Shopping in Mazatlan

We had a wonderful time on our trip and enjoyed every minute of Mazatlan. I will have more pictures on my Picassa site. The resort was beautiful, the sunsets picturesque, and the beach clean with warm water.



We took a trip to a few old cities near Mazatlan, visited an old tequila plant, and even did a little shopping in down town "Maz"- that is where I found La Parisina - a fabric store. Shopping for fabric in Mazatlan is different that in California. Since I didn't have a dictionary with me, I didn't know the names for things like wool, silk, and cotton, but many things were easy to figure out. For example, shifon was obviously chiffon. All of the fabric at the THREE stores I found were on rolls or flat-folded. Most of the fabric was on long tubes. Nothing is marked on the tubes and you have to go by whatever it says on the sign above the tubes. You must remember where you got each roll of fabric, because that is how they know how much to charge you. So, you pick out your fabric and take it to the cutting table and tell the girl how much you want in meters. After she cuts the fabric, you show her where you got each roll so that she can return them and write down the prices. Next, she gives you a ticket and you take it to the cashier. The cashiers are in a little boxed in area like a bank teller and you slide your money and the ticket through a glass window. The cashier gives you a receipt and you take that to another window where your fabric is already bagged and ready for you. The first store I went into had a lot of trim and craft items as well as fabric, but no patterns. The lady told me there was another "La Parisina" a couple of blocks over that did sell patterns. We walked to that store, which is where I bought the fabric. They had one spiral wire rack with a few Simplicity patterns on it, and that was it. By then, we were getting tired of the crowds, and on our way to find a taxi, we ran across another fabric store named something like Telasmodernas, which would mean, modern fabrics. I only went in there to ask if they sold Patrones magazine (which they did not), but it looked very much like the othr two stores. One thing that I saw that was different was that they sold dishcloth fabric on large bolts. All of the fabric was inexpensive. Many fabrics were only about $2.00 a yard, and most were under $5.00 a yard. Much of the fabric was very stiff, so I don't know if it would soften up after washing, or if that was just the quality of the fabric. My spanish is not good enough for me to have asked many questions. Next time I will be more prepared with a list of questions! All in all, it was an interesting experience. We had already had a fairly busy day. and it was very hot, or I may have spent more time looking at, and buying, fabric. I think next time I would like to spend more time checking out the trims as well. There were many people in all of the fabric stores and I remember noting several women with nice looking dresses that they probably made themselves. I did not discover these stores until the next to last day of our trip, so I didn't have a chance to investigate as much as I would have liked to, but I'm really glad I got to experience a little bit of it. Here are my finds