Mazatlan Mexico Travel

Mexico travel briefs

It's about time -- Planning a trip to Mexico? When you're checking out the flight schedules, keep in mind that the saying, “spring forward, fall back” applies to times south of the border, too.
Just like in the U.S., Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends in Mexico on the first Sunday in November. So, at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, you'll turn your watch back to 1 a.m. There's only two differences: First, the Mexican state of Sonora just south of Arizona doesn't observe DST, and Mexico has three time zones versus four in the U.S.
Baja California (the upper half of the Baja Peninsula below San Diego) is the only Mexican state on Pacific time. The bottom half of the Peninsula (Baja California Sur) is on mountain time, as are the western states of Sinaloa, Nayarit and Chihuahua. All the rest except Sonora are on central time.

) St. Regis resort on the Riviera Nayarit.
Visitors to the new resorts sprouting up on the Pacific beaches of the Riviera Nayarit are reminded that their nearest airport (sometimes just a few minutes away) at Puerto Vallarta is in the adjacent state of Jalisco – which is on central time (versus mountain time on the riviera).
Down to business – Perhaps you're going to a business meeting or a convention down south. If so, you'll find newly opened convention centers in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Zacatecas and recently expanded centers in Colima, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tampico. Also, new centers are planned to open over the next year or two in Aquascalientes, Ciudad del Carmen, Queretaro and Torreon.
New in Mexico City – Visitors who need to be hospitalized or who run into emergencies in Mexico City are eligible for the free benefits of a recently debuted Medical Assistance Program (MAP). Accessed through a 24/7 multilingual call center, free MAP services – said to be the first of their kind in the world – range from ambulance rides to hospital stays and even coverage of your hotel bills while you're recovering from illnesses or surgery. Another part of the program offers free legal services to visitors who've been robbed or lose their passports or other important documents. More information on MAP: http://watchboom.com/archives/www.mexicocity.gob.mx.
Good deals – Between deeply discounted airfares and all kinds of money-saving promotions at hotels, vacationers heading to Mexico this fall will enjoy some of the best travel bargains in years. Says Mexico travel analyst Jaime Capuli, “On top of a global economic meltdown, our country's tourism industry has been hit by everything from the H1N1 swine flu to battles between druglords and even a couple of earthquakes...and now corporate executives are scrambling to fill all those empty airline seats and hotel beds. For tourists, Mexico is truly a buyers' market.”

Hoteliers hope to see more vacationers on Mexico's beaches.

Ixtapa Jewelry manager Nacho Salazar says silver prices have been cut to the bone.

At the swanky Ritz-Carlton in Cancun, for example, guests can book four consecutive nights for the price of three nights. (Standard rates start at $269 a night for a double room.) The deal is good through Dec. 15. Capuli notes, “This fall, it'll be hard to find a hotel that hasn't slashed its prices.”
He said Mexican merchants are crossing their fingers that conditions will be substantially improved in 2010 by the time two top milestones in the country's history roll around. First will be the bicentennial celebration of the event that launched Mexico's war of independence from Spain, to be followed by the 100th anniversary of the onset of the Mexican revolution, both to be marked by country-wide festivities next fall.
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Story and photos by Bob Schulman

Cosala Turns on Its Magic About 99 Milles From Mazatlan Mexico

Cosala turns on its magic

Until a few years ago, the little storybook town of Cosala in the mountains of western Mexico could have been the poster child for the expression, “off the beaten track.” The few tourists who came by – typically on their way to go fishing in nearby lakes – likely never knew they were driving through what was once one of the richest cities in the country.

Cosala was loaded with the shiny stuff.

Silver miners hit paydirt here in 1562, and the town was soon brimming with the mansions of wealthy mineowners, elaborate churches, porticoed walkways and all the other splendors of colonial Spain. Cosala's mines produced so much silver that the city became the capital of Mexico's immense State of the West (a combination of the country's present-day states of Sinaloa and Sonora).
The mines eventually petered out, but Cosala (pronounced co-sah-LAH) hit another kind of paydirt in 2005 – thanks in large part to its 2,000 historic sites, many now housing everything from bars to barbershops.
What finally put Cosala on the tourism map was a program launched by the Mexican government to promote “the charming architecture, exquisite gastronomy and traditional festivities” of some three dozen small cities across the country. They're called “Pueblos Magicos,” or magic cities, and Cosala was a shoe-in for membership in that prestigious club.
The city has been spruced up quite a bit since it made the list in 2005. For example, the formerly drab colored shops and homes lining its narrow lanes have been restored to their original kaleidoscope of pastel browns, blues, greens, yellows and reds. Its church and other buildings have been facelifted, and its streets look like they could have been bricked in only yesterday. Actually, some were.
Sights like these were enjoyed by some 34,000 visitors last year, roughly double the count before the city was tapped by Mexico's magic wand. And the count is still climbing by leaps and bounds.
A good number of Cosala's guests are Americans taking a break from vacations down the coast in the big-time resort at Mazatlan. They come to the smaller city to sample its charm for a day or two, having heard about Cosala back home or from tour operators in Mazatlan.

Fiestas feature local youngsters.

Mayor Juan Martinez wants you to know that visitors are welcome to rub elbows with the local folks at the city's traditional free fiestas. They're staged on Friday and Saturday nights (and also on other nights, seemingly at the drop of a sombrero). Among highlights of the entertainment, singers belt out everyone's favorite Mexican songs and dancers from tots to teens act out old-time Sinaloan folk tales.

Showgirl struts her stuff.

Pleasantly, there are a number of things you won't see here. Like tacky souvenir stands, fake watch stalls and kids selling burro rides. Also, you won't spot any Burger Kings or Pizza Huts or any other American fast-food imports. Suppose you get a Big Mac attack? Not to worry, there's a place on the town square named “Exquisite Hamburgers and Hot Dogs.”
Some visitors stick around for a few extra days to enjoy activities in the surrounding areas. About five miles away, for instance, the Vado Hondo nature preserve lets wannabe-Tarzans soar over the jungle canopy on seven ziplines and rope-sided walkways, ending with a rappel down a 30-foot-high tree. Other nearby attractions include bathing in hot springs, exploring caverns, birdwatching and buying right-off-the-loom goods in handicraft villages.
Anyone for fishing? You can toss your lines out on several lakes around these parts known for their trophy-class Black Bass. At one, Lake Comedero, anglers average 40 to 60 daily catch-and-releases per boat, typically weighing 8 to 12 pounds and some up to 15 pounds. Guests stay in a luxury lakeside lodge (check out http://www.mexicobassadventures.com/).

Ay, yay, yay, yay....

Visitors to Cosala have their pick of a dozen or so tourist-class restaurants, all within walking distance of their hotels (as is just about everything else in town). Top places to dine include El Pueblito, the Merendero and El Sazon de Dona Tichi. Among regional specialties are machaca dishes, chorizo, tamales, empanadas and white cheeses, typically served with blue tortillas.

Getting there: Some 10 major airlines offer service to Mazatlan from cities across the U.S. Day trips and overnight tours of Cosala can be booked by your travel agent or at hotels in Mazatlan.
Staying there: Cosala has nine hotels with a total of some 220 rooms. A little over 50 of these are in the pleasant colonial-style Hacienda Quinta Minera (http://www.hotel-quintaminera.com/) where rates start at about $60 a night.
More info: Cosala's two best websites are http://www.vivesineloa.com/ and http://www.cosala.gob.mx/. Right now they're both Spanish-only, but officials say English versions of the sites will be available soon. Details on the magic city program can be found on the Mexico Tourism Board's site at http://www.visitmexico.com/ (click the Travel Experiences button at top, then Discover More and then Magical Villages). For Mazatlan, check out the hotel association's site
http://www.tibesarealty.com.mx/
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Story and photos by Bob Schulman

Meet Me In Mazatlan Mexico

Meet me in Mazatlan

At last, you can hold a big convention in Mazatlan. The famous Mexican resort finally has a heavyweight meetings and conventions center, a $56 million facility that's been on the drawing board “for as long as anyone around these parts can remember,” officials say.
Called the Mazatlan International Center (MIC), the 304,000-square-foot complex edges a sprawling new marina and a golf course a short ride inland from the city's beachfront hotels. The facility, opened last month, is expected to pump the equivalent of nearly a quarter-billion U.S. dollars into the local economy over the next 10 years.
MIC Director General Einar Brodden said the center can handle as many as 4,500 delegates at a time, a figure eventually to be increased to 5,000. He called the center, which was financed by a teachers' union, “a dream come true.”
The MIC's debut is good news for non-convention visitors, too, because it means they'll soon be enjoying a much wider choice of restaurants, night clubs, shops and hotels built to accommodate the expected tidal wave of convention guests.

The five-star Crowne Plaza is among new hotels in town. Photo courtesy of Crowne Plaza.

Vacationers are already bedding down in two new properties opened earlier this year, the luxurious 107-room Crowne Plaza Resort (http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/) and the castle-like Hotel Riu Emerald Bay (http://www.riu.com/) with 716 rooms.
Further increasing the city's current inventory of 10,000 rooms will be a second Riu property to be built on a nearby location, and hoteliers are expected to announce at least two more major developments in 2010.
Delegates to conventions in the MIC will be greeted by a huge, 82-foot-high mural covering one side of the main building. Brodden said the principal characters in the mural – a bearded man surrounded by fishes, a mermaid and a deer – depict a visit to the area by conquistador Hernan Cortes. “Cortes was supposed to have seen mermaids while he was here,” Brodden explained, “and also the big gamefish for which Mazatlan is still world-famous...the deer comes from the meaning of our city's name, “place of the deer.”
The mural is made of some half-million small ceramic squares, all put in place by hand over the last 13 months.
Among the facility's operating efficiencies, water condensed from the MIT's air conditioning system is recycled for use in outside irrigation systems. What's more, energy consumption is cut to miserly levels by a double-glass facade with special thermal and acoustic properties and by highly efficient insulation panels in the building's walls.
Glass portions of the building are shatterproof and designed to withstand hurricane winds of up to 160 mph.
By Bob Schulman

Tourism Companies From Mexico, Spain and the United States Plan To Invest $11 Billion Dollars

Hotel chains seek Baja California to invest

21/12/2010 20:22
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Tourism companies from Mexico, Spain and the United States plan to invest $11 billion dollars in 8 private developments to be built in La Paz, Baja California during 2011.

Reports of the Secretariat of Tourism indicate that this is a project of hotels and apartments that will strengthen the tourism real estate sector investment in the region for the next year.

With these developments, the government agency expects that construction of tourism real estate will recover, since in the first half of 2010, investment in this line fell by 43% over the same period of 2009.

The amount of investment made in the first six months of this year was of $670 million dollars, while a year before it reached $1,186.48 billion.

In 5 of the 8 entities listed by SECTUR as beach resorts, private investment also recorded falls of up to 75% over the same period in 2009.

In addition, SECTUR announced that the Spanish hotel chain RIU confirmed the construction of 12 hotels in various parts of Mexico, but without investment amounts.

The expansion of the Spanish firm in Mexico will take 12 to 18 months, according to the official agency. Interest of the firm in having presence in cities like Guadalajara, Sonora and Mazatlan is already known.

www.tibesarealty.com.mx
www.tibesarealty.com.mx/wordpress/

Hotel chains seek Baja California to invest

21/12/2010 20:22 Tourism companies from Mexico, Spain and the United States plan to invest $11 billion dollars in 8 private developments to be built in La Paz, Baja California during 2011. Reports of the Secretariat of Tourism indicate that this is a project of hotels and apartments that will strengthen the tourism real estate sector investment in the region for the next year. With these developments, the government agency expects that construction of tourism real estate will recover, since in the first half of 2010, investment in this line fell by 43% over the same period of 2009. The amount of investment made in the first six months of this year was of $670 million dollars, while a year before it reached $1,186.48 billion. In 5 of the 8 entities listed by SECTUR as beach resorts, private investment also recorded falls of up to 75% over the same period in 2009. In addition, SECTUR announced that the Spanish hotel chain RIU confirmed the construction of 12 hotels in various parts of Mexico, but without investment amounts. The expansion of the Spanish firm in Mexico will take 12 to 18 months, according to the official agency. Interest of the firm in having presence in cities like Guadalajara, Sonora and Mazatlan is already known.