Sweet Spot: A novel about Mazatlan Carnival, Dirty Politics, and Baseball
The story is set during seven spectacular days of Carnival in Mazatlán, the second largest Carnival in the world. A lot happens during those seven days, including scandal, murder, amoral politics, drug lords searching for our protagonist "Mundo," and bed time with a desirable young revolutionary, the amoral Mijares.
Sweet Spot is incredible. Linton Robinson should be catapulted to the top of the pile of contemporary authors. Why didn't this novel win the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize? read more
Mazatlan: why snowbirds keep coming back
The closest of Mexico's Pacific beach resorts to the U.S. West Coast, Mazatlan is a favorite winter destination for snowbirds who love its casual, sometimes gritty atmosphere, low prices, fresh seafood and miles of golden beaches. Many Canadians and West Coasters return year after year, settling in for a couple of weeks or half a year.
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El Fuerte in Sinaloa, Mexico, was once the capital of Arizona
Prior to the founding of San Juan de Carapoa (later renamed El Fuerte de Montesclaros) by Francisco de Ibarra in 1564, relatively little is known of the early Indian peoples living in the Fuerte valley...
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Mazatlan: Tequila, tans and working stiffs
There are different views of Mexico, as diverse as the numbers of observers.
read moreDid you know? Los Mochis and Topolobampo are both examples of "new towns".
The city of Los Mochis ("Mochees", as locals call it) in the northern state of Sinaloa, is one of Mexico's newest cities. It dates back only as far as 1872, when a U.S. engineer, Albert Kimsey Owen (18...
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Did You Know? The World's first aerial bombing: the Battle of Topolobampo, Mexico
In the early years of the twentieth century, the nature of warfare changed dramatically. The deployment of aircraft unleashed a powerful new weapon for warring factions, previously forced to rely only ...
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Did you know? Mexico was a very different place fifty years ago
G. M. Bashford's Tourist Guide to Mexico was first published exactly fifty years ago in 1954. It was one of a spate of motoring book guides written after World War II as Americans began to hit the open...
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An Olmec Homerun
When Ramon handed the ball to me, I was pleased to find it was latex, not some synthetic material. It was probably very old, made from raw rubber. This one did not have a human skull inside.
As I hand...
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Did you know? Sinaloa has the most beautiful women in Mexico.
A chance remark recently by Mexico Connect publisher David McLaughlin has prompted me to examine the statistics on Mexican beauty.
As a single footloose and fancy-free 20-something-year-old in Mexico ...
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Mazatlan - not just another resort
Angela Peralta is a big name in Mazatlán (mah-saht-LAHN). And practically everyone, especially the locals, are happy to tell you "the real story" about this legendary, Mexican diva. Only every story y...
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Old Mazatlan has its charms
At first glance, Mazatlán looks like a typical Mexican beach resort with boxy high-rise hotels and loud nightclubs crowding its shoreline, but there is more to this old port city than meets the eye. T...
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Copper Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico by Richard D. Fisher
I suspect this may turn out more like a travel article than a book review. In late March we took a tour through the length of the Copper Canyon and I find it difficult to know how to write about this book without bringing in various aspects of the Canyon trip itself.
It really is a spectacular journey and Richard Fisher's account does total justice to the subject matter. This is a large format quality paperback and it contains hundreds of excellent photos of the people and places one encounters along the way. I can't imagine a better souvenir to take away.
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Mazatlan
Breathless foam
Starfish-laden scaly crest of wave
Balloons of stinging jellyfish
The crush of birth called beach.
Journal, Mayo 27, 2003
...
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Beach-bumming it in Mazatlan
Crooked under one arm, he lovingly hugs a water-beaten body board as if it were his best friend. A mass of dirty blonde dreadlocks crowns his scalp and from under sun-faded Hawaiian shorts, his bronzed...
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Chihuahua's Copper Canyon: the treasure of the Sierra Madres
IF YOU GO . . .
TRANSPORTATION
ARRANGEMENTS AND ACCOMMODATIONS
REFERENCES
Alongside the railroad trac...
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Mazatlan, a European city
I was recently invited to write the prologue for a book on Mazatlán history, with the condition that I relate Mazatlán to Europe. As a Mazatleco who has been living in Switzerland since 1982, ...
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The cuisine of Sinaloa: Cenadurias in Mazatlan serve caldo and conversation
During the day visitors come down the long entranceway that gives this restaurant its name, asking if it is open. Despite the sign at the entrance to El Tunel, showing the opening time 5:30 p.m. ...
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