"El Quelite"

The enchanting “El Quelite”


About 30 miles northeast of Mazatlan lay the picturesque colonial pueblito of El Quelite. The lovely streets of this village are invitingly strollable and litter-free, mostly cobbled and lined with subtropical trees, shrubs, and colorful flowers spilling onto the sidewalks. Most of the houses boast beautiful plants adorning their front yards.

Plaza Gazebo

Old house with cactus on tile roof

Side street house with large Australian ferns

Colorful street

Framed by the Pacific Ocean, the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains and the El Quelite River, the town has the qualities of a living museum of historic architecture and a lifestyle not so far removed from its Spanish colonial past. Lots of revolutionary history was created in this unique little town it’s really like a walk through history. Some of the houses display information plaques that tell you of the past history.

Front yard flowers

Awash in color, the houses are painted bright hues of yellow, green, red, the complete rainbow, and because I talk to the people (I’m not to shy and speak the language) and I was told by them that even before the town become a touristic attraction, the (very proud) people of the town spruced up their houses like you can see them now, really colorful and beautiful.
Colorful house

This town is so lovely that it inspired Francisco Terriquez (famous Mexican song writer) to write the famous Mexican folk song,” Que Bonito es El Quelite” (How Beautiful is El Quelite), which is well known throughout Latin America, and can be heard playing regularly throughout the town, a demonstration of how proud the 2,000 people who call this pueblito home are of their village. In this trip to El Quelite we had breakfast in a very charming restaurant, The Meson of the Laureanos, The owner of the place is Dr. Ozuna, he was born en El Quelite and come back after his schooling to spend the rest of his life with his family in this charming pueblito. Dr. Ozuna, in a conversation relate to me, that he feels like having an umbilical cord attachment to the township so he does everything possible for the town and the area in general to flourish and be recognizable as a “Pueblo Magico”. This distinct restaurant is housed in the birth place of the first combatant and leader of the Mexican Revolution from the Sinaloa area.

"Lola" the restaurant parrot

The place is very nicely designed, from the superb murals that adorn a number of the indoor walls depicting the struggles of the town people in their fight for the independence of Mexico, to the open court yard effect with a vast variety of tropical plants and its very own “Lola” the large talking Parrot. Restaurant court yard

Fighting cock

The tables are dressed up in colorful table cloths and the serving ware is of ceramic specially made for them in the town by local artists, the attendants at this restaurant are the friendliest especially Erick , a very nice young man. Everything they serve in this (and everything they serve is mouth-watering) special place, the ingredients are made or cultivated in the town or its vicinity.

El Quelite is known all over in Mexico as the biggest and greatest producers of “Gallos de Rina” fighting cocks. In Mexico is a very common and partially legal sport, special places are build to do the fighting and some of them are very sophisticated to the point to engaged very famous artists, singers, bands, etc to perform before and during the event, these places are called Palenques and in them lots of money changes hands.
El Quelite has the largest fighting cocks farm in Mexico, they have approximately 3000 animals at all times, to day, I had the pleasure of seeing this very place where splendid birds with a wonderful display of plumage colors, from brilliant red to snow white and everything in the middle, such a spectacular display of colors is extremely difficult for this writer to describe, so, I will insert some pictures so you can appreciate for yourselves these striking animals.

Side street house porch (note the beautiful fern)

One of the oldest houses in town

The majority of the town houses are very, very old, most of them build in the middle 18 century, their colorful red ceramic tile roof are amazing to see, mostly because some are so old that cactus plants are growing on top of them, and not one or two but many of them.

All of the town houses have been decorated in vibrant colors creating a enjoyable landscape, that, and the friendliness of the people, plus an old time bakery with a real mud oven that bakes delightful pastries and bread, make up this charming little place so alluring to me, I guess, I do not have to tell you, El Quelite, is one of my very dearly loved colonial towns in Mexico. But remember I’m kind of biased to it and…. It is only in my view…………