Mazatlan

So last week was our first trip of the year to Mazatlán. Apparently, the orchestra goes quite often, but this was my first time. Overall, it was a really good trip, and it was nice to get out of Culiacán for a bit. The bus left on Thursday morning, and we arrived in Mazatlán 3 hours later. In the 2 days that we were there, we only had one 3 hour rehearsal and a concert, which meant that we had tons of free time. We were also put up in 5 star hotels on the beach and given an extra 700 pesos. Andrea, of course, was my roommate.
If you haven't been to Mazatlán, I would recommend going. There are some great restaurants, and the beaches are really nice. Since we ate out every meal, we managed to try a lot of restaurants. My favorite was called Cocina de Ana. It's a buffet style place with home cooked food that isn't greasy or heavy like most restaurant food. And it's super cheap. They had amazing fish ceviche, which is a mixture of cucumber, tomato, onion, and lime juice. The fish is raw, but the lime juice cooks it a little bit. We went there for lunch two days in a row. As for beach time, we didn't get as much as we would have liked. It was kind of cold (for Mexico). But, on the last day, it was warm enough to go jet skiing! I had never been before, but I got talked into it by Andrea and two of the trumpet players, Mike and Matt. So much fun! If anyone comes to visit me, I'll take you jet skiing and restaurant hopping in Mazatlán. I think that's pretty good incentive.
As for the concert, it went pretty well. I take back what I said about the singers, but I stand by my opinion of the conductor. The soloists this time were really good, especially the tenor. He sang "Nessun Dorma" beautifully, and the audience loved him. He is still very young, but I wouldn't be surprised if I heard more about him in the future. Wish I could remember his name, though.
Anyway, it's back to the grind in Culiacán. We have quintet Mon-Wed, and then we start rehearsals for our program in Guadalajara next week. The 3rd oboist is going to be playing a lot of 2nd on that program since he's hardly played at all this year. It works out well for me, since I have decided to take the President's Own audition next month, and I could use the extra practice time.
Here are some pictures from after jet skiing. Don't ask me what we were doing in the second one..