Playa Norte

Playa Norte, North Beach, is the city beach of old Mazatlán, running along the north-west edge of the downtown commercial district beside the malecón. It is the beach of the port's small-scale fishermen: their pangas rest on the sand at its southern end, and fish stalls sell the catch, mojarra, corvina and fillets, right where the boats come in. The malecón above it, here part of Avenida del Mar, is busy with runners and walkers, and three monuments stand along this stretch: the Monument to the Fishermen, a monument to the pulmonías, Mazatlán's open-sided taxis, and one to the Pacífico brewery.

The Monumento al Pescador is the best known. Its original name was La Alegoría Marina; the Mazatlán sculptor Rodolfo Becerra Gómez made it from clay brought from the Río Humaya in Culiacán, and it was unveiled on November 20, 1958, which makes it the oldest monument on the malecón. It stands where Avenida del Mar meets Gutiérrez Nájera, chosen in the 1950s to mark the line between the old city and the new one growing north. It shows a fisherman about to throw his net, a reclining woman, a lighthouse for the boats at sea, a shell holding the fountain's water, and a sailfish, a shark and a dolphin; because both figures are nude, locals call it Los Monos Bichis.

The fishing calendar sets the mood. Each May the Playa Norte fishermen go out for pajarito, a fish that Mazatlán families wait for all year: in the afternoons people line up at the fishing area with buckets and coolers, and the catch is cleaned and sold as soon as it lands, at around 80 to 110 pesos a kilo in 2025 and as low as 30 when the catch is good. The rest of the year the beach is for a swim, a walk on the malecón and the sunset over the Pacific.