20240408 Monday April 8, 2024- Total Eclipse of the Sun in Mazatlan

Reverting back to our old swim meet days, Ben got up at daybreak and got down to the pool deck to discover that they had removed all the pool loungers and placed tables all over the pool deck.  Ben was one of the first down so he picked some plastic chairs that had been stacked at pool side and put them around the table nearest to where he had rehearsed viewing the eclipse yesterday.  As people filtered down, they took up stations until someone in management arrived and broke the news that the entire pool deck was reserved for an Eclipse viewing party and that we didn't have reservations.  Well this was news to us because nobody had mentioned anything of the sort when we checked in, or as Ben went through his eclipse viewing rehearsal.  Fortunately, the table adjacent to where he had set up was not yet booked, so Ben arranged to get on the reservations list and would pay the $450MX ($28US) admissions per person when the woman in charge of the Eclipse celebration showed up. Fortunately, the fee was just $50MX more than the normal breakfast buffet, and the breakfast was included from 8am to noon, which coincided with the Eclipse viewing period.  It felt a little like a gouge to charge hotel guests extra to use the pool deck to view the Eclipse that they had booked their stays presumably to view the Eclipse.  But, in the end, it turned out fine because it was quite an extensive buffet and included juices, coffee, tea and mimosas.  The tables and chairs were certainly better suited for eclipse viewing that pool loungers. It seemed like a pretty first class way to enjoy an eclipse, as opposed to roughing it in the wilderness like Ben did for the 2017 eclipse in eastern Oregon. 

We ended up sharing a table with two other parties.  One was a couple of women from Minnesota, and the other were a husband and wife from Everett that Ben had met the day before while rehearsing for the eclipse.  There were large families of Mexicans on either side of us.  At first people were upset because they were told that the beach was closed, but eventually, the management relented and allowed guests to sit on the beach, and eventually even let them take some of the plastic pool chairs onto the beach.  Because it was high tide, there wasn't a whole lot of beach, but the resorts restrict access to the beaches so they weren't crowded with locals.  

There were high but thin clouds present during the eclipse which were not dense enough to obscure the eclipse viewing through the eclipse glasses, but they did make it hard to make out any stars besides Venus during the totality.  The Solar Eclipse Timer app was helpful in announcing when to put on and take off eclipse glasses and solar camera filters, as well as when to look for other eclipse phenomenon, such as temperature changes, animal behavior, pin hole camera effects, shadow effects, and watching for the approach and retreat of the umbra.  It also reminded us to look around at the horizon during the eclipse to see the circumferential sunset effect.  It was so easy to be overwhelmed at seeing the totality that the reminders were a big help for everyone's maximizing their eclipse experience.  The temperature drop was very noticeable, dropping at least 20ºF.  The responses in the crowd were also memorable with a lot of OMG's in both English and Spanish, as well as other languages because there appeared to be guests from many other countries as well.  

Even though this was Ben's second total eclipse, it is impossible not to be enchanted by the sight of the totality with the dancing corona circling that black hole in the sky where the sun is supposed to be.  It was the first totality Janet, Mark or Erin had experienced, and now they understand how difficult it is to explain just how incomprehensible a totality is different from any other type of eclipse.  When it goes from 99.9% to 100% the whole world changes in an instant.  I can't emphasize how seeing a totality must be on everyone's bucket lists.

As soon as people caught their breaths after the sun came back on, the universal experience is to wonder how they can see that again.  When is the next total eclipse of the sun?  August 12, 2026 in Greenland, Iceland and Spain!  And then August 2, 2027 through the southern Mediterranean and Red Sea!  Good excuses for planning future trips across the pond.

Ben spent the rest of the afternoon downloading images and video from his equipment and sorting through them while Janet relaxed and got in a good nap.  In the evening, we had "snacks" at the hotel bar, which were burgers and quesadillas with 2 for 1 mango margaritas, of course.  We then walked a bit along the Main Street to the north, checking out restaurants and wandering through a few tourist malls.  

Tomorrow will be low key with nothing hard scheduled.  Ben and Mark will probably fish the surf, while we are booked to go out on a real fishing charter on Wednesday, and an inland cultural tour on Thursday.  We leave on Friday to head back home.

20240407 Sunday, April 7, 2024- Moving from Park Royal to Royal Villas Resort in the Golden Zone

It was pretty easy getting up earlier with sunrise occurring at 5:50am.  We checked out of the Park Royal and had a cab take us to the Royal Villas Resort.  The bell captain informed us that taxis don't take credit cards so when we told him we only have US currency, he got the taxi driver to accept $10 US for the trip to the Royal Villas, which was just 4 miles but which would have been impossible with suit cases since we had walked about half that route yesterday.  It proved well worth the fare because it seemed like a really long way with some pretty bad traffic.  We were at front desk by 8am, and were expecting to have to wait until 4pm to get into our rooms, but it turned out that they had a vacant room ready to go, and they let us check in early without extra charge, apparently because we were booked to stay 5 nights.  That was a huge relief because we didn't have to worry about where to store our bags and Ben really needed all his eclipse photography gear to rehearse for the eclipse between 10am and 11:30.  

We got a room on the top floor of the hotel (12) on the north west side of the building.  This gave us a nice view to the west and north, but unfortunately, this meant we weren't going to be able to view the eclipse from our balcony.  Ben was worried that because of the height of the hotels, the sun might be obscured when viewed from the beach or west of the buildings, but it turned out that if he set up right at the edge of the patio between the pool and beach, that there was adequate clearance from the tops of the buildings to get a good shot of the eclipse with his 200mm lens.  We will try to stake out this spot tomorrow morning.  Ben was able to practice setting up the camera to record the arc of the sun on a single video frame without moving the camera during the critical interval between 90% through the totality and 10% reveal.  This will capture the corona once the solar filter is removed.  Ben will have to remove the solar filter the moment totality begins and replace it the moment the sun emerges from behind the moon.  Still images will be taken at intervals from the start of the partial to the end of the partial.  

Ben has a Solar Eclipse Timer app to provide audio cues as to eclipse events and ideal photo intervals.  He had resurrected a retired iPhone to dedicate to this task, and tested it at home, but when the phone was powered up, something had corrupted it so the passcode wouldn't unlock it.  Resetting the phone required an 8GB internet download, which was impossible with the hotel's 2MB/sec internet (7 days to complete download- Ha!).  So plan B is to use Ben's primary iPhone for this.  Unfortunately, the timer ap requires the phone to be dedicated to the task and not used for photography.  But between his mirrorless Canon EOS M50 and Go-Pro cameras, he will be plenty busy.  Janet's iPhone will be used to do photos of people and the surroundings during the eclipse.  

After completion of Ben's eclipse rehearsal, we took a walk down to the Malecon, which is a mile to the south.  We stopped and had lunch at a hole in the wall family restaurant filled with locals.  The kitchen was at the front of the restaurant so you walked between the man making tortillas on the right, and the grills and other work stations on the left, to the dining room in the back.  Nothing fancy, but the food was well prepared and decent portions for pretty inexpensive prices, especially for a tourist zone.  We appeared to have been the only tourists brave enough to wander in.  

There are plenty of tourist oriented bars, burgers and grills along the main drive, which is filled with an insane amount of loud and crowded traffic.  People renting huge UTV's and sand rails drove through town blaring music over the roar of their exhaust.  There are also tons of souvenir shops with trinkets spilling out onto the haphazard side walks, which seemed to be designed to be obstacle courses with dips, ridges, sudden drops, unmarked curbs and random slopes to dump you into the traffic roaring by.  It was quite a contrast to the area around the Park Royal which was relatively devoid of the tourist shops and bars.  It was a bit much for us country mice.  

When we did finally reach the Malecon, the first quarter mile was packed with tourists and vendors making it hard to walk, but it thinned out as you got further from town.  The beach below was full of people of all ages playing in the sand.  We noticed a pile of oysters on a rock near the beach entrance where someone was selling them.  Other vendors walked with huge skewers loaded with shrimp with a lime on the end.  It was very much like a circus environment.

We took a different route going back which was off the main road. This was the access for several waterfront hotels.  As we approached one particular condominium, it was surrounded by several paramilitary vehicles with at least a dozen heavily armed and fully armored and masked soldiers on alert. There must be someone very important spending the weekend in that building to see the eclipse.  

We got back to our room just in time to FaceTime with Price at home and Ciara who is en route to Indianapolis to view the eclipse.  John was en route to Upstate New York, which is also in the totality zone.  He flew back from France for a brief "Vacation" back in the states, but couldn't join the conference from the road. 

We had dinner at the Royal VIlla's formal restaurant and were pleasantly surprised that it was a very nice dining experience, complete with cloth napkins and individual coat and hat mini trees for each table as needed.  We had variations of grilled and sauted prawns including cheese stuffed bacon wrapped prawns that we will have to figure out how to make at home.  It also was nice that happy hour featured 2 for 1 cocktails and margaritas.  We had some very yummy fresh mango margaritas that we will probably turn into a habit during this stay.  

The weather today started moderately cloudy so Ben had to toy with exposures to compensate for passing clouds.  By late afternoon, the sky had mostly cleared with bright blue skies above and puffy clouds on the horizon.  We hope the sky will give us a decent view of the totality tomorrow, after all the preparations and anticipation.

20240406 Saturday, April 6, 2024- Park Royal Beach, North of Mazatlan Marina

Despite the rock hard mattresses and lumpy pillows, we both slept like logs because of sleep deprivation from the prior night’s journey to the airport. 

We set off on a walking tour of the area north of Mazatlan’s Marina and discovered there isn’t much aside from a series of beach resorts, each protected with a formidable fence and manned guard policing access to each vehicle entrance. We did discover a nice place for lunch and dinner just a quarter mile north of our resort called El Charro. It is very clean and modern with a Mexican rodeo theme. They have staff that speak at least a moderate amount of English, English menus, and accept credit cards. 

We walked past a “supermarket” that was more like a hole in the wall convenience store, but there were no prices on anything, and they only took cash. 

We did check out another resort because its restaurant La Palapa had decent Yelp reviews. It was a much larger and fancier resort than the one we had booked.  It is called the Torres Mazatlán and is part of Vi Resorts. They had a much nicer pool and landscaping, as well as many more residential style units. The restaurant also seemed nice, featuring a steak night and other specials for each day of the week. It was farther from our resort and a bit more expensive than El Charro. 

Janet returned to our hotel and headed for the poolside while Ben walked a little further south to check out another store and restaurant that was very close by.  The store was very crowded and busy, as well as the restaurant.  When Ben took pictures of the menu, he noticed that it looked almost exactly the same as El Charro’s menu.  Well, it turns out that both are owned by the same company.

The Oxxo store was quite a contrast to the “Supermarket” we had seen earlier to the north.  This place was clean, well lit and there were prices on every item and most importantly, they accepted credit cards. So Ben bought some bottled water, beer and snacks.  The beer was under $1.25 US per can in six packs, so about a third of the price at the hotel bar.  

When we got back to our resort, Mark and Erin were looking forward to lunch. Mark had gone diving in the morning and encountered schools of yellow tailed jacks right in front of our resort, but visibility was less than 4’ so he only saw them because he ran into a school. 

We walked back to El Charro with Mark and Erin and had a much better meal and service than we had last night at our resort’s restaurant. 

After lunch, we walked south to the Mazatlán Marina, or at least where it should be on Google Maps, but there was nothing recognizable as a marina- just condos and resorts behind high walls and construction zones. 

After we got back the Park Royal Resort, it was pool time.  It was interesting to watch flocks of pelicans circling and diving into the water just past the breaking surf for their dinners.  

It was also nice that they had a mariachi band on the beach in the late afternoon. 

Ben got out his rod and fished for an hour before sunset, during which the tide was still coming in.  Aside from one bite that got off, there wasn’t much action.  However, knowing where the rocks were made a big difference in not loosing any more tackle in the surf.  There was a dense bank of clouds on the horizon which dissipated the sun set.  

We headed back to the El Charro for dinner and the same waitstaff were working.  They recognized us but advised us that because they only had two working in the kitchen that it would be an hour and 20 minutes before our food could be served.  Since we had nothing better to do, we went to their upstairs dining loft which had some comfortable booths including an empty corner booth that was clean and made ourselves comfortable.  The waiter took our orders and brought out beer, chips, green sauce, mild salsa, and a big tray of peanuts to keep us busy.  It was very pleasant inside where they had mariachi music playing on the speakers and an interesting Mexican Rodeo TV channel on the big screen TV’s.  It was fascinating to watch the many different roping and riding styles and competitions.  It was also interesting to see TV commercials for horse shampoo and conditioner, and UTV’s.  Needless to say, we were thoroughly entertained for that hour and 20 minutes.  Our food seemed to come out right away and was both hot (Janet’s Mexican Surf and Turf) and cold (Ben’s shrimp ceviche).  

The portions were generous and the food was delicious.  We would have to whole heartedly recommend this place for anyone stranded north of the Mazatlan Marina.  

We got things back into the suitcases and ready for check out tomorrow when we move to the Royal Villas Resort, which is in the hear of the tourist Golden Zone.  There are many more shops and restaurants there, as well as a 13 mile long waterfront walk called the Malecon connecting old and new Mazatlan.  That should keep us busy after the eclipse one Monday.  We hope to get to the Royal Villas before 10am so we can preview the location of the sun and strategize where we will be best able to observe the eclipse from their property.  

20240405 Off to Mazatlan for the Total Eclipse of the Sun

Ben had spent a significant amount of research and effort in planning for the April 8, 2024 total eclipse of the sun that will be visible in a swath across North America.  Our big RV trip was in part a scouting trip to check out Texas as a potential eclipse viewing site, but we learned from that RV trip that weather patterns caused by the Gulf of Mexico frequently cause cloudy skies and violent weather in early April.  

Statistically, the location along the path of totality with the highest probability of clear sky is Mazatlan, so we made reservations for a resort hotel in the totality zone as soon as their scheduling books opened.  However, when we tried to book flights, they were all sold out for the weekend of the eclipse 9 months before the eclipse date.  Our travel agent was able to snag flights that were booked en bloc with a resort that does business with AAA if we arrived earlier and departed later.  This was with a different resort, so we will spend the first 2 nights at the Park Royal Beach resort, and the subsequent 5 nights at the Royal Villas Resort.  

We had prior positive experiences with the Royal Villas Resort during a Princess Cruises Mazatlan excursion, and it is also closer to the center of the totality zone so the duration of totality will be a bit longer.  

Unfortunately, nobody can guaranty the weather, and leading into the weekend the forecast is for cloudy skies on the morning of the eclipse.  That will be a great disappointment if we can't see the totality with the corona dancing around the black disk, but we will just have to keep our fingers crossed.

We had to fly out of Vancouver BC on WestJet because all US flights to Mazatlan were sold out.  We were a bit nervous about potential delays because of the Eclipse and spring break traffic, so we left home 5 hours before our scheduled 8:50am departure.  We ended up having to use the JetSet parking where you drop off your car and keys (semi-valet), and take a shuttle bus to the terminals.  On return, a vending machine will scan your receipt and return you the keys with parking space assignment.  The economy long term self park was sold out, so we had little choice.  

We had booked WestJet's Premium class which is basically domestic first class, and thought we would be allowed access to their first class airport lounge, but we learned that the fine print reads that access is only granted if you are flying a 787 Dreamliner across the Atlantic.  That seems oddly specific and arbitrary, but we ended up disappointed that we didn't have a free breakfast and drinks waiting for us at the airport.  

Getting checked in proved confusing because although we were booked on an international flight to Mexico, when we got to the WestJet International check in counter, we were told that for some reason, they can't check any baggage there so we had to go to the far opposite end of the airport check-in counters to WestJet Domestic check-in.  That had us walk an extra mile back and forth.  But we had no troubles getting through security and to our gate well in advance of boarding.  We could have slept in another hour or two easily.  

WestJet Premium has typical domestic first class seats, 4 across with plenty of hip and leg room.  There are only 6 rows of first class and a curtain between it and economy. Despite instructions by the flight attendants for passengers to use the bathroom within their designated cabins, there was a continuous stream of passengers from economy up to the one bathroom behind the cockpit, to the point where it was pretty disruptive.  However, we did have to sympathize with all the economy passengers being stuck with only 2 toilets at the very back of the plane.  On Delta, the flight attendants are much stricter about policing the stay in your cabin bathroom assignments, so those flights are much more peaceful and quiet.

The flight is only a bit over 4 hours, so an easy flight. We could probably have saved money by booking premium economy or even economy, but we were concerned those tickets may have been sold out earlier.  

In Mazatlan, we deplaned down portable boarding stairs onto the tarmac, and were then herded down a series of corridors with numerous hurry up and wait stops.  We finally got to customs.  There were only 3 lines and 5 or 6 agents working so it just took a long time.  

We did collect our luggage and rendezvoused with another couple- Ben's fishing buddy and his wife, who were joining us on this Eclipse adventure.  Ben and Mark packed fishing rods to do some surf casting to pass the time.  There were all sorts of people targeting us in the Baggage claim representing themselves as Taxi representatives but who were actually doing everything they could to lure us into sitting through a 90 minute sales presentation for this or that resort.  We wisely steered clear of them and went directly out to the taxi curb where there was a huge cue that probably had over 50 couples standing in it with bags.  Mark, being fluent in Spanish, was able to sneak us onto a van that had another couple already hired to go to the hotel zone, although to a different hotel, but we offered to pay cash and skipped a very long taxi cue.  

The drive to Mazatlan's waterfront hotel zone is about a half hour and Mazatlan has pretty modern infrastructure, including a Walmart en route to the beach zone.  

Getting Checked into the Park Royal Beach resort was easy enough, and it was encouraging to see people in the entry gate and lobby with lists that had our names on it as expected arrivals.  

The lobby is nice and airy with a restaurant and bar opening onto a vast swimming pool.  The greeter informed us that the pool is heated, unlike many other resort pools in the area, including the Royal Villas Resort.  It is right on the beach.  It took about a half hour for our rooms to be ready.  Instead of room keys or cards, they have a bracelet that is fastened around our wrists, like at theme parks.  I guess this makes it harder to lose your room keys, and allows staff to spot hotel guests in the pool and public areas.  

The rooms are spacious but our rooms didn't have balconies.  There were just fixed windows that needed washing overlooking the water and pool.  The rooms were clean enough, and furnishing in OK conditions, but the mattresses are rock hard.  

It didn't take long to change into swim gear and flip flops to get into the mood.  Mark headed straight to the beach and started casting a very light weight rod he had carried on the plane.  By the time Ben was about to head out, Mark came back in and got his heavier rod out of the rod case that Ben had checked, and they both headed out to the beach together.  

Ben hooked and played a sizable torpedo shaped fish in the surf, but it broke off the leader before it could be brought to the beach.  Mark eventually worked his way down towards the Marina jetty and caught a nice Yellow fin Jack.  He looked pretty happy showing it off at the pool side.  Ben eventually caught and landed another fish but it was just a small sculpin like fish.  Mark was a little like the dog that caught the car because our hotel rooms don't have refrigerators, so his wife was not too happy to return to the room and find a fish in the bathroom sink in a bed of ice.  

Since it was getting late, and there aren't a lot of restaurants in this area north of the Marina, we ended up having mediocre dinners in the hotel restaurant which took a really long time to come out.  You also have to twist arms to get the wait staff to bring you the bill.  We ended up chasing them down after a half hour an cornering them to get them to close our bills.  

The temperatures when we arrived were very pleasant in the mid to upper 70's with a light to moderate breeze.  In the evening, it cooled off enough that we regretted not bringing down light coats to wear at dinner, but that was nothing that a hot shower couldn't fix.