Mazatlán was fun for the beach and we also enjoyed sea creatures during our visit. Our adventures began with a day spent at the Gran Acuario Mazatlán (the largest aquarium in Mexico) dedicated to the life in the Sea of Cortez—Mar de Cortés (also known as the Gulf of California—Golfo de California). Jacques Cousteau famously called the Sea of Cortez “the aquarium of the world” due to it’s biodiversity and Mazatlán sits on the south entrance on the mainland side. The building is beautiful with indoor and outdoor displays where we enjoyed waterfalls, the large glass viewing wall, jellyfish with special lighting, and the Sea Lion show was outstanding!

We also took a day to go on the Cerro del Crestón – Faro Mazatlán hike where we could oversee the Sea of Cortez (though the clear walkway was closed). It was a great hike and look at these views! While we didn’t really see many sea creatures… we did find a fuzzy friend.

Our final adventure was a day trip to Stone Island (Isla del la Piedra). Details on taking the boat over are at Mazatlán Today here. Note that it’s pretty popular, and I recommend checking out if there’s a cruise ship in port (and how many passengers) before you visit as it’s very close to the cruise docks. Logistics out of the way, it was delightful! There are a number of restaurants, many vendors selling things (including gorgeous blankets), and a number of creatures. During lunch we had beach cats nearby! There were also beach birds, including a goose, beach dogs, and even a pet monkey. It was a wild time!!

We wrapped up this day with the best thing ever… a beach doughnut from one of the vendors! It was a delicious ending to our day before we took the boat back!!

Thanks for making it this far! As a treat… here’s a few fun videos from the Gran Acuario Mazatlán!