La Noria and El Quelite

We spent our first week in Mazatlán exploring the city from Playa Bruja (Witches Beach) in the north to El Faro (The Lighthouse) in the south, from the Zona Dorada (Golden Zone) to the Centro Histórico. We fought city traffic (turning on the Garmin when we got lost) and learned how to ride the buses. We shopped for groceries in the big-box stores (Mega and Walmart) and for fruit and fish in the Mercado Municipal. We ate lunch under shade trees with lovers and tourists in the Plazuela Merchado, and dinners at canvas-covered taco stands with dirt floors and wood barbecues. After a week we needed a break from the intensity of the city. We drove east into the foothills of the Sierra Madre to visit two villages known for their picturesque settings and handmade products of local artisans.

La Noria

La Noria de San Antonio is a colonial village in the foothills of the Sierra Madre about 40 km northeast of Mazatlán. It was founded as a mining camp in 1565 and prospered from mining into the 19th century (link).

Entrance to La Noria

Mazatlán's Mercado Municipal

Officially known as the Mercado Municipal Pino Suárez, Mazatlán’s central market was opened in 1900 and covers a city block in the Centro Histórico. The design was influenced by the late 19th century French ironwork aesthetic seen in the Eiffel Tower and fabricated by the largest foundry in Sinaloa (link).

Mazatlán’s central market

The roof sits atop 29 single-cast iron columns 10 m high and the locals began calling it the Iron Palace (link). The market was named after José Maria Pino Suárez, who was Vice President of Mexico when he was assassinated in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution (link).

Mazatlán

We crossed into Mexico in early February and stopped in San Carlos, a small town on the Sea of Cortez 250 miles south of Nogales. San Carlos is a popular destination for Americans and we had stayed there several years ago. It has a large, natural harbor, good sportfishing, fresh seafood and is less than a day’s drive from Tucson. We needed to work on our trip plan, the extent of which was to “drive down the Pacific Coast of mainland Mexico,” and unwind after traveling over 5,000 miles in January (125 by boat, 3,000 by car and 2,000 by air). 

Our next destination was Mazatlán about 500 miles south of San Carlos. It would be our first time in La Perla del Pacifico (The Pearl of the Pacific), a city of over 430,000 (link), and we needed to get familiar with the city map, especially given the warning of the State Department: “…any travel in Mazatlan (sic) should be limited to Zona Dorada and the historic town center, as well as direct routes to/from these locations and the airport” (link).

Dripping Springs

One of the pleasures of traveling is finding places that are beautiful or interesting. In the U.S., some of these places have been protected by local, state or federal governments to conserve nature, preserve history and viewscapes, and for public recreation. We found one of these places on our way back to Mexico.

Organ Mountains - torrey mountain yucca (foreground) and soaptree yucca

We left northern Colorado in a snowstorm and stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico for a couple days to collect the remaining documents we needed to complete our tax returns and plan our trip down the Pacific Coast of mainland Mexico. With some free time, we went looking for hikes in the Organ Mountains east of Las Cruces and found Dripping Springs Natural Area. It’s managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and has a small visitor center at 5,000 feet and more than four miles of hiking trails.