan. Another great way to get around the city that is much more affordable than the pulmonias is the green buses here. It's 13 pesos you can hop on and hop off pretty much anywhere. It just runs up and down the malecon and down into the city. They're air-conditioned and it's a great way to get out of the sun for a little bit and give those little tootsies a rest. And they're very loud! They can be on the outside, inside nice and quiet. Continuing down a bit further you'll run into this statue. These are California sea lions. We learned that they actually migrate down here during the winter months I think to have their pups, right? Well this is a little introduction to our next stop we are going to get off the malecon and head inland for just a little bit before we get back out to the Golden Zone so come along! The first place we are showing you down here is the aquarium. Upon entering we were greeted by the new penguin exhibit. They were so so cute and they have a lot of great information about the species. Inside you can also find a lot of tanks containing everything from sharks down to dancing shrimp. Outside there crocodiles, sea lions, birds and interactive fish exhibit and a snack area. It's also air-conditioned which was a nice relief from the midday sun. So if you're looking for a little break from the beach or a place to come and bring yourself or your children this is a great spot! And just around the corner you will find the city's Central Park. It's a beautiful place to come down located right on the lagoon with lots of walking trails and shade as well as bike, kayak and paddle boat rentals. If you like bird watching this is the place for you. There's also a walk through animal park with both birds and reptiles. They even have a food truck park that looked like it had some delicious food. It's a great place to come down and spend a couple of hours. Now let's keep going. Just across from the park you will see this large complex. This is the Teodoro Mariscal Baseball Stadium. Here in the state of Sinaloa baseball is King. It is home to the professional team known as the Venados, which means the deer. So when you're here check the schedule and maybe you can come for a nice night at the ballpark. Which we may or may not be taking you to later in this video. And something interesting we found out about the origins of Mazatlan is that the name actually comes from a pre-hispanic word for 'the place of the deer.' It's so cool! Before we head back up to the Hotel Zone we just wanted to mention this area we are in right now as you can probably tell is a lot more commercial than say the old town we were in in the last video. Behind me here is the Gran Plaza which is a shopping mall. It has stuff like Starbucks and a cinema. So there are a lot of comforts from home that you can find here. So yeah the city just really caters to every sort of traveler. Well what do you say we get back to that malecon? Come with us! All right I think we have made it down to what is officially known as the start of the Golden Zone. It is marked by the colorful Mazatlan letters which as you know is a great place to snap a photo! And then in the background here is a very unique and iconic building called Punto Valentinos. Our Taxi Driver said back in the 70s and 80s it was a happening spot. And now there are some bars and clubs there that you can check out if you'd like. As soon as you start walking down the main road from those letters you are really gonna notice that sense of tourism in the air. There's Señor Frogs behind us there's a McDonald's. There are guys selling tours and renting razors for $75 USD an hour. It's so loud! But this road continues all the way down we are just gonna make a little detour now so come along! Our detour has brought us down to the first beachfront hotels here in the Golden Zone. Behind me here is Playa Mazatlan. It was the first hotel built on the beach here in 1955. It's also one of the most popular and maybe worth checking out for your next trip here. All right somebody who shall not be named is getting a little testy! Maybe we both are pushing each other's buttons a bit. So I think it's time for some food and I know just the spot we'll see you over there! Welcome to Pancho's! We already got our drinks, these huge goblets! I got some limonada some lemonade. And I got the horchata or that really good rice water they make here. Yeah I heard of the spot and some somebody said that we had to come down here and sit downstairs on the water but it was full... Luckily so, because she told us upstairs here was air-conditioned and we still have a view of the ocean so this is like the best of both worlds. I completely agree! So we are taking a well-needed break right now and we will see you when our food arrives. All right I'm not gonna wait till the food arrives because I'm excited. Woah! What is this? Moonshine. Whoa! They just brought us some moonshine, I don't know about this I'm gonna eat first. Oh it smells really good. You want to try it? I don't know it seems dangerous to me! And to start we also got some fried stuffed Chiles and it's filled with Marlin! This assortment of delicious looking salsa, pico de gallo and a big basket of chips! It's more like a giant tub of chips! This is already very exciting as you can see. And all this stuff is free, which is just amazing hospitality! And it's kind of funny up here because we can see everybody like parasailing, on the banana boat, swimming. I kind of feel like we're watching people on vacation up here. And you can still hear the music and stuff but it's like someone turn the volume down just a little bit and the temperature and we're loving it! It's great. Oh my gosh our food just arrived and it is humongous! Look at this. It's so hot out and normally I don't have that much of an appetite so I was like oh I'll just go with the avocado salad you know. It's an avocado and then it has a little shrimp salad on top thinking it was going to be small. What in the Earth! Where is even the avocado under there? The avocados like bowling ball sized! It's amazing. And I went with a stuffed fish fillet. It has a seafood broth on top and it has bacon wrapped around the filet. Look at that! Yeah. It's also huge. It's stuffed with seafood inside of it. It looks absolutely incredible. It came like steaming. All right let's jump into this! Hey that's my line. Like it's some sort of big task! Look at that the bacon hanging down. The sauce is creamy. The fish is nice and firm and the bacon is crispy! What else can you ask for? So as you can see this place is definitely a winner so put it on the list when you're here. Well we are gonna take our time and finish this up and we will see you out on the beach! Just out here in front of Pancho's is Playa Gaviota. I have to say this is the busiest beach we have seen so far here in the city. There's a lot going on. You can come down and rent umbrellas with chairs. There's a ton of people swimming. We've seen the parasailers down here. We've also seen the pangas that go out to this island in front of me. It's called Isla de Venados or Deer Island. It costs 200 pesos round trip. They begin I believe he said at eight in the morning and they come back at 4:30 pm. It is a protected area out there so there are no facilities, there's no bathroom so bring all your food and your drinks. They do rent umbrellas and chairs as well. If you don't want to take the panga and you want to do something a bit more all-inclusive our new friends Billie and Mark went on the Sensation catamaran out of the marina the other day. They got this lovely footage for you so thank you so much. And they said they had had a wonderful time. So there are a couple options there but definitely visit the island. We are going to go in a couple days and see it for ourselves too! It's another great activity to do here. And these are the guys here you can come to them and they'll take care of you. This is Cesar right here! Mamaroop! Bernie! Charlie! Charlie Brown! Yeah so whatever you need come down to Playa Gaviota and they'll take care of you! Woo! Thank you. See you. Back out on the road here there are a lot more bars and restaurants that come alive at night. So you should definitely come down here. They also have a ton of souvenir shops if you need some stuff to bring home to your loved ones. It's a good time come down here and check it out. A bit further down you can channel your inner Pitbull. I'm embarrassed! We at the hotel, motel, Holiday Inn! This is a great place to come and go up to their 12th floor to watch the sunset. They have a bar so you can grab some drinks and just enjoy yourselves. And you may have noticed I changed my shirt. My shoulders were getting a little fried even though I've applied sunscreen all day today. But right now we're just gonna continue down this road back to the main road so come with us! And they even have a Dairy Queen here and if you know Dairy Queen they have the best soft serve ice cream out there! If you don't agree with him let us know your favorite. No no don't let me know it's the Dairy Queen! And the Dairy Queen is located in Camino Al Mar which is another shopping plaza here. It is pretty grand. It is. And it looks like it's brand new. It does. Something that we like doing when we're in resort areas is going to the hotels and seeing if they offer day passes. This one behind me here Costa De Oro does. They have two different ones. One for 500 pesos which includes all of their facilities as well as that money goes towards your consumption so your foods and drinks. They also have an all-inclusive one for 1,350 pesos which includes all your food and domestic beers. So this is an option for you if you're coming here and you want to check out a resort for the day. And as you're walking along you are going to notice a ton of construction going on. It seems like this place was already popular but it's just getting more popular so hotels are just springing up all over the place. And this one right here called The Inn is one of my favorites. I've never seen a giant mural on the front with dolphins before! It looks like the ocean is on every single floor going up. It's super cool. As we've been walking down the road today we've noticed there are many alleyways leading out to the beach. Remember all beaches in Mexico are... public no matter what they tell you! Yeah so you can walk in front of the hotels and just yeah just have fun on the beach wherever. This one right here is I believe Playa Sabalo. Absolutely gorgeous. There's not a ton of people around. In front of us is Isla de Pajeros, Island of the birds which is another beautiful stunning island. I feel like everywhere we turn here is another beautiful, stunning, beach, island activity to do. It's really cool. Yeah it definitely surprised us in a good way. Oh absolutely. We thought we would sit down and just enjoy this soak it all in with you here and while we're doing that we would love to give a shout out to our new patrons: Georgia, David, Brad, Dannette, Mark, Billie and Andy! Thank you so much for becoming patrons. We appreciate you so so much! What would we do without you? You know I don't know what we would do without them. It certainly wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun having them in our in our patreon family and here with us. Yeah thank you! I'm just picturing you here on the beach enjoying this view with us. If you would like to join our community we'll put the link in the description below. We are already I just checked my little watch here 12,500 steps we just hit six miles today! So good job. Seriously great job guys. Yeah oh I know a great place to get a drink I think we need to quench our thirst some more so come join us. We have made it down here to another beach. This is Playa Diego. And behind me here is Diego's Beach Bar and Grill looks like a good spot to go grab a drink. But down here I'm just looking around this place is packed as well. There are family's just enjoying themselves. There's some Banda music playing over here you know the complete band. It's just really cool but let's head in and get a drink! Look what just showed up. My mojito looks absolutely delicious. Isn't there something so special about sitting on the beach with a cold beverage with your feet in the sand? I'm gonna taste this out! Like he didn't already taste it it's already a third gone! Okay fine! I did taste it I just couldn't wait I'm sorry guys! Something that you should definitely think about checking out though is here at the restaurant between November and April they have the Brenster's Beach Bashes on Tuesday from two until six o'clock. It's like an all-you-can drink, listen to music on the beach kind of thing. It's 450 pesos and it sounds like a really good time. And I got a sneaky little flan right here. It looks so good. I can not wait to taste this. He has been waiting for this all day. The texture is perfect, the flavor is perfect, it's Mazat-FLAN-tastic! It's the only time I can ever use that one I had to get it in come on! You're welcome people! I really wanted to say thank you to our man Cacho right here.Hhe did such a wonderful job. We appreciate you! Okay thank you. You were fantastic! Okay thank you very much see you next time! Hasta la Vista baby! All right we have one last place we want to show you in this video. And we think it's gonna be a real hit! "Take Me Out to the Ball Game!" "Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!" Because you know I'm hungry! It is so loud but we are here at the Venados game and let me tell you the excitement is palpable! Everyone is having a great time. The mascots are hilarious. And there's been a lot of action so far so... Let's play ball! And it seems like there are no bad seats in the house. It's just so much fun everyone's having such a good time. If you like baseball definitely make it a point to come down here and check out a game. All right we'll see you back down on the beach! Welcome back to the beach. We hope you had a wonderful time at the game. Unfortunately we gotta say goodbye to you. Toughest part of my week. I get so excited to share all of these wonderful things with you but then I know we have to say goodbye. But we're just that much closer to next week's excitement! You're totally right. So thank you so much we had such a great time here. I think it really surprised us in the best way. And we've gotten to spend quite a few days here. I mean 10? Yeah. 10 days already and yeah we're just really enjoying it happy to be back at the beach so thank you so so much! It would have been nowhere near as much fun if you hadn't been here to share with. If you enjoyed this video please give us a big thumbs up, comment, subscribe and don't forget to... DLING, DLING, DLING, DLING the bell! We'll see you, next time! Adios!