I thought it might be good to make a post about Mazatlán as it is our favorite larger Pacific Mexico city. The main four we’ve been to are Ensenada, Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta and La Paz. We also really liked Ensenada, but it’s smaller and not as “accessible” or “comfortable” as Mazatlán. Pretty much all other Pacific Mexico places we’ve been would only qualify as towns or even smaller. Many cruisers don’t like Mazatlán, but most of the complaints are about the marinas in Mazatlán. El Cid has a lot of current and tidal surge and has many slips that need to be dredged such that your keel bottoms out so bad at low tide that you have to loosen your dock lines (so make sure you check your slip depth and try for another slip if it isn’t working – or if not possible, leave El Cid and go into the main marinas further up the waterway). All the marinas are surrounded by noisy parties, especially on the weekends (weddings at El Cid and clubs by the main marinas up the waterway). Marina Mazatlán and its neighbors sit in completely filthy disgusting water (there are no pump-outs and many liveaboards rarely take the boats out plus there are inadequate fish cleaning stations so you can only imagine how “soupy” the water is). The showers at Marina Mazatlán have no water pressure (I’d agree with this complaint and I’m usually the one to complain that water pressure is too high and hurts my skin). Also, Mazatlán is in Sinaloa and a few weeks after we left the whole city got shut down due to threats of violence for a few days after a prominent cartel member was arrested by the government (during this, Mazatlán was probably safer than Culiacán and Los Mochis but it was inconvenient for those visiting when all businesses and transportation were abruptly closed for several days). All these complaints are fair, but on the balance we enjoy time spent in Mazatlán.

We had a great time in Mazatlán when we were there for three weeks in January during last cruising season, but this year when returned after crossing from the other side of the Sea of Cortez it was like visiting an old friend at Christmas time. We knew we wanted to keep our boat there for nearly a month so that we could travel south to Barra de Navidad for the Panama Posse meetup and have an opportunity for other inland travel. Therefore we chose to stay at Marina Mazatlán instead of El Cid because it had lower rates and is more convenient to restaurants and shopping (note that as of January 2023 the rates at Marina Mazatlán have doubled so it may make sense to look at the other marinas). El Cid’s key advantages are the water is a bit less mucky and it has swimming pools and a self-serve laundry. But El Cid is not close to as many restaurants and the self-serve laundry is always very busy and there’s no nearby laundry service to walk to as an alternative.

Some of our favorite places near Marina Mazatlán that we were eager to return to were Tostaderia del Mar (piled high gourmet-quality seafood tostadas and more) and Rico’s Cafe (some of the best coffee we’ve had in Mexico and excellent food). Plus you can walk to a nice shopping mall (Gallerias Mazatlán which has a very nice Liverpool department store) and a Walmart for other shopping. A truck shows up at the marina area several mornings with fresh produce and sometimes fresh fish, shrimp and delicious Sinaloan-style tamales. All these conveniences are at least a half hour walk from El Cid.

During this visit to Mazatlán we also got to know the local bus system. It was a bit challenging to try to figure it out from some images on some expat/tourist websites that roughly described the key bus routes going through the tourist and central zones, but the price was only 11 or 12 pesos per trip and it saved us a lot on cab fare. Cabs in Mazatlán also tend to be more affordable and more available than those in Puerto Vallarta and La Paz with lines of cabs at most major shopping areas and lots of pulmonerias that can simply be flagged down along the streets.

Mazatlán restaurants range from very affordable fondas where you get a full lunch for just 80 pesos (we enjoyed our lunch at La Fondita de Cristy) to high-end dining like El Presidio where you can relax and have wonderful cocktails with your meal in a stone courtyard draped with vines and lights. The main market in the city, Mercado Piño Suarez, is somewhat tourist oriented and can be annoying on days when cruise ships are in port and the sellers try to hustle you but nearby are more public markets that the locals shop at such as one with many seafood sellers.

Last year, I shared details of our hike up El Faro. Our big hike this year was not as much elevation but it was tiring (hot day) as we went from the old town / central area to go see the Pacifico Brewery. We did not go inside the brewery but seeing the workers on a break or shift change in their overalls reminded me of when my dad used to work at the Gallo glass plant in Modesto. We then walked from there to the Tres Islas Cerveceria and sampled some of their beers. We managed to then find a bus back to the marina from downtown. The key to busses is to know what the area you are going to is called and look for a bus that has that area written on the windshield. Once you have that trick, you can take the local busses in a lot of areas of mexico. The ones with the 12 peso fare in Mazatlán are even air-conditioned!

It’s easy to find the things you might want in Mazatlán, too. There are lots of details in google maps and expat/tourist websites as well as lots of forums to ask questions such as the boater VHF nets in the morning or general expat/tourist forums online. And Mazatlán is not like Puerto Vallarta and La Paz where so much is catered to the gringo tourist, you have a lot of places instead that cater to the Mexican tourist which means great seafood and tortillas at great prices! Since we were there as the winter school break started we got to see lots of people coming to town for beach fun. We also saw groups of people that seemed to be work colleagues having big dinners that seemed to be their holiday parties. It was really fun to people watch and see a side of Pacific Mexico that is not all tiny beach villages and resorts catering to gringos. And how charming is it to get an ice cream cone from the famous Nieves de Garrafa de con Medrano cart while fancy SUV’s line up with their kids in tow after school right next to the cart to place their order? How beautiful was it to see Plazuela Machado again all decked up for the holidays now that COVID-19 precautions were mostly lifted and we didn’t have to wear masks even in some outdoor spaces?

For us, Mazatlán feels very livable. And it’s less humid than cities farther south in the winter so it actually cools down at night such that you can really enjoy sleeping under a comforter. That’s probably why so many (mostly Canadian) gringos own/rent condos along the beach north of the marina area. When we were there last year, Noj even found a local marine shop that was able to bring almost anything we needed from the West Marine Catalog. This blog post is a bit of (everything) everywhere (all at once?), but I have been intending to share that we really like Mazatlán and if you’re going to be there, feel free to reach out to us for tips. We will definitely visit Mazatlán again in the future and next time spend more time around the old town getting to enjoy more of its charms (now that we are better at riding the bus back and forth).

Enjoy this slideshow of key moments in Mazatlán.