Mazatlan Countryside Tour

The bus was here to pick us up at 8:30am yesterday morning. First stop was the village of Puerta de Canoas, about 57 kms (35 miles) from where we are camped at Isla de la Piedra.

This is where there is a guy who trains dancing horses. Plus, it's just a nice little typical village. I always find it interesting how you only have to be 16 kms (10 miles) outside the hustle and bustle of the big city of Mazatlan to find yourself out in the country. You'd never know that you're so close to the city.

Typical little house in the countryside...

We could live in a place like this.

But not at this location. We would need a higher altitude. Still too hot around here.

They set up a viewing area for us.

This horse was really friendly.

Big Friesian horse.

The training takes between 6 months and 1 year, depending on the horse. And some horses just can't be trained. We only saw three horses do the dancing, and they were all in various stages of training. Interestingly, only the black horse looked like he enjoyed it, but who knows.

Took a video for you... turn up your volume...

 Ruth, with the big black Friesian. Never did get his name!

Next stop was a cock fighting rooster farm. We could tell right away that there wasn't much interest in our group to see how cock fighting roosters are bred. Yes, it's still very much a Mexican cultural experience, but not one these people had any interest in. Either did we, we have to admit.

So we simply stopped at the side of the road and took a photo out the bus window...

Every rooster gets his own little home.

Can you imagine what this area sounds like at 5:00am? No wonder there were no nearby homes!

Next stop was the leather craft workshops at the clean little town of La Noria...

 The town of La Noria.

Hand made leather goods for sale.

Everything made right here.

Mike, ready for happy hour!

The church in La Noria.

Another leather workshop.

Making sandals.

Pretty little town, and super clean!

Next stop was the tequila factory. Now, we have been to the big Herradura Tequila factory and we have also been to small local operations up in the mountains. This one was kind of in between, and there wasn't much going on. Possibly because of Semana Santa (Holy Week), but either way it wasn't a very impressive visit.

The group looking at the process.

They make five different types here. Pricey stuff, starting at 350 pesos ($25 CAD, $20 USD). 

For perspective, you can buy good tequila in Mexico for 200 pesos a bottle.

Because of it's location close to Mazatlan, it was a bit touristy to us, and at tourist prices. I expect they cater to the cruise ship crowd.

There were two taste tests included in your 50 peso ($3.50 CAD, $2.75 USD) entrance fee.

Here's Angelika trying a taste!

And, with all that tasting done on an empty stomach, we headed to the town of El Quelite. Another really nice little town. We could have spent the day just exploring there. We were just there for lunch, although we did have a half an hour afterwards to wander around.

We went to the restaurant El Meson de Los Laureanos for lunch, and it was fantastic.

Ready for lunch!

I had the chicken enchiladas. 

Ruth had birria.

Pretty little town Busy, too!

Again, I could live in a little town like this if it was higher up in the mountains.

Overall, another really good day with the group. This was the last group tour, and today is our last full day together. We have our farewell dinner at 5:00pm this afternoon, and tomorrow morning we split off in different directions as part of the group will exit at Lukeville, and we will exit with a couple of other rigs at Laredo.

Today, we are taking some of them into Mazatlan.

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