Good riddance Culiacan y bienvenido Mazatlan

Veyr strange show last night in Culiacan. It was the opening show of a big dance festival the José Limon festival. We had been told before that there would be a few speeches though we never actually met anyone from the festival. About an hour before the show began the entire theatre including the dressing rooms were carefully inspected by a formidable looking police dog. Presumably they were looking for bombs as the governor was going to be there. I have never been faced by a police dog in my dressing room before. So show time comes around we have the stage all clean and ready to go with various props around, the sound board which is on stage all set - everything adjusted to be exactly as it needs to be. About 10 minutes before curtain the technicians invade the stage setting up chairs and microphones. When I tried to ask them to keep of the dancing floor with their dirty shoes they looked at me as if I were some sort of diva/crazy lady and my request has no effect at all. The speeches turned out to be a good half hour long and during that time, as successive speakers talked about the importance of art and culture while they proceeded to walk all over the stage with no apparent regard whatsoever for the art that was about to happen. It was a little surreal. By the time the show started the audience was pretty much asleep. It took about half the show to wake them up again. We had fun though. I think that we all just decided to do the show for ourselves and to let go of what anyone might think of it.

I think that I may have taken on a little more anger than I thought though and my back is not happy today. I am hoping that a night's rest will help.

So I am sorry to say that my impressions of Culiacan was not so great. We were all ready to move on...

We left at 9 am with Alfredo our driver for the 2 hour drive to Mazatlan. And here we are in another world...

Our hotel is right on the beach - the first time we have see the ocean this trip. We took cart rides into the centre of town this afternoon and to a market. The centre is beautiful. We peeked in to the theatre too. It is a shakespearian style theatre built in the 1800 and recently restored. Very lovely. I think that Husk will look great there. We will see tomorrow...

OK - so I guess things were not all bad! There was a nice little park (though rather full of bird poop) and quite a lovely restaurant with an inner court-yard. Definitely my  hight-light of Culiacan.

Elinor, Adriana, and Liven - feasting on the menu.

The eternal tacos. We find that tacos are served at every meal. There is a great deal of variation from one restaurant to the next.