'El Tio Sam' - A store in Puerto Vallarta capitalizing on the imagery of Uncle Sam. Particularly since the modern symbol came into use in World War I, Uncle Sam has become a patriotic symbol in the United States, but in Mexico it has no such status and thus has apparently become a commercial symbol.
These rooftop water units on an apartment building in Ixtapa -manufactured by Rotoplas - maintain steady water pressure for household use. This part of Mexico doesn't necessarily require rooftop rainwater tanks for drinking water like they have in Queensland, Australia - it rains enough here - but water pressure is apparently a problem. And water purification too, of course.
A big Mexican prison near Ixtapa. This is apparently the CEINJURE (Centro Integral de Justicia Costa Norte) jail (800 male, 100 female capacity).
Mazatlan's 'Zona Dorada' (Golden Zone) as seen across the older downtown district from the distance of the docked cruise ship.
Not sure what this structure in Mazatlan is - a church? - but it looks nice!
Royal Caribbean's "Mariner of the Seas" as seen looking aft from the Sapphire Princess at Mazatlan.
Mazatlan's Cerro del Creston at sunset, with a Baja Ferries ship firing its engines up.
This gold-painted actor posed mannequin-style at the Cabo San Lucas marina, for tips (sadly, I forgot to tip, but he seemed to be doing well, nonetheless).
Mazatlan's Cerro del Creston.
A map of the trip.
Map in closer detail - north
Map in closer detail - middle
Map in closer detail - south
Left: Detail of map in the Punta Eugenia area.
In a display case on the Sapphire Princess a Wikipedia article was reproduced describing the distance to the horizon. This is a useful approximation: given a distance h (in feet) above the surface of the Earth of the human eye, the distance to the horizon (in miles) is about: d (miles) = SQRT(1.5 * h (ft)). The Sapphire Princess height is about 54 meters (nearly 18 floors tall). So that means pictures from the Sport Deck (floor 15?) will be about 149 feet above the surface, so the horizon will be about 14.9 miles away!
Here is a Web Page describing basic facts about the Sapphire Princess. The Princess Theater can seat 705 people!
Wikipedia describes the source of the propulsion power:
The diesel-electric plant consists of 4 diesel generators and a gas turbine generator. The diesel generators are Wartsilla 46 series common rail engines, two of the straight 9 cylinder configuration, and two of the straight 8 cylinder configuration. The 8 and 9 cylinder engines can produce approximately 8 1/2 and 9 1/2 MW of power respectively. These engines are fueled with Heavy Fuel oil (HFO or bunker c) and Marine Gas Oil (MGO) depending on the local regulations regarding emissions, as MGO produces much lower emissions but is much more expensive. The gas turbine generator is a GE 2500, producing a peak of 25 MW of power and being fueled my MGO. This generator is much more expensive to run than the Wartsilla generators, and is used mostly in areas, such as Alaska, where the emissions regulations are strict. It is also used when top speed is required to make it to a port in a short time period.
Regarding the power plant in Mazatlan with the amazingly-dirty exhaust, here is some encouraging news:
In the late summer of 2009 the oil-fired power plant near Mazatlan operated by Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) awarded a contract to Altrom Power to install air quality control systems. Alstrom is a Swiss based company that specializes in power development and clean air technology around the world. The work began with design and engineering to install electrostatic precipitator technology to capture and remove the larger particulate emissions (much of the “black stuff”) that is so readily visible from Estrella del Mar. The equipment installation is planned to be finished in 2011. The precipitators will filter the plant’s flue gas, greatly reducing particulate output to about one tenth of the current emissions.
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