The state of Sinaloa is part of the North Pacific Region of Mexico, along with the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora. The state capital is Culiacán.
In addition to the state capital, the two most important cities are the tourist resort of Mazatlán, and the industrial-commercial city of Los Mochis, which serves the port of Topolobampo.
Sinaloa has an important and modern agricultural sector, based on highly productive irrigated land, such as the Fuerte River Irrigation District. The state is the western gateway to the Copper Canyon tourist area which extends into the neighboring state of Chihuahua.
- Sinaloa – All Articles or All Recipes
Here are select articles and recipes related to Sinaloa :
A family trip to Mazatlan—Sinaloa’s Pearl of the Pacific
La Perla del Pacífico-“The Pearl of the Pacific”. That’s what Mazatlán, Mexico, is called. Mazatlán is located in the state of Sinaloa, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, looking out across the water towards the tip of the Baja California peninsula. However, Mazatlán is not the only “Pearl of the Pacific.” At least 9 Latin American coastal […]
El Fuerte in Sinaloa, Mexico, was once the capital of Arizona
Prior to the founding of San Juan de Carapoa (later renamed El Fuerte de Montesclaros) by Francisco de Ibarra in 1564, relatively little is known of the early Indian peoples living in the Fuerte valley. They probably harvested wild plants, farmed small gardens, fished and hunted for their survival. They appear to have had few […]
Ferries in Mexico: the Pacific coast 2009 update
For many travelers, driving down the Baja Peninsula, taking a passenger/vehicle ferry across to Mexico’s mainland and then exploring the interior is a pleasant way of experiencing a wide variety of topography. This Page provides basic ferry information to assist travel in either direction. Reservations are recommended any time of year. Many prefer to make […]
The cuisine of Sinaloa: Cenadurias in Mazatlan serve caldo and conversation
During the day visitors come down the long entranceway that gives this restaurant its name, asking if it is open. Despite the sign at the entrance to El Tunel, showing the opening time 5:30 p.m. they come and ask, and they promise to return in the evening. Neighbors, too, come throughout the day. […]
Surviving a highway accident in Mexico
This was intended to be a straightforward article on driving to Nogales from Guadalajara and back, with information on tolls, distances, hotels, restaurants, etc. However, a young Chicano in a brand new truck changed all that on our return journey. Hence, the use of the word “accident” in the title of this piece. Our little […]
Copper Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico by Richard D. Fisher
Cogan’s Reviews I suspect this may turn out more like a travel article than a book review. In late March we took a tour through the length of the Copper Canyon and I find it difficult to know how to write about this book without bringing in various aspects of the Canyon trip itself. It […]
Mexican investigators may get bad rap
The reputation of Mexican criminal investigators is often somewhere below zero, except on this occasion. They don’t even hear about a lot of crimes. They seldom solve cases. Even when they think they have caught a crook, they rarely gain convictions. Judges shake their heads. Maybe the warrant was defective, wrong address, misspelled name. Or […]
Sweet Spot: A novel about Mazatlan Carnival, Dirty Politics, and Baseball
Adoro Books, 2009 Available from Amazon Books: Paperback The back cover of Sweet Spot tells us that author “Linton Robinson was a journalist in Mazatlán and other Mexico cities for years. And played a little ball in his time.” His protagonist and narrator — Raymundo Carrasco — likewise was a journalist in Mexico for years. And played a […]
Did You Know? The World’s first aerial bombing: the Battle of Topolobampo, Mexico
In the early years of the twentieth century, the nature of warfare changed dramatically. The deployment of aircraft unleashed a powerful new weapon for warring factions, previously forced to rely only on their land and sea forces. The earliest attempt to incorporate air power into fighting is thought to have been when an Italian pilot […]
Beach-bumming it in Mazatlan
Crooked under one arm, he lovingly hugs a water-beaten body board as if it were his best friend. A mass of dirty blonde dreadlocks crowns his scalp and from under sun-faded Hawaiian shorts, his bronzed muscular body depicts a carefree, beach bum lifestyle. He bids us a “G’day, mates,” and I have to remind myself […]
Mazatlan – not just another resort
Angela Peralta is a big name in Mazatlán (mah-saht-LAHN). And practically everyone, especially the locals, are happy to tell you “the real story” about this legendary, Mexican diva. Only every story you hear is different. So after a lot of research, here’s the authentic saga of Angela Peralta. So they say: When Angela Peralta, lovingly […]
Mexico’s Copper Canyon
For an unusual winter break, how about a Mexican train ride? The Reader’s Digest called Mexico’s famous Copper Canyon railroad trip, “the most dramatic train ride in the western hemisphere”. Even that description fails to do justice to the spectacular scenery and sightseeing along the line. The railroad was originally built to give southern Texas […]
Easy living in Mazatlan, the Pearl of the Pacific
Recently, a number of books, magazine articles, web sites and Internet forums have begun to include discussions among surprisingly large numbers of Americans and Canadians about the possibility of retiring in Mexico. When specific locations are discussed, a few areas seem to dominate the conversations, specifically those areas where sizable “enclaves” of North American retirees […]
Sonora – Mexico’s wild west
During the heyday of westerns, films showed cowboys riding through the Great Sonoran Desert from Arizona to what is now the State of Sonora in Mexico. The desert is still there and so are the cowboys. Sonora is Mexico’s wild west. In some ways, it reflects the Old Mexico of the by-gone days of yesteryear. […]
Old Mazatlan has its charms
At first glance, Mazatlán looks like a typical Mexican beach resort with boxy high-rise hotels and loud nightclubs crowding its shoreline, but there is more to this old port city than meets the eye. To discover the historic town behind the resort, you have to leave Mazatlán’s tourist zone, known as the Zona Dorada or “Golden Zone,” […]
Mazatlan: why snowbirds keep coming back
Taxis to and from the airport run around $34 for the hotel zone and around $30 for centro. Be sure to write down your hotel name and address, in case your driver is unfamiliar with the place (or your pronunciation of it). During the day, buses are an excellent means to see the city and […]
Mazatlan: Tequila, tans and working stiffs
Mazatlan has the virtues and vices of any tourist destination. But all the bad stuff – or good, depending on how you plan to spend the evening – is buffered by the decency and solidity of a working town. Unlike the hotel cities dreamed up by governments beholden to tourist dollars, Mazatlan, the second city […]
Did you know? Los Mochis and Topolobampo are both examples of “new towns”
The city of Los Mochis (“Mochees”, as locals call it) in the northern state of Sinaloa, is one of Mexico’s newest cities. It dates back only as far as 1872, when a U.S. engineer, Albert Kimsey Owen (1847-1916) arrived. Owen envisaged the city as a U.S. colony centered on sugar-cane production in this previously unsettled […]
Mexico’s Copper Canyon spans Chihuahua and Sinaloa: introduction and resources
The most common way to visit Copper Canyon is by train, which runs from Los Mochis to Chihuahua – one of the few remaining passenger trains in Mexico. While this rail trip offers spectacular views, passengers do not get an opportunity to go deep into the canyon. Therefore, a few years ago, I opted to […]
Did You Know? Sinaloa has the most beautiful women in Mexico
A chance remark recently by Mexico Connect publisher David McLaughlin has prompted me to examine the statistics on Mexican beauty. As a single, footloose and fancy-free, 20-something-year-old in Mexico City in the 1980s, I often heard that the most beautiful women in Mexico came from the state of Sinaloa. While I’m not confessing to having […]
TAGS – States, Regions, Cities
Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México (State of), México City, D.F., Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán, Zacatecas,
Mazatlan, a European city
I was recently invited to write the prologue for a book on Mazatlán history, with the condition that I relate Mazatlán to Europe. As a Mazatleco who has been living in Switzerland since 1982, I felt half-fit for the job. My suggestion was that the prologue should relate Mazatlán to both Europe and the United States. […]
Outside Mazatlán: Mexico’s real Sierra Madre
The Sierra Madre! The very name conjures up images of movie sets, mine shafts and majestic, rugged mountains, perhaps with cowboys riding through. Nowhere in Mexico is it quite so easy to experience and savor the reality behind these derived images as on the drive from Mazatlan to Durango along Highway 40. Just 24 kilometers […]
An Olmec Homerun (original fiction)
When Ramon handed the ball to me, I was pleased to find it was latex, not some synthetic material. It was probably very old, made from raw rubber. This one did not have a human skull inside. As I handed the guy my credit card for the rental car, an ominous voice inside me was […]
Mazatlan, Sinaloa (Mexico Notes 5)
Mexico Notes – part 5 Breathless foam Starfish-laden scaly crest of wave Balloons of stinging jellyfish The crush of birth called beach. Journal, Mayo 27, 2003 We headed southwest, towards the ocean, through gargantuan agri-business fields and tractors to rival my Iowa birthplace. As boring as this was, I was glad to be gone from […]
From Baja to the Mexican mainland by ferry
A Woman’s Perspective on Living in Mexico Last night I met Karen Greenbury in person. I first met her on the Internet after she quit her secretarial job in Alberta, Canada and was preparing to take a one-year sabbatical in Mexico. Karen is forty-four, single and travels with her cat and dog. She pulled her […]
Mazatlan: Tequila, tans and working stiffs
Mazatlan has the virtues and vices of any tourist destination. But all the bad stuff – or good, depending on how you plan to spend the evening – is buffered by the decency and solidity of a working town. Unlike the hotel cities dreamed up by governments beholden to tourist dollars, Mazatlan, the second city […]
Mazatlan Trip Report
Posted by Thom on January 04, 1997 My wife and I just returned from MONTH in Mexico, the better part of which we spent in Mazatlan. We have been to Mexicoís other Pacific coast resort areas several times, but for some reason, we had never been to Mazatlan. We booked our flight and the first […]
