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).

Searching the Internet we found a small condo on the beach north of the Zona Dorada and rented it for two weeks. The condo, in a nine-story building at the entrance to Marina El Cid, belongs to a family in Minnesota. They emailed us the coordinates, which I entered into our Garmin Auto GPS, and we found it straight away. 

 

Rande having breakfast on the patio

Most of the residents in the building were over 55. I don't think they pay much attention to the State Department warnings because they travel all over Mazatlán by foot, pulmonia (golf cart taxis), taxi, bus and car. 

Mazatlán looking north from El Faro (The Lighthouse); Pacific Ocean (left) and Bahiá Dársena channel (right)

On the way to San Carlos we stopped in Hermosillo to buy groceries. We were waiting to checkout in a supermercado and struck up a conversation with a gringo in line behind us. He’s a civil engineer living and working in Hermosillo. 

"Don’t you know traveling in Mexico is dangerous?"

His question was facetious, but a bit sarcastic. He complained that U.S. travel warnings were impacting tourism and his business. We've heard several conspiracy theories from gringos living in Mexico, but the one we've heard most often is that U.S. travel warnings are deliberate attempts by the media or the government to keep Americans from spending their dollars in Mexico.

Zona Dorada (Golden Zone)

Most tourists coming to Mazatlán stay in the Zona Dorada (Golden Zone), a collection of condo towers, resort hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and shops selling trinkets, many inscribed with “Mazatlán.” (Rande bought an apron in the colors of the Mexican flag inscribed with “Mazatlán.”)

Zona Dorada

With 21 km (13 miles) of beaches, Mazatlán has something for everyone – parasailing, sailing, tubing behind powerboats, horseback riding, strolling mariachis and vendors, and of course, swimming and sunbathing. Hang around on a beach long enough and all of it will come to you.

Weird graffiti on a seawall

Moving away from the Zona Dorada, you can find beaches without all the craziness.

Playa Bruja (Witches Beach), a well-known surf break north of Mazatlán

Mazatlán was gearing up for its 116th Carnival while we were there and huge, paper mache-like statues were erected along the Malecón (seaside boardwalk), the longest in the world (link) and around the Plazuela Machado in the historic city center.

Along the Malecón

Along the Malecón

Old Mazatlán, the city center at the south end of the peninsula, was founded in the 19th century. Tourists began coming in the 1930s. The first hotels were built along the beaches in the 1950s and increased significantly in the 1970s. Restoration efforts in the city center began in the late 1980s (Noble, et al. 2012). Old Mazatlán was a 20-minute, 10-peso ($0.77 USD) bus ride along Avenida del Mar from our condo. 

Restored building in Old Mazatlán

Building in Old Mazatlán

We visited a small, but wonderfully detailed archaeological museum (Museo Arqueológico de Mazatlán) that traces the prehistory of Mesoamericans from the Sinaloa area in five “halls”: ceramics, clothing and accessories, food, funeral customs and ulama, a ritual ballgame, similar to a game played by the Maya. Early artifacts include Clovis points from about 10,000 years ago and evidence of agriculture from about 4,000 years ago. Archaeological sites dating from 750 to 1250 AD found along rivers and marshes demonstrate the importance of agriculture (corn, beans, squash, tobacco, cotton) and, to a lesser extent, fishing and hunting (from interpretive material in the museum).

Polychrome pottery from southern Sinaloa, 750-1200 AD

Alabaster vessel from Sinaloa 900-1200 AD

Axe head used for clearing land from southern Sinaloa 250-750 AD

Jorobado (hunchback); believed to have sacred powers, they were brought into the government to bring luck

A few blocks from the 19th-century cathedral on Plaza Principal, the center of old Mazatlán, is a sprawling, colorful centro mercado (central market) with dozens of stalls selling just about everything needed for daily life except auto parts and construction materials (more on the market in the next post). Buses from all parts of Mazatlán stop there.

Buses at the centro mercado (central market)

We visited the bustling market several times. My favorite purchase was smoked marlin. There are restaurants (counters with stools) in the market, but we ate at Restaurant de Mariscos, a quiet seafood restaurant a block away. It was run by a young woman with red hair and a permanent smile; her husband was the cook and fish-cleaner, and her young daughter had the run of the place. We had ceviche de cochito made with fresh triggerfish.

Restaurant de Mariscos near the Centro Mercado

Ceviche de cochito (triggerfish ceviche)

I dove several rocky areas with the Sony RX100 in a new Nauticam housing. The visibility was poor, but the camera and housing worked great. Here’s the fish we were served as ceviche.

Cochito bota or blunthead triggerfish (Pseudobalistes naufragium) foraging in shallow water

Mazatlán is known for its seafood. The city is home to a large commercial shrimping fleet and we could see their lights on the western horizon every night. Shrimp (camarones) appear in everything from chili rellenos to shrimp burgers to dried shrimp sold in plastic bags along roads leading into the city. Pangueros (panga fishermen) fish with small-mesh gillnets and land their pangas on the beach; you can buy fish from them or from middlemen who will clean it any way you want. Oystermen dive in shallow water looking for rock oysters (ostiones) and sell their catch from baskets on their bicycles along the Malecón. 

Commercial fishing pangas next to a fresh seafood restaurant

Oyster divers cleaning their morning catch

We were in Mazatlán when Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán (his nickname means shorty) was arrested early Saturday, February 22, in the Miramar, a condominium tower about a mile from our condo (link; link). The Mexican military blocked the roads. We saw large, gray helicopters flying low along the coast. News of the capture was on the television all day Saturday and on the front page of the newspapers on Sunday. The woman running the Restaurant de Mariscos told us that the whole town was talking about it. 

Front page of the local paper on Sunday, February 23

By Sunday, the pulmonia society had started “narcotours” carrying tourists along Avenida del Mar to have their pictures taken in front of the Miramar (link). Some local businessmen and residents expressed concern that Mazatlán’s “peaceful” atmosphere could deteriorate if Guzman’s lieutenants began to fight over leadership of the cartel (link).

Time to head south.

Sunset over entrance to Marina El Cid with Bird Island in the background

 Noble, J., et al. 2012. Mexico Travel Guide. 13^th Ed. Lonely Planet Publications, Melbourne. 906pp.