Pizza Benji's

11-21-12 – Stone Island Anchorage,(Isla de la Piedra) Mazatlan, MX

Taking  a break from touring Mazatlan

Back to an anchorage after five days of marina living.  The last five nights, 6 days have been great; being able to experience Mazatlan from the comfort of a nice marina.  While the surge on the marina ate our new dock lines for breakfast, it was associated with the El Cid resort.  As previously posted, that means multiple pools, a swim up bar, movies on the lawn and all the resorty type amenities.  (Like huge fluffy towels)  Laundry done for you, washed, dried and folded, delivered to your boat for $80 pesos a load.  It’s hard not to get used to this type of life.  We met a couple of people who had settled into the life after bringing their boats down the coast they had decided that Mazatlan was as good as it gets and after 5 years they still haven’t left.  We spent our time part time relaxing and part time getting stuff done.  We experienced the central Mercado with all its chaos, haggled for a dress, bought veggies, machaca, 25cent ice cream cones, fish and beef tostadas for a dollar US each for lunch. 

Elizabeth on the Malecon

A ride for six of us in the bed of a little Toyota pickup there and a modified VW bug on the way back.  Seatbelts are for losers here, just hold on.  Walked down the long beach across the canal from us and then took a 7.8 peso bus ride back to the supermarket Mega, that makes a super Walmart look small.    

 

 

 

Bought 2 kilos (yes almost 5 pounds!) of shrimp from the harbormaster with the understanding that we would pay what they cost?  Some commitments are fairly vague here, but it all worked out and the camarones were delivered as promised. 

That's a lot of shrimps

Our first batch of shrimp

 We found the cruisers palapa and had 25 peso liters of beer while watching a puppet show.  Yes, a puppet show.  It involved a lot of female lingerie, but even that couldn’t salvage it.  The 25 peso beers helped.  Of course we took full advantage of the pool and happy hour from 4 to 5 (or 4 to 7 if you talk to Migel and tip good)  We sat listening to the 8 AM cruises net on the VHF every morning to hear the latest weather, gossip and goings on.  And then this morning we left.  It took almost three hours to say goodbye to everyone.  Between coffee with fellow Haha’ers and our dock neighbor who had been at El Cid for 5 years and traveled Mexico since the 70’s, it was a chore to push off the dock. 

El Cid Marina

 

 We now find ourselves at Stone Island Anchorage with almost 15 pounds of shrimp between three boats for Thanksgiving.  Should be yummy.

Benji's with the anchorage behind

The cruisers guide suggested we try Benji’s for pizza, which we couldn’t resist.  Apparently Benji’s has more customers during the weekend as we were the only people there tonight.  Thru Elizabeth’s increasingly good Spanish we were able to have a great time with our host (and his family)  He came running as we pulled up to the beach, helped us with our dinghy pulling it  up the beach.  As we wandered around the palapa that apparently served as the restaurant, his house and his friends house (whos father owned the place), we played with her children, he offered us some of the ceviche they were having for dinner and we talked about his shrimping and fishing.  It seems he had lived there his whole life, never traveling very far.  It was very peaceful here he said.  The fishing and shrimping was great in the bay we were anchored in and we were only the second set of Americans to eat there that week.  It was mostly Mexican locals apparently.  He admired my straw hat and when prompted about the guitar displayed next to his tent he didn’t really know how to play it.  We talked the whole time his friend made our garlic shrimp pizza.  It was if he felt obligated to keep us company while we waited and it was almost expected that Elizabeth would want to hold the baby Elija who was crawling around in the open air crib.  As if by holding the baby we would know that they were good people.  He shooed away a random beach dog that smelled our pizza and sat diligently just out of touching range waiting for some scraps. 

Our host - we traded hats for the picture

 

After dinner he showed us his small boat and was quite proud of how large his shrimp net was.  He then helped us launch our dinghy and held it for us while we got in, making sure we knew that we were welcome again tomorrow.  All this with not a word of English.  Like I said, Elizabeth’s Spanish has come a long way.  It was a great evening and seemingly very representative of the hospitality and pride we have been experiencing here in Mexico (at least since leaving Cabo) 

Time to think about how to prepare our 5 pounds of shrimp for Thanksgiving!