Mazatlan, Mar-a-villas RV Park

March 4, 2022

Mazatlan December 10 to 15, 2021

We arrived in Mazatlan in the early afternoon of December 10 and made our way to Mar-a-villa’s RV park situated on the northern end of the hotel strip in Mazatlan.  It was a nice small RV park, right on the ocean.  Gorgeous sunsets and beautiful weather.  Unlike other years, when the park was booked solid, we were fortunate to get a spot.  A beautiful spot just steps from the ocean.

Only being in Mazatlan for a few days, and intending to use at least one of those days as a rest day from driving the horrible roads from San Carlos, we only saw a small piece of the huge city.  Population - 502,547 (2017).  It’s a large and very very busy city with numerous large traffic circles to keep traffic moving (or tourists confused - ha ha!).  Mar-a-Villas was nice, really fast wi-fi (likely because there were only 9 sites occupied), 30 Amp service and a great location.  Even though there were only 9 sites occupied, there were a number of sites that had 5th wheels parked in them but empty.  We heard through talking to locals that some of those were from folks who hadn’t come down yet and some were parked there by the owner - perhaps to rent or sell at some point.  The only downsides were the water pressure was not strong enough.  That’s not uncommon for Mexico.  To overcome it wasn’t a big deal we just had to run as if were were boon docking.  Filling our water tank and then using our water pump to get enough pressure.  Not a biggie for a short term, but I think it’d get old if staying any longer - the refilling of the tank every few days and the sound of the pump running.  Another downside was traffic at times.  With the impacts of covid we learned that the owner had to change his business model.  Rather than keep the park reserved for RV guests - including the use of the club house at the beach etc - he had to expand to keep afloat.  This included allowing access to the beach for others to have weddings, parties etc.  It wasn’t so big a deal for us, but we could understand from the “regulars” point of view how this had changed the “feel” of the park for them.  

We did get a chance to visit a couple other RV parks in the area including:

Las Jaibas RV Park (light blue font is a link) - Like other parks, this one was fairly empty due to covid.  It was a nice clean park with a pool, not on the ocean, but within about a block.  Prices were 200 pesos per person per night (75 pesos cheaper than Mar-a-Villas)

Punta Cerritos -A very nice park with many sites that RV’ers lease year after year.  Many with full size palapa’s built over their rig and even extending out to provide coverage for outdoor kitchens they’ve built up with brick surrounding walls, concrete/tile countertops, built in grills etc.  They also had laundry facilities, a small putting green, high speed wi-fi ($500 pesos/month extra) and a gorgeous pool overlooking the ocean.  I didnt’ write down what the cost was per month to rent a site…but I think it was somewhere around $675 US plus metered hydro.  This park is set up high on a cliff on the ocean with stairs to take you down.  We were really impressed with this park.  We considered renting a spot there for a few more weeks/month but they didn’t have any sites available.  They were in the midst of installing new hydro posts to a section of the park that had been burned out by a fire a couple years back.  Although the manager said he thought the sites would be ready in a week “or so” we decided not to wait around.  After all, a week or so Mexican time could end up being a month.  We didn’t want to be waiting around. 

Another park we hoped to check out, but didn’t get the chance to was Tres Amigos RV Park.  It’s another park right on the ocean.  

While in Mazatlan we stocked up on some groceries and found some better quality pet food than we had available to us in San Carlos/Guaymas.  We also visited our first Soriana’s store.  Wow, what a beautiful store, so much nicer than a Walmart but carries a similar assortment of products from groceries to household goods to electonics and appliances.  

We also got out on our electric bikes.  There is a gorgeous bike path that runs the through a manicured median down the entire length of the hotel zone.  Our first venture out we stumbled across a small shop that offered couples massages.  It was a great deal $550 pesos (approx $35 Cdn) for 1 hour of deep tissue massage.  Just what we needed after that drive from San Carlos!  

It was in Mazatlan that HoseHey decided he’d had enough of staying back in the RV while we took HeyZeus and Heffay for their regular early morning walks.  Typically not interested in walks, he usually ran away when we tried to pick him up to put his harness on.  It was great to see him gather the courage to explore outside.  Honestly, I think he was going a bit crazy watching the birds from the window and wanted to get outside to get a closer look.  

And of course, Heffay and HeyZeus loved exploring the new place.  The beach waves were too rough for Heffay to go for a swim.  Similarly, the sound of the waves crashing freaked HeyZeus out a bit, so he only explored a small part of the beach.  

Big beach and a happy pup (six months old)

Dan taking HeyZeus for his daily walk

Gorgeous long and wide beach

Gorgeous flower from a Plumeria tree

Love this sign!

Overall I’d say we were pleasantly surprised at Mazatlan.  We could possibly see ourselves checking it out for longer in the future.  Temps are also pretty reasonable with lower humidity and cool evenings.  We liked the convenience of being on the outskirts of a big city with all the amenities you’d need.

On Dec 15th we hit the road again, this time headed to Lo de Marcos where we had booked a site at El Caracol until January 31st.  More about that in the next post.  

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!