coastalliving.com
Text by Jeff Book
A classic Mexican resort town, Mazatlán preserves its old-world charm.
"The beauty of this island is the ocean, the peacefulness, the way you can be yourself without any doubts or regrets." -Joseph
Arreola
Watching the waves from the terrace
of El Shrimp Bucket, sipping locally brewed Pacifico between swallows of
spicy seviche,
you can easily picture the postwar
years, the first peak of Mazatlán tourism. Early visitors such as John
Wayne and Robert
Mitchum came to sportfish, and to
party in hotels along Olas Altas beach. The crowds that followed, from
the 1960s on, lodged
at resorts that sprang up along the
miles of sand to the north. But recent years have seen a revival of the
town's historic
center, with restored buildings
housing new restaurants and boutique hotels
This makes Mazatlán a sort of
tourism time capsule, offering travelers a range of styles from
retro-modern to elegant-traditional
to beach shack-funky. It's also a
working port, the largest between Los Angeles and the Panama Canal, with
some 400,000 inhabitants
and genuine Mexican character. Its
location―just below the Tropic of Cancer, on the mainland across from
the tip of Baja California―ensures
balmy weather and bountiful waters.
The fleet of fishing boats ensures delicious seafood, especially shrimp.
Overshadowed
by trendier spots in coastal Mexico,
Mazatlán has maintained a quirky appeal all its own.
Start with the town's signature
transport, the overgrown golf carts known as pulmonías (pneumonias) for
their open sides and
breezy rides. Perfect for
sightseeing, these zippy taxis suit Mazatlán's relaxed, tropical spirit.
They're ideal for motoring
from Old Mazatlán to the touristy
Zona Dorada (Golden Zone) along a shore-hugging drive dotted with
monuments, among them
frolicking dolphins, sea nymphs, a
heroic fisherman, even a life-size bronze pulmonía. On the seemingly
endless strand, sunbathers
loll and vendors roam, peddling cold
drinks, clothing, jewelry, baskets, henna tattoos, and more.
Parasailors take off like
kites, pulled aloft by speedboats.
And every Sunday evening, the Hotel Playa Mazatlán puts on a whiz-bang
show of Mexican-style
fireworks, pinwheeling and blazing
from the beach.
"No other port in Mexico has this
view," declares Conchita Boccard from the patio of Casa Lucila, the
small, luxurious hotel
the Mazatlán native and her
American-born husband, Chris, opened last year. The vista extends from
the rugged hills around
the historic center, to the distant
conga line of hotel towers, to nearby islands that suggest painted
backdrops floating
in the Pacific.
And no other city in coastal Mexico
can claim such a concentration of historic architecture in a
pedestrian-friendly core
of narrow streets and shady squares.
Crumbling facades still outnumber refurbished ones. Even so, it's hard
to imagine the
beautifully restored Angela Peralta
Theater as it was two decades ago, unroofed by a hurricane, a tree
growing through the
stage. In the adjacent art school,
you may glimpse students sculpting or playing marimbas. Steps away lies
the parklike Plazuela
Machado, an intimate square fringed
with restaurant terraces where diners enjoy the evening breeze.
Old Mazatlán's interior courtyards
serve as outdoor living rooms, furnished with flowers and fountains.
Visitors can soak
up serenity over breakfast at the
Hotel Melville or Casa de Leyendas (a romantic B&B with very helpful
American owners); lunch
at Mariscos Bahia, a decades-old
favorite for savory seafood; and dinner at Topolo, where watermelon-red
walls set off flavorful
dishes amusingly billed as
"contemporary Prehispanic cuisine."
They also can make the steep hike to
Mazatlán's landmark lighthouse―at 515 feet above sea level, said to be
the second highest
after Gibraltar's―in about an hour,
round-trip. Or ride the elevator to the Hotel Freeman's rooftop bar, by
Olas Altas beach,
for a panorama that stretches from
el centro
to the port to freighters at sea. You can see it all on a boat tour
that stops for lunch at one of the beachfront, thatched-roof
restaurants on Isla de la Piedra
(Stone Island).
Like the cruise to Stone Island, the
diversions of the Golden Zone are worth sampling―La Costa Marinera, for
example, a temple
to seafood with a version of classic
albondigas soup that replaces meatballs with zesty spheres of diced
shrimp. And the deep-sea
fishing remains superb. But the city
also ranks high for performing arts and other cultural activities,
notably Mexico's largest
Carnival celebration. Its
time-tripping styles and fun-loving ways make Mazatlán well worth
discovering.
