Catching the Ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan
First buying the ticket.
If you have a vehicle and/or want a cabin you might have already tried to book online. How’d that go for you? Not good I bet, there doesn’t seem to be a place to pick your car (or especially a motorcycle) or a place to pick that you want a cabin. It is easiest if you go buy the tickets in P_____ where the ferry is located. If you are not in the area to do this then I’m sorry you are on your own and good luck finding a blog with some help with that. We knew from other people that have done it and from blogs that if you want a cabin you must book ahead of time, they recommend a week ahead. We were traveling down the Baja and we’re not in any hurry so on Thursday when we hit La Paz we went to Pichilingue to buy tickets. This Ferry to Mazatlan (at the time of writing this) travels on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We were trying for Saturday and could get on the ferry but no cabin so we went for the Tuesday with a cabin and then stayed for 2 nights in La Paz, traveled to Los Barilles and stayed two nights and Todos Santos for one night before returning up to the ferry on Tuesday.
What you need to bring to the office to buy tickets:
- Passport
- Travelers Visa
- Permit for your vehicle
- Licence number
- email address
- Payment - we paid with a Visa
If you bring all these in and give them to the clerk you shouldn’t have a problem and shouldn’t need to speak any Spanish except please and thank you.
It all went quite smoothly for us.
Directions from La Paz to Pichilingue where you buy the tickets.
The day of boarding the Ferry:
They would have told you to arrive 3 hours ahead of boarding, DO do this. We have heard if you are not checked in early they will sell your cabin to someone else. This means you have to be there approximately 2pm, the ship leaves at 5pm.
(Having said that, sometimes you can ask on board and buy a room if you didn’t get one before hand if they have any spares).
Bring water and snacks as it is a long wait with nothing around, no bathrooms either. Have as little as you can to carry on to the ship, it not an easy maneuver to get upstairs with luggage, and certainly no big bags!!!
If you bought your tickets out near the docks you will have seen the Ferry entrance, it is before you turned left where the road splits, it is the Only entrance to the gated dock area, the Big Trucks go through the same gate, go over the same scales and board the same ship. For the Mazatlan Ferry you drive through the gate, if someone is there tell them Mazatlan and they will direct you, on your right, to the far right lane. There you stop and show the guard your:
- Passport
- Travelers Visa
- Permit for Vehicle
They will check your VIN Number (or they did on the motorcycles). Then you push the button, anyone who has been to Mexico has pushed the button. If you haven’t there is a red light and a green light, if you get a green light you travel on your way, if you get a red light they search you and your vehicle (depending on the guard to different extents). We both got a green light so we carried on (follow the truck he said), to the weigh scales. Here there is another taxing system where we each has to pay $77 pesos for tax for the shipyard? anyway, after I had my few words about that with them and paid they send you off to the left. What they didn’t say was off to the left and then down the gravel road to the right, then left where the road splits and you take the left lower road to the ship and you drive to the ferry and park against the back fence until it’s time to load. It is entertaining to watch them load the containers they are wild men on those loaders. At this time I will tell you the Truck Drivers were more helpful than the workers at the ferry getting us to the right spot. You load on and then find your own tie downs in boxes around the deck, tie down and proceed into the ship. hahahaha
Down a steep set of steps but not too many. Through a corridor up some very steep steps, many of them. Down a corridor around a corner, someone asking to finally see a ticket, show your ticket, continue dow a corridor up many more steep stairs around a corner to try to find your cabin. Let me make it easier for you than I had it. In the seating section there is a little office, give him your ID (licence) and he will give you your room key, he keeps your ID until you turn the key in the next day. find your room. There were 4 bunks in our cabin (I am not sure if all are this way) a bathroom with a shower and a sink. Our sink leaked and neither of us attempted the shower. The beds were not that bad but for the air-conditioning, you couldn’t turn it off and it was COLD. Really COLD! there is a dial to turn on the ceiling but it didn’t make much of a difference.Dinner (show your ticket) was beans, rice and 2 choices of mixtures, drinks not included. We did get some sleep despite the cold. Although I did think I was going to go through the wall a couple of times with the ship rocking so hard my mattress slid back and forth once. Eye glasses and books went flying through the darkness and I found them in the morning scattered on the floor. Just put everything on the floor.
There are movies playing in the seating area and the dinning room and there is an out door area up above and they sell beer up there too.
In the morning you get breakfast (show your ticket) and then wait. They will announce when it’s time for the drivers to go and get in their vehicles. Back down the stairs, show your ticket again, down the stairs up the stairs to your vehicle. Drive off, from here on out I can’t help you, my bike was dead from the silent alarm going off for 21 hours, so I has to roll the bike off and wait for Brad to get a tow truck. They wouldn’t let him in the yard unless we paid $200.00 USD so Brad pushed my bike all the way to the gates, to the tow truck. Then back to ride his through. When leaving the ferry yard stay to your right following the waterfront. With in a few blocks you will see directional signs to show you which way to go to Tepic, Cullican or Durango. Also when traveling this street you will see signs directing you to the malecon.
We found a bike repair place then they sent us to another bike repair place on the Malecon and we stayed the night while my battery charged next door.
