Mazatlan - El Cid Marina 2 of 2 - 2012

End of November 2012 we were in Mazatlán, Mexico

 Let’s talk marinas in Mazatlán, Mexico for a moment. Pros cons or so from my perspective. First at the beginning, our thoughts of cruising Mexico we had picked El Cid for our “Summer over home port” but then after more research we decided on Paradise Village Marina

Hurricane hole?

Cons:

 While at El Cid Marina in Mazatlan we or I inspected the slips and they were cement without any finger pier in between the boats. The wood was rotten in many places and the pilings have some big cracks. There is not much protection from the sea.

 There is real strong serge there during the tide change. So much so it makes the boats dance around and quite a bit. There are some slips that are better to have than others for this however.

 We were at A dock and it was the furthest from the showers which are only by the dock masters office. The men’s showers (do not know about the ladies) were in the same room as the urinals and had an odor. They were clean but no shelves for items and one bench for all. Not that well ventilated either.

WiFi was real poor and worked some times.

Noise was a problem as there are two pools and a bar at the one end. The bar does Karioke and it gets loud.

There are weddings across the channel, they get real loud.

For us it did not matter as we were there for just a week.

But for the El Cid movies you can hardly hear etc.

The good:

The staff is real nice and helpful.

The area is nice and lush and well maintained.

They show two movies a week for guests and marina people and they are free. Up on the lawn where they are they supply the reclining lawn chairs and fee popcorn. One night there was popcorn and one there was none.

There are a lot of services such as propane pick up etc.

The pools are fun, lots of fun and big. One pool has a swim up bar and volley ball net.
The other is much bigger and has a hot tu band  a fake pile of rocks you can jump off, it is 9' deep there. The rocks are waste deep once inside and there are caverns to go through. On the other side the pool continues and you can see the begining of the channel. It is a realice pool. Both have food servive and nice rest rooms.

This one has a couple water slides!

Transportation easy to get.

Usually a nice breeze but hard to the breeze in the marina.

They also have another property at the beach with a free shuttle to it. It of course has a beach and a pool etc. It is by the “Golden Zone” in Mazatlan which is a gringo place (Starbucks and Mc Donalds etc).

Marina Mazatlán

Pros.
Quiet
No surge
Inexpensive.
There is a boat yard and a small chandlery is near by.

Cons:

The area is not lush or green.

 

 

This is the bleaker side. There are store fronts and some businesses, lots of boarded up or just empty spaces also.

We were here four years ago and they were building it up. We thought this was going to be a vibrant marine environment. We were wrong. It looks like it has been bombed out. It is empty of many store fronts, boarded up. There are a couple coffee shops and a bar I think. That’s it. 

The hang out.

The lots are empty and full of weeds.
It is hot with no breeze.
No functions like movies.
People tend to leave their boats and fly back home.