5 Most Salient Memories: Mazatlán

Mazatlán in my mind is sun and sea and sky.  It is a woman named Natalia blowing smoke against the pale blue light of dawn and laughing with blackened gums.  It is arriving on the boardwalk that first morning, after a sleepless night of buses and stations, as the sun first rises from the sea.  Mazatlán is soup and jugo de res and molé, prepared that morning in loving darkness and left neatly in the fridge.  It is waves and rocks and the meditative froth that forms from their embrace.

There is a town, of course -- wide, grimy streets and taxi drivers that honk at you every time they pass.  There is a boardwalk where people are running at every hour of the day and night, and a lighthouse on a hill atop a long and tiring trek.

Mostly though, Mazatlán to me is Natalia.  I can't be sure, but when I think back it seems like she is that welcome sun, that placid sky, and the rolling of the waves.  She is that peace and tranquil hum.  And when she laughs and blows smoke against the dim morning sky, you feel like you're where you belong right then. You feel like this is home.