ARRIVAL IN MAZATLAN, SINALOA STATE
Bienvenido a mis amigos mexicanos querido! Gracias por cuidar de mí tan grande aquí en México.
Mi sitio web tiene una traducción al español la posibilidad!
Por favor, sólo tiene que desplazarse hacia abajo y seleccione el idioma español en la herramienta de TRANSLATE en el lado derecho de mi página de blog. Espero verte en el camino! Tony
After almost 17 hours the ferry crossing from La Paz to Mazatlan docked. Mazatlan a city of about 400,000 in Sinaloa, my 3rd Mexican state.
Waiting there for me were a television cameraman, a newspaper reporter and Carlos of Sinaloa Tourism.
I cracked a joke which seemed to go down well… ” Young people of Mexico… I love you! ”
The two journalists had their two young sons along for the ‘ experience . ’
I have noticed this a lot that relatives and friends of journalist tend to come along for the encounter which they probably wouldn’t have had I been say a politician or writer!
A lot of journalists also seem to be interested in my run insofar as taking photos using their own cameras after taking their ‘ official ‘ photos and then having more taken beside me.
Carlos tells me they have a press conference arranged for 11am in the Tourism Secretary’s office. It’s already 10.20. I told them I wanted to run the 3km to the hotel they had for me. Better to do it this way as tomorrow I can run straight from the hotel. I would not want to be finding my way back here tomorrow morning and have the hassle of going through the port security and what if it was closed. No run from here to the hotel is a no brainer, I didn’t even bother logging the distance in my log, today is a rest day, my 4th straight one, getting lazy!
The boys and the reporters rode in the back of Carlos’s pickup truck taking pictures as I ran behind. Carlos set a cracking pace and several times I had to wave to get him to slow down, I was glad of the many speed bumps that made him break.
I was expecting a big sprawling ugly city and instead I got a beautiful small cultured city with a long, magnificent beach.
Inside the Tourism Secretary’s building I was introduced to Ivan who introduced me to about 25 journalists for the press conference. This went on for about an hour.
Many of their questions were interesting and difficult to answer like; whats the difference between Canada, the USA and Mexico. There was almost an obsessional interest in my charity and some even had the AWARE.ie website open on their laptops. A Canadian journalist told me that in future I must speak more about charities as it is so important here in Mexico.
I also told them that I am disappointed and humiliated that it is not financially supported better than it is with donations to the charity. I told them that I was almost going to drop it entirely but decided to leave it on my website because the other half of my charity goal is to have people talk about such important issues, like we are now.
After the press conference a couple of journalist asked for personal interviews in Spanish.
Then it was across the road to the promenade for a photo shoot run.
Back inside Ivan who is also a runner suggested a short run tonight. So it was set for 6.30 after I sorted out the dinner arrangements That would be 8pm.
Before I left the office I plotted out a route for my 3 days in the State.
I will be running south on route 15D. My first day will be about 25km short of the strangely named ’ Gastronomical Festival ‘ in El Rosario. Well that sounds like food, I hope, so an arrangement was made for me to commute the 20 odd kilometers at the end of my day, be brought back next morning to my finishing spot and MAGICALLY arrive at the Gastronomical Festival next day for more gastros!
Then it was discovered that Sinaloa States sports mad governor Mario Lopez Valdez, or Malova as he prefers to be called,will be in El Rosario. Ivan got working on trying to hook the governor up for a run with me during his visit.
Malova if you are reading this…. Time to dust off your best running shoes, I’m comming to get you!
So next it was off to the very plush Hotel Posada Freeman which Sinaloa Tourism have provided for me along with meals.
I had a lovely T-bone steak and ice cream lunch, I guess my appetite is back.
Ivan phoned my room at 6pm to suggest we should delay our run for another hour as its still 35 degrees C! Im lying on my bed sweltering and wondering what it’s going to be like when I am out on the road…
August 3rd, 2011 at 11:14 am
Hi Tony, we are really enjoying reading your blog. All the Journalists and photographers are taking a great interest in the run. Great speaking to you on Monday night. Glad all going well and you are now on mainland Mexico. Continue to enjoy and mind yourself. You are doing great. Mam