La Costa Marinera

Mom had done some reading in my Fodor's Mexico book, so she suggested the dinner place for Monday night called La Costa Marinera.  The only other suggestions I had were of touristy places, and this review said that the clientele was a good mix of tourists and locals.

We got ready, took our one picture (I really meant to get some pictures at dinner), and headed to the restaurant.  We were located just about dead center of the coast of Mazatlán.  If not dead center, we were at least the southern part of the Golden Zone, which is the north end.  Our taxi drive took about 10 minutes, which is the longest we had spent inside a car since leaving the bus station.  

We pulled up to the restaurant and it was nice.  We walked out to the back porch to be seated.  It felt a lot like a restaurant in Destin, only it was so dark (even the beach) that you couldn't see anything from the tables.  All we needed to see was our food, so we didn't mind.

I had grabbed a coupon out of the tourist magazine from the lobby, so we got free margaritas.  Mom about flipped for hers since it was fresh squeezed lime juice, and the limes here are just better.  I got a mango margarita that was just as to die for. 

The menu was funny because it had no prices next to the food.  It had a page front and back in Spanish, and then the same thing in English on the following page.  Glued to the back cover of the menu, there was a price sheet by numbers (each food had a number).  I ended up ordering fried shrimp (theme of the Mazatlán trip).  Mom ordered a snapper that was cooked in some vegetables and a yummy sauce.  We both had more than we should, but hadn't had a real lunch (due to our three-meal-breakfast!), so we justified it.  We even justified a piece of chocolate cake!  You can't end a meal, especially on vacation, without "a little something sweet," and after all, we were sharing it!

In the middle of our meal, a nice woman came by to check on us.  I assumed she was the manager or someone with the restaurant.  She asked about our stay, what food we'd eaten, where we were staying and what we planned on doing.  I told her we were going to the aquarium the next day.  Mistake.  At her hotel, they have free passes to the (five-dollar) aquarium.  All we had to do was come listen and see their rooms.  We had chances for cash prizes, too.  

Well, we had read in the tourist book to just ignore the Time-Share sellers.  After a 4 minutes conversation, it's hard to ignore.  At any rate, she lost interest in us fast when she found out we were just two women with no man accompanying us.  I guess we're incapable of making decisions or affording what she had to sell.  Worked out just fine for us!