Portlanders Love Mazatlan

By Special to The Oregonian

 

The sun comes up behind Mazatlan's historic center, El Centro, where visitors can experience old-style Mexican ambience as they stroll through quaint streets lined with 18th-century homes and outdoor cafes. Much of the historic center is seeing a renovation boom. Photos by Janet Jarman

 

 

Story written by Carolyn Patten


Annual visitors swear there's way more here than 'beer and beach'

Mazatlan — the closest of Mexico's Pacific beach resorts to the U.S. West Coast — is a favorite winter destination for Portlanders who love its casual, slightly gritty atmosphere, low prices, fresh seafood and miles of golden beaches. Many Portlanders return year after year, settling in for a couple of weeks or half a year, drawn back by a city that is, by turns, ordinary and glamorous, calm and frenetic, plain and beautiful.

Don West, owner of Lloyd Center Pharmacy, and his wife travel to Mazatlan every year for a few weeks of sun and liberation from work, commuting and television. Their faces light up when they talk about it.
"We're in love with Mazatlan," West says. "It's such a wonderful lifestyle. You can just sit on the beach or go to Canucks for a beer and run into people from home."

Canucks, a rambling bar and restaurant looking out on the ocean from the edge of the old town, is a home base for many Portlanders — a place to check in when they arrive, find old friends and do their part to help the poorest of the poor in Mazatlan. The restaurant's annual fundraisers for the local orphanages are huge events, well-attended and well-supported.

Leigh Ann and Rich Baker, Milwaukie residents who've been coming down here for more than 30 years, volunteer with Rancho de los Ninos, an orphanage for children with disabilities, in El Castillo, just outside Mazatlan. And they both work with Conrehabit, the city's only wildlife conservation group, to help rehabilitate animals rescued from wildlife smugglers.

We looked at other places along the coast but kept coming back. -- Rich Baker

So, why Mazatlan? Years ago, the Bakers traveled all along Mexico's Pacific coast, and "we kept coming back here," Rich says. "This is a real town; it's not just for tourists. The people are wonderful, and we can have a lovely life here."

Their stay usually begins with the big celebration for Dia de los Muertos in October, joining in the parade through Viejo Mazatlan to visit altars and mingle with old friends. Next up is a beach cleanup, and right on its heels is the huge Rancho de los Ninos fundraiser they help organize and stage at Canucks. This year they built a house and have plans to stay at least half the year from now on.

Born and raised outside Portland, Ronald Fantz is another Oregonian who considers himself a "local" in Mazatlan — or, as he describes it, "a salty toes." When he retired in 2003, he and his wife sailed a double-master to Mazatlan and points south.

"We looked at other places along the coast but kept coming back," he says. "We always had so much fun in Mazatlan. It's a working town and doesn't rely too much on tourism. There is great theater, music, art and restaurants. The people are proud of their city; they're not jaded."

Janet Blaser, a California transplant, publishes M! magazine, a monthly entertainment/arts tabloid that is the city's first serious English-language publication. She too talks about how proud residents are that "this is a real city."

Blaser says the constant tension between a hardworking Mexican population that has very little and the relatively wealthy tourist and expat crowd is a fact of life, but one that is tempered by a "live and let live" philosophy. Mazatlan is a small town with an openness to change as well as a respect for the old ways. The best thing about Mazatlan, she says, is "its heart, its corazon. It can be easily missed if you get lost in the vacation aspect of 'beer and beach.'"

 

 

Miguel Angel Llamas, 13, swings effortlessly from ring to ring at a popular recreation area on Mazatlan's Oregonian Leigh Ann Baker greets children at Rancho de Los Ninos, an orphanage for children with disabilities, in El Castillo, just outside Mazatlan. 

 

A colorful past

Although the original residents of the area were the indigenous Totorames, and a tiny group of Spaniards officially founded a site here in 1531, Mazatlan itself was not developed by the Spanish or the Indians. Instead, a group of enterprising German immigrants developed the port facilities in the 1820s to import agricultural equipment. Once they got started, heavy international trade quickly followed. In the 1950s, Mazatlan came into its own as a popular tourist destination for Hollywood stars drawn to the sportfishing, glorious winter climate and cosmopolitan air. As the city aged and newer Mexican destinations — Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Cabo — grew, Mazatlan's tourist status slipped. The city began to rely more heavily on shrimp fishing, and the population became more blue-collar. A push to encourage tourism in the 1980s began to breathe life back into the crumbling old town, and a new cycle began.

As Ronald Fantz says, "It's developing and changing so quickly in the historic center. Every time we go down, it's like a quick time lapse: The older buildings are being restored, and people are keeping the facades."

The Fantzes keep a boat in the harbor and have a condo at the marina. In the old town core, wealthy Mexican families, expat Americans and Canadians are restoring to glory 18th-century mansions that were once empty ruins. Known as Centro Historico or Viejo Mazatlan, the small area fans out from the city's original main square, Plaza Machado.

The plaza is home to one of Mazatlan's most popular gathering places, Pedro y Lola restaurant. Named for Pedro Infante and Lola Beltran, famous Mexican singers with local ties, the plaza is where you meet everyone sooner or later -- either for coffee and gossip in the morning or for dinner, people-watching and live jazz at night. When the sun goes down, Pedro y Lola sets up tables on the street and the whole square seems to vibrate with a happy buzz. On Saturday nights, arts and crafts booths fill the square; on Sundays, vendors sell cotton candy and balloons.

From Centro, it's a short stroll to the public market for fresh food of all kinds, and just a few blocks to the beach, where the malecon, or seawall, looks onto buff sand and gentle waves. The beach runs north for 15 miles, past the Zona Dorada, or Golden Zone, of high-rise hotels and shops, up to Marina Mazatlan and "Nuevo Mazatlan," where mega-resorts are dwarfing the landscape.

 

In contrast to the quaint historic buildings of El Centro, Valentino's Disco Club pulsates with light. Karla Rodriguez (from left), Reyna Hernandez, Sofia Arely Rodriguez and Claudia Lucero Herrera Mata solicit traditional Sinaloan songs from a local roving band. 

 

Mazatlan's future

Those mega-resorts pose an interesting set of challenges to Mazatlan's laid-back atmosphere. Many of the largest have opened in the past five years, bringing in new waves of tourists and money. That's a boon for this working-class town; however, most of the jobs available for the Mazatlecos are in housekeeping, gardening and other service areas, with pay hovering around 70 pesos — about $5 — a day. In the meantime, the city's aging infrastructure totters along. Sewer systems and roads are patched haphazardly, and the government has no money for new construction.

Still, "development" remains the buzzword. Plans to enlarge Marina Mazatlan would mean a huge development with its own golf course, a small hospital, the long-anticipated Mazatlan Convention Center and a large shopping mall. Word is also flying about a new development on Stone Island, the quiet little peninsula just off the southern edge of the city. And in 2008, the Mexican government announced plans to invest about $500 million to create "another Cancun" in Teacapan, a quiet little town 75 miles south of Mazatlan.

For now, despite the growth to the north, little Centro's pull for a more seasoned traveler is mighty. There's a sweet, slightly bohemian vibe that welcomes strangers to join the old-timers at Canucks or on the roof of the Freeman Hotel to soak up the sunset, sip a cold beer and banter about politics.

This is the corazon of old Mazatlan, the magic that endures beyond "beach and beer."

 

 

Yesenia Mesa Llamas fires up the grill at Taqueria Raymundo, a family-run taco stand in Mazatlan's historic district. Ronald Fantz (left), joins blues musician Gene Grooms onstage outside Pedro y Lola on a Sunday evening. The restaurant is a popular landmark in Plaza Machado.