MAZATLAN, MODERN DAY PARADISE

And Its Historical Past
by Jeanette Valentine of SoulOfAmerica.com

I am savoring fork-tender flank steak one evening outside of Pedro y Lola’s, an always-crowded restaurant that fronts Plazuela Machado, Mazatlan’s chic, revitalized town square. The plaza is ablaze with strings of lights draping trees and shrubs. The air hums with conversation, most in Spanish, but some in English, as tourists join locals dining alfresco and knocking back icy marguaritas from Goliath-sized glasses rimmed in lime and salt. In the background, bluesman Gene Grooms, a soft-spoken brother from British Columbia, is strumming his guitar and crooning like a native son of the Mississippi Delta.

Visitors may venture to this resort town for the pristine beaches, resort hotels and great restaurants, but it is this plaza, in a district called “Centro Historico,” that inevitably draws them again and again. During my 10-day stay, I visit it almost daily – to dine, shop, check out nearby museums or just sit in the sun and soak up the sense of community found among friendly residents. They are eager to help me with my fledging Spanish or provide directions to other parts of the city.

Flank steak dinner

With its open-air cafes, art galleries, crafts shops and museums, Plazuela Machado operates in much the way it did more than a hundred years ago – as the heart of Mazatlan. The plaza was built during the city’s mid-19th century hey day, when its commercial port did a brisk trade sparked by the local mining of silver and gold.

Today, Mazatlan is a sprawling city of about 350,000 that sits on the Pacific Ocean just parallel to the southern tip of Baja California. It is known by many names: “Shrimp Capital of the World,” “Pearl of the Pacific” and “Land of the Deer” a literal translation of Mazatlan from an Indian language called Nahuatl. Through the years, the city has endured its share of ups and downs, not the least of which is damage suffered during the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848.

Casa Etnika, arts and crafts boutique

But Mazatlan is currently experiencing a re-birth. Because of its 16 miles of beaches and continued renovation to the historic district, the city ranks high on any list of Mexican destinations. It offers a rare combination of sand, surf and historical significance.

For the latter, just look again to Plazuela Machado. An expanse of well-cultivated greenery studded with palm trees, it is named after Juan Nepomuseo Machado, a businessman of Filipino descent who made his fortune in mining and shipping in the mid 1800s. The neo-classical buildings that line the plaza date back to the 1830s, their warm yellows, peaches and burgundys making the foliage appear all the more verdant.

Mazatlan Beach

Commanding one side of the square is the grand Teatro Angela Peralta, or Angela Peralta Theater, a restored live performance venue and professional performing arts school where audiences can enjoy opera, ballet, theater and dance. The building is named after the world-renown opera diva Angela Peralta, who came to Mazatlan to perform in 1883 and died of yellow fever in the theater ten days after her arrival. I visited the city in December and was lucky enough to catch the theater’s impressive production of “The Nutcracker.”

In the plaza and all around Mazatlan, colors delight the eye. Buildings, houses and storefronts are swathed in brilliant oranges, greens, blues and enough other hues to shame a box of Crayola crayons. Bushy clusters of Bougainvillea, their red and purple flowers so rich they look like velvet, seem to sprout on every corner.

If the renovated Plazuela Machado is Mazatlan’s hip, happening future, Plaza Revolución just a few blocks away is its relaxed, dignified past. The pace is slower here, where towering palm trees shade senior citizens lounging on wrought-iron benches. Other adults mill about chatting while children run through broods of pigeons, scaring them into flight. This is Old Mazatlan. A few vendors are selling t-shirts and bead necklaces, but most of the folks lingering in the square look more like residents than tourists.

A restored building near Plazuela Machado

    That’s not the case across the street, where the canary yellow Basilica de la Inmaculada Concepcion (Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception) rises majestically, drawing a steady stream of gawkers to its twin bell towers. The Basilica is a marvel of Baroque architecture with a grand, almost sky-high interior dome that stops you in your tracks with its beauty. More than 90 percent of Mexico is Catholic. Devotion to the church can be seen in elaborate alters like this one, with its tall statues of saints and massive Roman columns flanking an elevated life-sized portrait of Jesus Christ.

    Half a block from the cathedral is the Mercado Centro or the Central Market, a vibrant landscape of fruit and vegetable stalls, pottery and craft shops and souvenir venues hawking everything from Frida Kahlo handbags to Spider-Man piñatas. The doughnut-like scent of freshly made churros – long, circular fried-dough pastries sprinkled with powered sugar – hangs in the air.

    “Senora, you look so pretty today,” one enterprising salesman calls out to me before delivering a heavy-handed pitch for an aqua-blue sun dress. Around the corner, the butchers’ aisles (la carniceria) showcase dark-pink cuts of beef, sausages bursting their seams, flank steak sliced dime-thin and hefty pork roasts marbled with strips of fat. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Mercado, the narrow streets around it offer endless storefronts brimming with inexpensive clothes and jewelry.

A late night restaurant

    An 80-cent bus ride away is the Zona Dorado or Golden Zone, Mazatlan’s official tourist mecca. It sits along a beach lined with hotels that range from new and luxurious to quaint and “mature.” Restaurants serve Mexican, Greek, Italian and Japanese cuisine (for some reason, Sushi joints abound); trendy shops offer jewelry, upscale clothing and the fine pottery crafts for which Mexico is known, and at night, neon lights illuminate huge disco clubs where revelers bailan (dance) to the wee hours. From a multi-plex movie theater to Burger King and Starbucks outlets, Zona Dorado offers all of the trappings of a typical resort area.

    I am more intrigued by the strange bronze statutes that stand at regular intervals along the Malecon, the curved path that skirts Mazatlan’s beach. Any tropical locale can serve up crystalline waters and pristine sands, but where else can you see the sun setting behind a naked couple sporting wings and standing watch over a school of cavorting dolphins?

    These fanciful statues, of seemingly unrelated themes, tower over passers by. In addition to the nudists, there’s a military official on a motorcycle, a mermaid with her mer-child, an empty pulmonia (an open-air taxi that resembles a golf cart and is unique to Mazatlan) and a primly suited troubadour gripping the neck of his guitar with one hand and tipping his fedora with the other.

A traditional Mexican dance

    Another beach worth checking out is on Isla de las Piedras (Stone Island). Near dusk one day, I am the sole passenger in a motor-powered 10-foot boat that a friendly skipper guides towards the island. The trip takes five minutes. After scampering onto the pier, I walk through a thicket of coconut-laden palm trees that look like perfect props in a surfer movie. Just past the palms lie a wide expanse of tan sands that stretches between thatch-roofed snack bars and surfboard rental businesses to the left and deep-blue waters lapping the beach to the right. The area is nearly deserted as a bright amber sun sinks into the horizon.

    Other beaches can be found on the three islands that sit right off the coast of Mazatlan – the Island of the Bird, Island of the Deer and Island of the Wolves.

    To experience the true culture of rural Mexico, I go on a day trip offered by the local tour company Pronatours. Within an hour’s bus ride are several “pueblos,” or towns, worth exploring. The homes that line Malpica’s narrow, dusty streets are simple, square structures painted bright pinks, greens, purples and yellows. Chickens scatter as children laugh and play nearby.

Typical hand-carved crafts sold in markets

Victor, the guide for our tour group, leads us down a path until we come to a make-shift craft store with a smiling middle-aged woman behind a card table displaying good-luck figures carved from driftwood. Further on is a tile-making operation. The craftsman is manipulating the levers and gears of what we’re told is a centuries-old press that cuts, sands and paints 12” tiles. Down the street, we watch as sheets of piping-hot pastries are pulled from a huge stone oven at the local bakery. The warm sweet rolls practically melt in my mouth.

The pueblos Concordia and Copala (pronounced co-PAH-la) lie in the foothills of the lush Sierra Madre mountains. Both have grand cathedrals in their town squares - The 18th-century San Sebastian Church in Concordia and the 17th-century Iglesia de San Jose in Copala. Each colonial town offers histories rich with drama. For example, Concordia endured savage pillaging at the hands of French soldiers who invaded in the mid 1800s. When a feisty widow told the French General, “You are not worthy of being called a man,” rather than killing her, he burned Concordia to the ground. A mural near the downtown square depicts the history.

Cafe Pacifico

    Currently, the town is known for its ceramics and expert furniture making. We tour a furniture-making operation where artisans painstakingly carve and sand wooden masterpieces, including heavy rocking chairs that are said to last a 100 years.

    In Quelite (kuh-LEE-taye), a must-visit is El Meson de Los Laureanos, a restaurant with enough artifacts to be a museum itself. Decorated by multi-hued murals against walls of deep golds, reds and oranges, the restaurant serves the tenderest pork and freshest tortillas – made before your eyes on the premises – I’ve had in my life. The town also boasts the region’s largest rooster farm, where squawks pierce the air like a “cock-a-doodle-doo” soundtrack, cranked up high and stuck on repeat. The farm breeds and grooms about 2,500 birds for cockfighting, an unofficial national sport. Roosters outnumber people in Quelite.

    After an energetic day of absorbing local culture, I am eager to relax on the balcony of my room at the Hotel El Cid Marina. El Cid owns several properties in Mazatlan, and true to its name, the one I stay at fronts a picturesque marina where dozens of yachts are anchored. The hotel itself is beautiful, with magenta Bougainvillea wrapping around tangerine-colored buildings, and the staff is first-rate. But I am unimpressed by the artistically served, but not so flavorful food at the hotel’s restaurant (American cheese on enchiladas?). Guests at one El Cid hotel have access to activities at others, and so one night I am able to attend a dinner performance at another El Cid property. The buffet meal of authentic Mexican fare is hearty, and the colorful floor show featuring dancers in regional costumes and a mariachi band is thrilling.

A good luck charm

    Mazatlan offers a host of other activities, including eco tours; hikes to El Faro, the world’s tallest working lighthouse; water sports; golf and the much-recommended sport-fishing tours. In February, the third-largest carnival celebration in the world takes place in Mazatlan; only the celebrations in New Orleans and Rio are larger. To find events during your visit, pick up a copy of the ubiquitous “Pacific Pearl,” a monthly English newspaper, or visit http://www.pacificpearl.com.

    During my stay, I meet many American and Canadian ex-pats who have made Mazatlan their home. One Sunday afternoon, I strike up a conversation with one couple who invite me to visit a pal of theirs nearby; I know I have found kindred spirits when I walk into the colorful living room to find a Pittsburgh Steelers game blaring on the big-screen television.

    It’s a testament to the city’s charm that more and more folks from the United States and Canada are packing up all of their earthly belongings and moving here for good. They have found, as I did, that Mazatlan is an irresistible combination of tropical paradise and historical elegance that exists in few other cities in Mexico.

Jeanette Valentine on Daniel's Restaurant patio overlooking the Sierra Madre mountains

Also see, Immersing Myself in the Language of Mexico.

MAZATLAN, MODERN DAY PARADISE

BLACK CULTURAL TRAVEL MADE EASY