Mazatlan's Famous Plaza Machado

Mazatlan’s Plaza Machado
(in my view)

One of the more fascinating parts of the resort city of Mazatlan is the historical center, in which the enchanting Plaza Machado is a significant part of it. Set between the Teatro Angela Peralta and the Casa de los Portales, the square is charming and full of life and my favorite place to spend a relaxing evening having a real excellent dinner and enjoying the delightful music that abounds all around coming from the jazz-rock bands to typical Mexican mariachi music to all kind of Latin melodic song expressions.

The atmosphere is vivacious and effervescent, and makes people watching, seventh heaven, it seems to be the gathering place for the population of the district, is actually pleasant to observe, from the families strolling around the plaza to the vendors with all the wares for sale, to the attractive senoritas looking for that special handsome gentleman and vice versa, for sure is the place to be, and take pleasure in.
There are lots of eateries surrounding the perimeter of the plaza. They all serve great food from great tacos at El Tunel to wonderful Hamburgers at the Beach-Burger and dinner and conversation at Pedro y Lola. Las Brasas restaurant has a large variety of dishes to enjoy.

Most of the restaurants retain a muic band that performs from about 9 o’clock in the evening to about 12 o’clock, some of them are decent but the majority is very, very good.


My favorite is a Jazz-Rock band that performs at the Beach-Burger restaurant, plays the 70s and 80s music with mucho passion. The electric guitar player is a remainder of the great Jimmy Hendricks and the drummer sounds like the memorable Jimmy Kruppa, they are exceptionally good at it, and they make listening to them a real pleasure. The other band that is to me fabulous, is a Cuban ensemble, they play all the Latin favorites and exceptionally good if I said so, and there is a fabulous guitar player (Rafael Rodriguez) who plays every Sunday night at the corner of Las Brasas restaurant and, of course, there are an abundance of solo guitar players that roam around the plaza offering their musical renditions for a propina (tip). Some of them are very artistic and some of them, well… let’s say, not so gifted
This delightful Plaza is one of Mazatlan’s hidden treasures, is tucked away in the heart of downtown historical center. The Plaza Machado (or the Plazuela like the Mazaltecos call it) is home to the Teatro Angela Peralta. This Theater was restored in the 1990’s to it’s 19th Century splendor where it houses a concert hall, galleries, an art school and a highly regarded conservatory of music and dance. Artists such as classical musician Enrique Patron de Rueda and the famous Machado Orchestra perform on a regular basis. The Sinaloa Symphony, local productions and a diverse program with visiting artists keep the theater full of activity all year long.
We spend a lot of our time in these pleasurable surroundings of the Mazatlan old district and in particular in the Plaza Machado, and to us, it is like taking an leisurely walk back in time, away from the hassle and bustles of the big cities and reminisce the good old days…………..