Copala

Copala is a small village in the municipality of Concordia, in the green foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental about 610 meters above sea level, just off Federal Highway 40, the old road from Mazatlán to Durango. It is about 75 km and an hour or so by car from Mazatlán, and about half an hour beyond the town of Concordia. Sinaloa counts it among its Pueblos Señoriales, and it is one of the classic day trips from the port: a few hundred people, whitewashed adobe houses with tile roofs and colored trim, and steep cobbled lanes winding down from the church.

Its story is one of silver. Indigenous peoples held the area until 1564, when Francisco de Ibarra crossed the Sierra Madre from Durango; in 1565 prospectors found silver veins here, and the town grew up to serve the mines. Its name recalls a legendary city of gold that Ibarra searched for without success in the north. A Tepehuan uprising destroyed Copala in 1616, and it was rebuilt the following year. The mines made it one of the richest towns in Sinaloa in the 1800s, but falling output and falling prices at the start of the 20th century emptied it, which is why so much of the old village survives unchanged.

The Iglesia de San José, from which the village took its old name, San José de Copala, stands high on a rise at the center, facing the plaza; one guide dates it to 1748, and its stone bell tower and carved facade are the first thing you see. Walks take in the plaza, the old jail and the murals painted along the lanes. Copala's other claim to fame is its banana pie, pay de plátano: Angelita Dorantes, mother of Daniel Harrison, owner of the restaurant Daniel's, created it around 1960 to use up the abundant local bananas, with a cookie crust, sliced banana, cream and toasted coconut on top. The original recipe is still a secret, the pie is now also served at the restaurant Alejandro, and the village holds a Feria del Pay de Plátano, usually in the last months of the year.