"Straight out of modor.."

It was inevitable it was coming.. "His eyes were.. rapey?  If that makes sense".

:-)

Happy friday!

Be kind to yourself.

I came across the link to this video on FB yesterday, watched it and sobbed the entire time... I then proceeded to share the link with my bestie, who also sobbed the entire time..

Please take a few minutes to watch the video.. It's a great reminder that we need to start being a little kinder to ourselves :-)  ♥

Throwing caution to the wind

*WARNING* My throwing caution to the wind may cause some of you to shudder at the "WHAT IF..." possibilities.. but hey, there were none so just read on..

By nature, I am VERY much not someone who 'throws caution to the wind', so to speak.

I am a planner.  Correction, I am an over planner.  I am a worrier.  I always keep one foot on the ground.  Before attempting dangerous activities, friends will actually ask for my opinion as I am 'the voice of reason.'...

HOWEVER, my trip to Mazatlan was all about myself doing things that I hadn't done before.  Livin' it up a little..... so here is my back story:

I am a HUGE fan of Instagram.  I post photos VERY often and spend a good deal of time perusing other peoples photos. 

A few months back, I began searching the hashtag #Mazatlan.  This was basically done for  my own pleasure of seeing photos of my beloved vacay location.  I ended up following a person (I wasn't even sure if it was a male or female as their photos were many landscape photos and no clear selfies) as I just adored their photos.  They followed me back.  The person, a fellow who I will call J, ended up asking if I wanted to add him on FB.  I did and left it that.  Basically all of his FB posts were in Spanish, so I didn't really communicate with him at all..

That brings me to my trip.

Having my IPhone with me on the trip, I used the free Wifi EVERYWHERE to post photos of myself/my trip as I was there....  I received a message from J asking if I was in Mazatlan.  I replied confirming my location.  He responded asking if I wanted to meet up that afternoon.  He offered to show me around and maybe take some photos.  (That sounds so creepy when I type it)

Uhhhhh.  Meet a stranger who I met off Instagram in a foreign country where I am travelling alone?  Nooooo thank you, not for me.

I politely responded I wouldn't 'have time', but thanks for the offer!  He asked again if I was interesting in maybe meeting up the following afternoon.

I decided to be honest and straight out TOLD him that I was not really sure that meeting up with a stranger was a safe thing to do, and I was hesitant because of that.  Nothing against HIM, just being safe.

He replied saying he understood, and how about THIS:  He works as a lawyer for the city, in their town hall which is directly across the the cathedral.  He offered that I could meet him AT his work (a public place) at 2:30 (he was done work at 3) where he would show me around town hall then take me on a little walking tour around the downtown area.

THIS is where I decided to throw caution to the wind!  Meeting in a public GOVERNMENT building in the middle of the day.  It's a tad unsafe, but still safe.. if that makes sense.

I replied that that would be great.  I added that I needed to be heading back to my hotel around 4:30ish - I figured that gave me a window to escape if this dude ended up being a creepo.

So, I hopped on a bus and made my way downtown.. I went early to look at the cathedral (man, just as beautiful as I remembered!) and shop the Central market... then I met up with J.

Throwing caution to the wind was a great idea!  He showed me around the town hall (which was cool in itself), and took me around downtown and the north end of the malecon:

 

 

A really cool restaurant (that has live jazz music) in the downtown area - you can see the roof is open.  Apparently it's just AMAZING at night when you can look up and see the stars.

 

A young girl dressed up taking photos before her quinceanera (for her 15th birthday, I suppose you could look at it like a barmitzva in the Jewish religion) along the malecon

 

 

 

One of the statues along the malecon - J snapped me 'hitching a ride' and I snapped him getting the drivers view down the malecon.

One of the artifacts at the museum

 

 

Finally we stopped at one of the hotels which has an AMAZING rooftop pool/bar for a drink.  The view was PHENOMENAL!

At that time, it was just after 4:30 so I said goodbye to my new friend and headed back 'home'....

Not to say that I would recommend meeting strangers off the Internet randomly.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not naive.. but sometimes it's not a bad idea to throw caution to the wind!

It's coming!

I promise I will be posting a blog SOON about my trip to Mazatlan! 

I've just been rather busy with work, Easter and getting back into the swing of the things!

It's coming!  Really :-)