Mazatlan has a wonderful colonial city center – Centro. It is a mish mash of houses, retail, parks, home businesses, and the various entrepreneurs that gather in any Mexican city. (Car washers, carts selling food, street sweepers, etc) It can be messy and loud and incredibly joyful.

Last night we sat on our patio and listened to people passing by with a background of live jazz being played somewhere not far away.

Across the street from us and also kitty corner are what the real estate community refers to as “ruins.” Some of them are being held by local families because their owner died and the rest of the family can’t agree on what to do with them. Over time the roof will cave in, trees emerge from the roof, and feral cats take over the interior. They can be saved by passionate people with a lot of vision and probably money.

The picture below is the house across the street from us with the morning sun hitting it:

The next picture is of the same house but without the sun. It looks just awful, doesn’t it? But here’s the thing….this house is being restored, little by little, piece by piece. If you enlarge the picture you will see the window sills to the lower center windows have all been redone. Some of the cement decorative scroll work has been redone, too. And a lot of the horizontal panel at the top.

If you enlarge the picture you’ll be able to see what I mean. The other night a dump truck came up and dumped a load of sand (for concrete) behind the garage doors. A light is on back there most nights.

Someday I hope to meet whoever is doing the work and give them my encouragement and thanks. It’s a big job, but I appreciate those who are willing to take it on.

Below is the ruin that’s kitty corner from us. We haven’t seen any work going on here and no one seems to know the story.

Here’s another one from our walk this morning. This one’s for sale. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll get the number off the sign for you!