Detours — Mazatlan

palmspringslife.com

Natural splendors and civilized pleasures

BY SHARON APFELBAUM

Mazatlan's beautiful beaches.

PHOTOS COURTESY MEXICO BOARD OF TOURISM

Positioned where the Tropic of Cancer crosses the Pacific coast, Mazatlan marks the northern boundary of the Mexican Riviera that stretches south to Puerto Vallarta. Within this long, peaceful landscape of rock-strewn seas repose some of the world’s best beaches. Few coastlines can rival its natural beauty.

Although the Aztecs never occupied Mazatlan, pirates in the 17th century used its hill-screened harbor to ambush Spanish galleons laden with gold from inland mines. In 1817, the city counted just 21 inhabitants. Mazatlan’s first permanent colony took root in the 1820s when a group of German settlers developed its port facilities to import agricultural equipment. A flourishing international trade soon followed. 

Germans also figured in a modern cultural exchange at the turn of the 20th century when a group came from Bavaria to start a brewery. Their “oom-pah” music was quickly adopted and incorporated into Mexican music, creating Sinoloa Tambora, the typical banda (band) music heard in Mazatlan’s home state of Sinoloa. Today, visitors can tour what is now Pacifico Brewery.

The port was besieged several times, first in 1847 by U.S. troops during the Mexican-American War and again in 1864 during the French occupation of Mexico. Southerners attempting to spread Confederate ideals during the Civil War overran it. Chinese laborers came in the late 1880s and dispersed throughout northeastern Mexico. The Buddhist temple used by those who stayed still stands.

Turistas make up the last link of multicultural invasions. Visitors started arriving in the 1930s when affordable Mazatlan was Mexico’s only Pacific coast resort. In the 1950s, some hotels appeared on Playa Olas Altas, a small cove surrounded by high, rocky hills and blessed with big waves. Today, those waves attract surfers, as well as spectators who come to watch men dive from a high natural tower into the shallow, rocky waters. Three old hotels and a series of outdoor cafés create an atmospheric waterfront for the informal show.

One of the original attractions, hunting, has diminished with government conservation efforts, but sport fishing remains a major draw. The Pacific Coast offers world-famous bill fishing (marlin, swordfish, sailfish), and Mazatlan bears the tag “Billfish Capital of the World.” Its name derives from the Aztec for “land of the deer,” another bow to its abundant natural splendors.