Playa Olas Altas

Playa Olas Altas is the beach of Mazatlán's old town, a small bay on the open Pacific just west of the historic centre, between Cerro del Vigía to the south and the rocky point of the Glorieta Sánchez Taboada and Cerro de la Nevería to the north. The beach and the seafront road above it, the Paseo Olas Altas, are about 550 m long. The name means "high waves", for the big swells that roll into the bay, and Olas Altas is one of only two streets in Mazatlán, with Calle Carnaval, that still carry their original names.

The promenade has deep roots. Work on a sea wall began here in 1830 to stop the floods that had buried Plazuela Machado in sand, and the road was later built on top of it. In March 1864 Cerro de la Nevería, at the north end, was a key point in the city's defence when French troops tried to land, and in August 1914 revolutionary forces took Mazatlán along this seafront, the last armed clash in the city during the Revolution. The poet Amado Nervo lived in a wooden house on Olas Altas in 1901.

Olas Altas is also where Mazatlán's beach tourism started. The Hotel Belmar, built in 1922 by the English mining magnate Louis Bradbury, was known as the hotel of the stars from the 1930s to the 1970s and still takes guests, and the 14-storey Hotel Freeman, built in 1949 by German architect Guillermo Freeman, was for years the tallest building in northern Mexico. Today the beach draws surfers for its waves and locals for the sunset, with views of Isla del Cardón, Isla de Lobos and El Faro. Along the promenade stand El Venadito, the Pedro Infante statue at the south end, the coats of arms of Sinaloa and Mazatlán, and a statue of composer Fernando Valadés facing the sea. The museums of art and archaeology are a block inland, and the promenade is one of the main stages of the Carnaval.