When we went ashore in Mazatlán, we hadn’t expected to hear Leroy Anderson’s "Sleigh Ride" played on marimba and French horn. But by the end of our visit, it made perfect sense. It was day three of a seven-night Mexican Riviera cruise out of San Diego aboard Holland America Line’s MS Oosterdam. My husband, Paul, and I are guest speakers on this AAA Member Appreciation Cruise. We’re traveling with cruise hosts Rita and Phil Brown and some 230 readers of AAA's Westways, Texas Journey, and New Mexico Journey magazines. We’d visited Mazatlán before, so instead of taking a shore excursion in this port, we opted to stroll through Old Mazatlán, the Centro Histórico, on our own. The day reminded us that the simplest travel experiences can be the most memorable. 

We took a taxi ($6) from the ship terminal to Plazuela Machado, the heart of Mazatlán’s 20-block historic district, where tall palms and a gazebo highlight the plaza, and restored 19th-century buildings line the streets. It was only 9:30 a.m., too early to visit most shops and museums, so we headed to the terrace of La Tramoya Restaurant Bar for a late breakfast. Frank Sinatra tunes played on the restaurant’s PA system, and at one of the tables, a trio of American expats chatted as they pored over images on a laptop computer. We watched little green birds flit among the trees in the plaza across the street and ate fried bread and the best huevos con machaca (eggs with dried beef) I’ve ever tasted. The eggs had been scrambled with the beef, onion, tomato, and peppers and were served with perfect refried beans and homemade flour tortillas. As we finished our café con leche (coffee with milk), we watched workers begin putting up a Christmas tree in the plaza.

After breakfast, we walked a few blocks to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which was built between 1856 and 1899 and has twin spires and a honey-colored façade. Inside, crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows casts red, green, and gold highlights on the altar.

We wanted to learn more about Mazatlán’s history, so we walked to the Archaeological Museum (admission: $2.50). Here, we learned about the region’s pre-Columbian life. People are thought to have inhabited this area from about 10,000 years ago. We saw funereal urns that encased ancient bones, petroglyphs that still defy interpretation, and pre-Columbian glazed pottery dazzling in its beauty and refinement.

Modern-day Mazatlán has become a center for artists from all over the world as well as from Mexico. November to May, Artwalks are held on the first Friday of the month from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. On a previous visit to Mazatlán, we’d toured some of the city’s art galleries, so we revisited a couple of our favorites. Not far from the Archeological Museum, we stopped in at Casa Etnika, where lovely examples of wearable art are on sale and there is an array of hand-made jewelry and intricately designed scarves. Near Plazuela Machado, another of our favorites is Nidart, which offers a variety of works, including exquisite small wooden boxes and finely crafted leather masks.

On our way back to the plaza, we stopped at the Angela Peralta Theater, an 1870s gem that has been restored to Victorian grandeur and now hosts concerts, operas, and dance performances. The building is also open during the day for tours (fee: $1), but we’d been there on a previous visit, so we continued back to Plazuela Machado and found a bench. That’s when we heard the music. Students at the Fine Arts Municipal Center were practicing “Sleigh Ride.” It was December 1, after all. As we sat there, practicing what some have called “the sublime art of hanging out,” we noticed that the workers had finished assembling the plaza’s Christmas tree. Before heading back to the ship, we took a few moments to relish seeing—and hearing—an early celebration of Navidad.

I’ll have more about our Mexican Riviera cruise aboard the Oosterdam in future blogs. In the meantime, tell us: Where do you enjoy practicing the sublime art of hanging out?