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Philip M. Haggerty

The next day we arrived in Mazatlan. We had signed up for the estuary bird watching expedition. The pier had a number of people in bright green jackets working for the various tour companies. One of them told us to follow him through the pier side bazaar and to a waiting area. There we waited again for the rest of our group, When they showed up it turned out that eight of them were Russians from the Stockton area in California and six were from southern California; but none were from our ship. They all were passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas which was docked immediately behind Diamond Princess. In any event we shortly boarded a small boat which had a roof, but was otherwise open. We traveled up the estuary, or perhaps down, since it was in a southerly direction observing the local birds. There were pelicans everywhere and the beautiful frigate bird. After we left the port area we sailed along the mangrove groves which formed the shoreline, and saw many wading birds.

The guide was a little difficult to understand when he used the boat’s PA system, but close to shore he spoke without it to avoid alarming the birds, and was more intelligible.

We landed on the island which forms the western, or Pacific side of the estuary. It is called Stone Island (Isla Pierda) and is owned as a cooperative by the families living there. They raise coconuts, maintaining extensive coconut palm orchards everywhere.

After about a half hour trip in a bus back towards the port, we stopped at a seaside restaurant and were fed. There were a number of other tours there, and if I had thought, I would have worn my bathing suit and gone swimming in the ocean. Horses were also available for rental. At about 3:00 we took a short trip back to the port area where our boat awaited us, and we made a quick trip across the harbor to our ship. We would have had time for a quick trip to the Old City which is virtually adjacent to the pier, but were a little weary. All in all it was an enjoyable 6 hour adventure for the fairly reasonable price of $79.00 per person.