Our First Trip to Mazatlan: a Guide to the Historical Center and Diary

Mazatlán's Historical Center is a wonderful place to spend a vacation. It has beaches for lounging, sunbathing, and dipping, plazas that are relaxing and lively at the same time, wonderful restaurants, cafés, and bistros, acrobatic and dance troupes and other entertainment with contributions voluntary, shopping opportunities everywhere with ambulatory vendors, kiosks, and art, folk art, and souvenir shops, numerous small grocery stores, a block-size municipal market that seems to offer...
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Mazatlán's Historical Center is a wonderful place to spend a vacation. It has beaches for lounging, sunbathing, and dipping, plazas that are relaxing and lively at the same time, wonderful restaurants, cafés, and bistros, acrobatic and dance troupes and other entertainment with contributions voluntary, shopping opportunities everywhere with ambulatory vendors, kiosks, and art, folk art, and souvenir shops, numerous small grocery stores, a block-size municipal market that seems to offer nearly everything under the sun, and a large department store. And you may enjoy it all by casually strolling through the streets or hailing a pulmonia (something of a golf cart on steroids) to enjoy a speedy ride with the feeling of wind blowing about you. One suggestion is that if you're taking a pulmonia to a spot without a well-known name, a map may be helpful in pointing out the location.This guide provides information on the Historical Center of Mazatlán as of 2017. The Histórico Centro is a very rapidly changing city center with many street improvements and new businesses. On our subsequent visits in 2018 and 2019, we have seen many of these changes and hope to put together a later guide of what we've seen. As an example, one change since 2017 is that El Shrimp Bucket was open only sporadically in 2019, an apparent casualty of increased competition. Also, Macaws has changed ownership and apparently staff. Nonetheless, much of the information in this book remains quite current, and we hope that you find it a useful aid in enjoying the many delights that this city has to offer.One remark that we should definitely make is that we found Mazaltanians very friendly and very helpful, and very ready to offer assistance.The historical section of this guide gives an introduction to the history of Mexico and Mesoamerica through 4000 BP and a background summary of events that led to the formation of Spain in the 15th century CE, just prior to its great oceanic voyages and its American colonizations. We plan to continue the saga of Mexican history from 4000 BP to the present in subsequent guides.