La Noria

La Noria, listed on some maps as La Noria de San Antonio, is a village in the rural part of the municipality of Mazatlán, about 35 km from the port, where the coastal plain meets the first slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental. It is older than Mazatlán itself, with more than 400 years of history, and the state government has named it a Pueblo Señorial for its historic and architectural value. The village keeps cobbled streets, old houses and a central plaza in front of the Parroquia de San Antonio de Padua, whose saint gives the village its full name and its main feast, celebrated with music and dancing.

La Noria is above all a leather town, the center of Sinaloa's saddle and leather craft. In family workshops, where most artisans learned the trade from their parents and grandparents, they cut and stitch saddles, harnesses, belts, wallets, bags and the huaraches the village is best known for, each pair made by hand. Carpenters here also turn out rustic wooden furniture. Visitors can walk into the workshops to watch and buy, and local people rent out horses for rides around the village at modest prices.

The village has a musical connection too: a mural honors the composer Consuelo Velázquez, author of "Bésame mucho", and her husband, the record producer Mariano Rivera Conde, who was from La Noria, and a Festival Bésame Mucho is held in her honor every February 15. On weekends, and above all on Sundays, a craft and food market fills the plaza with tamales, gorditas de harina, chorizo, queso fresco, cajeta and raspados. Restaurants such as El Aureliano, in an old house about two centuries old, and El Sazón de la Abuela Tina serve machaca with eggs, chilorio, chorreadas and panquequis. Nearby are the Picacho de La Noria dam, with a waterfall for cooling off, and the Los Osuna agave distillery, about 3 km south.