← Mazatlán Marathon·On foot

The Malecón and Centro Histórico: Sixteen Kilometres of Seafront

One of the longest seafront promenades in Mexico, with a restored nineteenth-century theatre and a grid of painted plazas at the southern end of it.

DurationOn foot
TransitOn foot from central Mazatlán, or a pulmonía along the seafront
DepartsZona Dorada

After the Mazatlán Marathon: Malecón and Centro Histórico

The Route: Zona Dorada → the Malecón → Centro Histórico → Olas Altas Logistics: All on foot and entirely flat. The full promenade runs around 16 km; the stretch most people walk, from the Zona Dorada to Olas Altas, is roughly 7 km one way. Pulmonías, the open-sided local taxis, run the length of it for very little. Marathon Month: September Duration: An afternoon and an evening

Zona Dorada ──(≈7 km of seafront)──> Olas Altas ──> Centro Histórico
      ▲                                                     │
      └──────────────(pulmonía back, ≈15 min)───────────────┘

The Malecón is the spine of Mazatlán and the reason the city works the day after a marathon: it is flat, it is continuous, and you can stop walking it at any point and get a pulmonía back for the price of a coffee. Sixteen kilometres of it run along the Pacific from the marina down to the old town, and the southern half is the half worth doing.

Walk it late in the day. September on this coast is hot and humid and the sun off the water is unforgiving until the afternoon.

The seafront

The promenade is punctuated by bronze monuments the whole way along, most of them to fishermen, deer and the city's own idea of itself. At Glorieta Sánchez Taboada, the divers throw themselves off a platform into the surf below when there is an audience and a decent swell, which is a Mazatlán institution of long standing and is done for tips.

Olas Altas, at the southern end, is the original resort beach and the oldest part of the seafront, with a curve of low buildings and a sea wall people sit on. The surf here is genuinely high, which is what the name says, and it is not the swimming beach. That is further north.

Centro Histórico

A block or two inland from Olas Altas the old town begins, and it is the part of Mazatlán most visitors miss. The nineteenth-century centre was largely derelict by the 1980s and has been restored building by building since, so the plazas are painted in ochres and blues and the streets are narrow and shaded.

The Teatro Ángela Peralta, built in 1874 and restored in the 1990s, sits on Plazuela Machado and is open for tours between performances. It is named for the soprano who died of yellow fever in the city in 1883, in the hotel across the square. Plazuela Machado itself is the centre of the old town, ringed with restaurants that put tables out under the trees in the evening.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, a few blocks north on Plaza República, was begun in 1856 and took six decades. The yellow-tiled twin towers are the thing you see from the Malecón.

Where to Stay and Eat

Where to stay: The Zona Dorada has the resort hotels and the swimming beaches. Centro Histórico has restored boutique hotels around Plazuela Machado and is where to stay if you would rather walk to dinner than to a pool. The two are around 7 km apart along the seafront.

Where to eat: Mazatlán is a shrimp port and that is the order. Aguachile, ceviche and grilled shrimp are everywhere, and the stalls near the Mercado Pino Suárez do it cheapest. Plazuela Machado is where to sit down properly in the evening.

Getting Home

Mazatlán International is about 20 km south of the city, roughly 30 minutes by taxi, with domestic flights across Mexico and seasonal connections to the United States and Canada. Agree the fare before getting in, or use an app.