After three flights zigzagging our way across North America, we smoothly passed through Mexican immigration, waltzed by the baggage claim without retrieving any luggage and promptly stood in the taxi line just to the right of the arrival hall in the small Mazatlan airport. With about ten people in front of us and an ever-growing line behind us, it became clear that the Mazatlan airport, especially compared to the the Mexico City and Atlanta airports we had spent time in earlier that day, was not used to processing so many passengers. This resort town in the Mexican state of Sinaloa sees an increase in visitors every year for Semana Santa (Easter Week), but nothing could have prepared them for the flock of thrill seekers, astronomy enthusiasts and umbraphiles that ascended on this beautiful vacation spot along the Pacific shoreline.
This was to be the first time I would experience a full eclipse, having only witnessed a couple partial ones, from the side of the road in rural Michigan and from my own backyard in Florida. Sponging up the anticipation and excitement in the air, I could not possibly grasp at the time, the epic life-changing event that I was about to take part in. But, that was still a few days away.
The name Mazatlán comes from the Indigenous Nahuatl language meaning “Land of Deer”. Sadly, there are no longer deer roaming the area, not even on Isla de Venados (Deer Island). The deer have been replaced with neighborhood street cats and dogs, some of whom we got to know over the course of the week.
Day One: Exploring the Town
Due to the time change, both Chrissy and I naturally awoke at an early hour on our first day. I, for one, was extremely excited to get out and see Mazatlan in the light of day. We decided on exploring the southern end of the famous Malecón, known for its beautiful scenery, sculptures and nightlife. Eager to see the Pacific Ocean, we set off on the short ten minute walk to the seaside through beautifully painted building facades, brightly colored flowers in bloom and streets with the highest cubs we’d ever seen. We concluded that the area must get flooded quite often to warrant curbs that came up to our knees in some places. This thought became quite disturbing as we stepped over grate after grate omitting the unmistakeable stench of raw sewage. We quickly learned that the choice was ours: walk up and down steep curbs and over slanted sidewalks or walk across impossible to avoid grates that extended the entire width of the street. Our choice changed throughout the week depending on how sore our knees were.
I really enjoyed slowly meandering through the early morning windy streets of Mazatlan’s Centro district as we made our way to the ocean. Listening to the birds, walking past mango trees and sleeping cats, I felt like I was witnessing the town slowly come to life on a Saturday morning. The cool morning sea breeze hit my face even before we arrived to the Malecón. I saw local joggers stretching and bicyclists preparing for a trip along the well-paved wide sidewalk. Restaurants and storefronts hadn’t opened yet and there were hardly any cars driving past the scenic view.
I sat on the short stone wall overlooking the rocky beach below, against the rich blue water that perfectly matched the sky. What a beautiful site! It occurred to me that we had an important mission to be completed during the first two days of our stay: scope out the best spot to view the eclipse. I wondered if this would be a good place, but reminded myself that I hadn’t yet seen other options.
After walking around the seaside space for awhile, we slowly made our way to breakfast at MAWE, something that would later be referred to as “our morning routine”. I tried the chilaquiles with both red and green sauce and Chrissy got avocado toast with cranberry bread, hummus, spinach, avocado and finely-chopped red onion with olive oil drizzle with a side of spicy peanut sauce for drizzling or dipping. Out of the two breakfasts, we enjoyed the combination of textures and flavors of Chrissy’s meal the best. We both also LOVED the Pink smoothie, which included strawberries, cranberries and nuts. I’m pretty sure I tasted dates too! We also met fellow vegan travelers (Colby and Michael) and their friend Mary from Sacramento, California, that we ended up befriending and exploring the town together the rest of their stay. What a great way to start our trip!
After a short respite at the AirBnb, we headed up to the Catedral Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción (Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception) and aimed to explore the surrounding plazas and markets to get a feel for the area. The basilica, also called the Mazatlán Cathedral, is a rather recently constructed building, completed in 1899 and consecrated in 1941. The basilica was full of life with a mix of local parishioners as well as visiting Catholics, tourists and architecture enthusiasts. Like most Catholic churches I have visited (from my perspective as a woman raised as a Quaker), I found Mazatlán’s cathedral to be rather ornate with beautiful intricate designs that extended to the stained glass windows, the painted ceiling and the many sculptures that lined the hall.
Despite all the activity inside, I found the basilica to be quite calming, especially compared to the frenzied excitement of the energy just outside, where both the amount of people and the level of excitement and anticipation grew by the minute. I spent a little time walking around the small square across the street which turned out to be a great place to people watch. Some were enjoying the eclipse exhibit the local town had set out that included a photo installation and lots of information about eclipses in general. Other people were there to secure their free eclipse glasses from city hall and some took the time to get a selfie with the Eclipse 2024 sign. Still others enjoyed watching and feeding the birds.
Chrissy and I walked around Centro past lots of restaurants, souvenir shops, clothing stores, jewelry stores and street vendors selling fruits, vegetables and all sorts of take away snacks like roasted peanuts. We made our way up to Ley Supermarket, but discovered a better place to buy fruit just across the street. The size of a small bedroom, this fruit stand offered better choices than the big supermarket chain and we left with a papaya, some bananas, a jicama and several mangos. On our way back, we also stopped at a fruit vendor selling fruit with chili, lime and salt. So we asked for cucumber, jicama and mango and made the mistake of not asking for the price ahead of time. I was shocked to hear her charge us a whopping 200 pesos (about $12!) For reference, when I’m standing next to my best friend Erick (a Mexican and a resident of Cancun), the price is 20 pesos. I don’t mind paying more, but damn, that is quite the mark-up! It was then that we also remembered to check the port schedule; when ships are in port, the prices go up astronomically, as Chrissy later confirmed in the souvenir markets. We decided then and there to shop for any souvenirs after the ships had left… and it made all the difference. Overpriced as it was, I must admit that the chili-lime fruit was delicious and we enjoyed it a short time later in the little courtyard behind our AirBnb.
Walking back home became increasingly more challenging as the sheer number of people increased by the second it seemed. The traffic had picked up considerably and the narrow one-way streets were filled with big busses, cars and palomas (Mazatlán taxis). Each vehicle was carrying domestic and foreign tourists all trying to check into their accommodations and ready themselves for “the big day”. With traffic at a standstill, it was much faster to walk, so we did.
We enjoyed a short siesta before walking back to the Malecón to watch the sunset at the very same location we had begun our day. We later walked over to La Ruta Vegana, the other vegan restaurant in town. As we walked in, we were pleasantly surprised to see our new Sacramento friends, who invited us to dine with them. Little did we know then that this was the first of many meals we would share together.
We tried the nachos as a hefty appetizer and I really liked that the cheeze they used was made out of potatoes. I loved how creative this was and thought about trying to reproduce it at home. I also enjoyed the quesadilla de asada and tried Chrissy’s special super burger with fries. We drank traditional horchata as we go to know our new friends.
It was only a 6-minute walk back to our perfectly-positioned AirBnb. We both commented on how great of a first day it was, each highlighting various parts of the day to emphasize our point. I fell asleep excited for the next day.
Day Two: The Threat of a Cloudy Eclipse Day
Our morning began at MAWE for breakfast. Chrissy got what became known as “her usual” – a pink smoothie and avocado toast. I decided on the avocado toast with sun-dried tomatoes, whose flavor intensified by drizzling the homemade spicy peanut sauce they brought to the table. As I enjoyed my mono smoothie (made with banana, peanut butter and dates), the word “opera” caught my attention. There was a small advertisement on the outside wall of the restaurant for a concert the following evening where a Mexican bass/baritone would be performing arias from various operas. I, of course, enquired and as it turned out, the event was sold out, but knowing that the concert was to be performed outside on the balcony of the Roosevelt (the same building as MAWE is located), I planned to swing by after the sunset to listen.
After another delicious breakfast, we headed over to the famous Angela Paralta Theater to try to secure tickets for the Thursday night performance of Mazatlán-based tenor, Carlos Osuna, singing art songs from Spain. It was then that we noticed a dramatic increase in the number of people in the Centro area. Several ships had docked and large groups of people flooded the streets; we stepped around a cruise-organized city tour just to get to the ticket office, which we discovered had shorter hours on Sundays.
Concerns of the potential full cloud cover the next day, eclipse day, began to creep into our purview and so we tried to brace ourselves for the very real possibility of experiencing our first full eclipse on a non-sunny day. Chrissy had planned this trip a year in advance reveling in the fact that a full eclipse was to coincide with her birthday. She chose Mazatlán because it was considered the number one place to view the astronomical event, partly due to the fact that it very rarely rains during that time of year. Even a year prior, she had read that there was only an 8% chance of rain on April 8th. Wanting Chrissy’s birthday wish to come true, I remained optimistic. I even googled “ways to enjoy an eclipse on a cloudy day” just to offer some positivity.
That evening, Chrissy and I walked to the Malecón again to see the sunset before heading to dinner and heading back to the Roosevelt to listen to the opera concert. I found a nice spot in one of the comfortable chairs on the lawn with a great view of the balcony. Sadly, due to the street noise, it was rather challenging to hear the music from below.
We met up with our Sacramento friends and chatted quite awhile as we waited for a table at MAWE, which had a long line of people wanting to dine in or take away. Knowing the size of MAWE’s small kitchen, I honestly don’t know how they managed the crowd. It seemed that they brought in every member of the family and perhaps a neighbor or two to help out. I tried their homemade lemon kombucha and I LOVED it! So much in fact, that I ordered it at almost every subsequent meal there. To eat, I ordered their pasta frio with chickpeas and tomatoes and tried Chrissy’s enchiladas. All was characteristically delicious!
We ate, drank and shared stories from our lives with our new friends and before we knew it, it was 10pm and the restaurant closed. So, we walked the two minutes home excited for the next day.
Day Three: Eclipse Day and Chrissy’s Birthday
Our morning began with waitress Denisse informing us about what parts of MAWE’s menu was still available after the massive crowd the previous day. I started the day with a cheeze sandwich, which included lettuce, tomato, onion and avocado and I was happy that my new favorite drink, MAWE’s lemon kombucha, was still in supply.
While Chrissy paid for our meal, I put on my eclipse glasses and looked up at the sky. “It’s starting!”, I told her excitedly. With great anticipation, we headed to “our sunset spot” at the Malecòn, grateful that the sky contained more blue than white. The Malecón that we had been going to every day felt different on eclipse day. The local government had turned it into a pedestrian-only zone, having closed the main road to all vehicular traffic. There were also considerably more people there and everyone was excited. Anticipation filled the air as people discussed, selected and settled into the perfect eclipse-viewing spot.
Instead of sitting on the wall, like we did every evening to watch the sunset, we decided to walk down the steps to the beach. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as I thought it might be. And everyone was friendly with each other, smiling and offering to take pictures of each other. All around me, I heard “Where are you from?” in Spanish as people got to know the folks with whom they would be sharing this otherworldly experience. I spoke with several people who had flown in from Mexico City. Each person wished Chrissy a happy birthday and seemed genuinely happy for her that she lucked out with the timing of the eclipse.
Other eclipse enthusiasts enjoyed taking selfies with Chrissy’s sand masterpiece. Although later we noticed that the date had changed to display the day first as is customary in most of the world outside the United States.
We had heard that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, colloquially known as AMLO, had flown into town the night before and was to experience the eclipse and deliver a speech somewhere on the Malecón that day. We wondered if we might happen to see him by accident as we couldn’t determine his exact location from online sources. As it turned out, we didn’t see him, but I think we were not far away.
More people trickled into the area and we looked up at one point and the entire staff from MAWE was sitting on the wall above us. They waved and cheered when they saw us and they joined us on the beach below. We deemed our part of the beach “the vegan section”.
When the moon covered the sun by about two thirds, we all started to notice some affects that were impossible to ignore, namely that it was starting to get dark. I also noticed birds behaving the way they had just before sunset during the previous evenings; I saw a pelican dive into the water to catch dinner.
People donned their eclipse glasses and looked up at the sky with more frequency and the excitement in the crowd grew exponentially. At the very beginning of the four minutes and 20 seconds of totality, a collective cheer erupted from the crowd. It began in the distance to my left (with the ocean behind me) and, like a wave at a baseball game, swept over to me and I could not help but join in with the roar, passing it along to the very end of the Malecón. It was truly the neatest natural phenomena that I had ever encountered.
But, the experience went beyond the astronomical marvel of it all. All at once, I felt a connection to those around me, to those a little further up the road, and to all the other people across North America who were witnessing the event. Much like a loving kindness meditation, my awareness expanded to people in other parts of the world and I truly saw myself, a single individual, standing on a giant globe connected to every single being on earth. In this moment, I felt just as close to persons across the world as I did to those standing in my immediate vicinity.
At the same time, I felt connected to people I had spoken to in the preceding days who shared with me what it was like to watch the full eclipse a few years prior in Oregon, USA. My mind went to older folks who had witnessed various eclipses decades ago and suddenly I felt connected to those who had witnessed them hundreds and thousands of years ago, imagining what it must have been like for the very first peoples who to look up at the sky and experience such an event. At that moment, I felt just as connected to those living now as I did to those who had passed on tens of thousands of years ago. Experiencing a full eclipse to me felt like standing in the cross-section of space and time, transcending both and experiencing the concept of life itself. At that moment, I did not only experience life just from my personal experience; I could see my tiny role in the grand experience of life in both time and space. The eclipse helped pull me out of myself and holistically view the universe.
At the very end of the totality, a Mexican battleship positioned just offshore blew its horn loud and proud. This caused an eruption of applause and jubilation from the predominantly-Mexican crowd. Perhaps rejuvenated, people became engrossed in conversations, already recapping the major event they had just witnessed. Others were glued to their phones looking at the photos they had gotten and the crowd slowly dissipated as people leisurely strolled away from the shore and back to their lives. The sky started to get brighter and brighter and eventually, I had to put on my sunglasses again.
We met up with our friends again and headed over to MAWE for lunch. I ordered the very colorful tacos al pastor and Chrissy got the tacos MAWE. Both of these dishes were SO delicious that it was truly a challenge to decide which we liked better. They both had very rich earthy flavors and I would happily order either of them again. The MAWE staff, despite being extremely busy, presented Chrissy with a piece of chocolate birthday cake and had even lit a candle for her. Everyone at the table cheered and were was overjoyed by this sheer act of kindness.
Later in the evening, we headed over to La Ruta Vegana for dinner. Seeing as restaurants in the area were struggling to keep up with demand and even running out of food, I had luckily made a reservation the day before. I got the super special burger and Chrissy ate, and very much enjoyed, the spaghetti vegetal. The vegetables in her dish were truly cooked to perfection and the dish was well-seasoned.
I fell asleep that night reminiscing about the amazing events of the day, from the life-changing eclipse to spending time with our new friends to the kindness shown at MAWE.
Day Four: Changed Rooms and Searched for Vegan Food
MAWE is closed on Tuesdays and La Ruta Vegan, which is normally closed on Mondays (but had stayed open due to the eclipse) announced on Facebook that they would also be closed on Tuesday so their staff could get a well-deserved rest. So, we ventured out in search of vegan options at other restaurants. After striking out again and again, Chrissy decided to go to the local grocery store where she bought fresh tortillas, refried beans, salsa, cans of corn, jalapeños and some other snacks. Together with the fruit we had purchased a few days prior, we made ourselves a fairly decent couple of meals in our hotel room.
Artemisa, the caretaker of the AirBnb, which was a boutique hotel with many rooms, asked us if we’d like to switch to a bigger room. We looked at the new room with two double beds (versus our two twins), a bigger bathroom and altogether more space and our decision was a no-brainer. We happily spent the day relaxing and watching old movies on TV together while snacking on Mexican goodies.
We ended the evening by walking down our favorite spot on the Malecón to watch the sunset.
Day Five: Walked Along the Malecón and Said Goodbye to Our Friends
We were SO happy that MAWE was open again! I ordered the enchiladas with green sauce and Chrissy enjoyed the blueberry oatmeal pancakes with fresh mango and kiwi. After the void of delicious vegan food the day before, we felt like all was right with the world again after a delicious MAWE breakfast.
We headed over to the Malecón and met our friends at Looney Beans, a place they had their daily coffee. The coffe shop offered plant-based milks, including soy, almond and oat. Chrissy got an iced coffee and I tried their fresh carrot juice as we sat and chatted with our friends, asking about their journey home.
It was a perfect sunny day with a refreshing sea breeze and so we decided to spend some time walking along the Malecón. The first statue we came to was of Jacques Cousteau; it seemed like the perfect place to put the likeness of such a famous underwater explorer, overlooking the beautiful sea.
My favorite statues on Mazatlán’s Malecón were the La Reina de los Mares figures, depicting mermaids in various postures.
I enjoyed looking at the opposite side of the road as well, at the large apartment buildings positioned up high on the large rock face, all with big windows and/or balconies with amazing views of the sea. Birds were soaring high above in the sky.
We came to a spiral slide into a pool that fills during high tide. It was fun to climb it and get uninterrupted views of the ocean. The street noise was replaced with the water lapping at the shore and splashing onto the rocks.
Across the road was La Cueva del Diablo (The Devil’s Cave), located at the bottom of a steep 100 meter ravine. Nothing more than a hole in the wall filled with garbage, it wasn’t really worth a visit, but I thought the bright red metal door against the pale palette of the rock face looked striking.
Any online search of things to do in Mazatán will likely include watching the cliff-divers on the Malecón. When dare-devil divers have received enough tip money to warrant risking their lives, they ascend the stairs pictured above and make the leap into the very shallow waters below, hopefully accurately timing the waves.
We passed a life-sized bronze statue of Sri Chimnoy, an Indian spiritual leader, who passed away in October 2007. Curious about why an Indian spiritual leader would be memorialized in Mazatlán, I later looked it up and apparently he, having a strong belief that sport can be a powerful instrument for promoting global harmony, created an event called the World Harmony Run, which was later changed to the Peace Run. The run is an international torch relay with the idea of strengthening global friendship and understanding and runners carry a flaming torch, as a symbol of harmony, passing it from hand to hand traveling over 100 countries in the world. Although there are several statues of Chinmoy around the world, including Norway, Bali and the Czech Republic, the statue in Mazatlán was the first such statue in the Americas and the first ever to be holding a torch. My online searching led me to the Peace Run schedule route for 2024 in United States and Canada.
While walking back, after waving goodbye to our friends as the Didi they had ordered pulled away, I noticed some Hollywood Hall of Fame type stars on the ground. The names depicted Mexican musicians like Chuy Lizarraga and bands like Los Tigres del Norte and Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga.
After watching another beautiful sunset in “our spot”, we walked over to La Ruta and had dinner. On the way, we noticed that our skin was starting to get burned from being out in the midday sun all day without protection. We ordered the margarita pizza, which was huge, and the udon teriaki, which was full of flavor. The drink of the day was horchata, but instead of rice as the base, it was barley. This was my first time tasting barley horchata and I would absolutely get it again.
Day Six: Attended a Concert at Teatro Ángela Peralta
We slept in a bit on our sixth day and didn’t make it to MAWE until lunch time. We had the MAWE tacos with guacamole, finely chopped red onion and portobello mushrooms. The mushrooms gave it a really nice earthly savory flavor which balanced the fresh creamy guacamole.
We spent some of the day walking in and out of some artists shops and galleries. That afternoon, we ordered spaghetti vegetal to go from La Ruta as we were mixing up our routine a bit. Instead of watching the sunset, the big event of the evening was attending a concert at the Angela Peralta Theater (Ángela Peralta Theater), reportedly a must-do while in town.
According to Wikipedia, the theater was built from 1869 to 1874 and it’s been inaugurated on three separate occasions. Originally called the Rubio Theater (named after the businessman who owned the property), the building underwent some significant renovations and repairs in subsequent years between 1879 and 1881, at which point it was re-inaugurated under the same name. Only two short years later, a famous singer Ángela Peralta passed away in the hotel next door (now the Municipal Center of the Arts). In 1943, the theater’s name was changed to the Ángela Peralta to honor the late singer. In 1975, a hurricane completely destroyed the theater’s roof making a replacement necessary, but this did not come right away. The building was left in shambles for about 10 years until architect Juan José Loya led the restoration project and it was inaugurated for a third time in October, 1992. Today, the theater seems to be a great source of pride for Mazatlán locals and Mexicans who visit.
I loved the tiered balconies, very reminiscent of quaint opera houses of Europe. Chrissy and I attended a concert by Mexican tenor Carlos Osuna, a Mazatlán native and I got the feeling that he was always well-received as a local favorite.
Osuna’s concert was entitled “The Passion of Spain” and featured Spanish art songs, none of which I knew, but others in the crowd seemed more familiar with. The evening included a soprano, two pianists, a cellist, violinist, bassist and an entire orchestra, as well as a couple flamenco dancers. During the performances, images of Spain were projected onto the background of the stage, creating quite the event.
Day Seven: Climbed El Faro and Searched for Souvenirs
Knowing this would be a bit of a feat, we purposely saved climbing El Faro (the Lighthouse) until the last day so that our sore muscles we were bound to have the following day wouldn’t interfere with any potential plans. We started early to avoid the midday heat.
We took our mandatory pictures with the Faro Mazatlan sign at the base of the windy pathway to the top. The first half is a cement walkway with beautiful flowers and cacti on either side and it didn’t take long to start seeing beautiful views. Only after a few switchbacks did we see our first cat, sleeping peacefully under a bench. Another was enjoying the shade of a bush.
And before long, we came to the numbered uneven stairs: all 336 of them! I took lots of breaks, as did others. “Si, se puede”, I told others (thanks Obama for teaching me some Spanish. LOL). And I had just learned “lo hice” from one of our new Sacramento friends. He apparently learned it from watching videos of an adventurous Mexican hiking up mountains. When he got to the top, he would always say, “lo hice” (I did it!). Imagining saying this at the top motivated me to keep going, even when my legs were yelling at me.
Our efforts were rewarded with 360 degree views of the beautiful surrounding area. There was lots of eclipse information at the top and I remembered that many people had booked reservations well in advance to be able to watch the eclipse from El Faro, Mazatlán. I could see why. Sitting at 157 meters (515 feet) on the top of Crestón Island, this lighthouse boasts the second highest natural lighthouse in the world, with the highest being Jeddah Lighthouse in Saudi Arabia.
Before heading back down, I looked up how to say, “You can do it” in order to give some encouragement to those making the climb. It wasn’t long before I was able to say, “puedes hacerlo” to the first person going in the opposite direction. They seemed to appreciate the cheerleading. After seeing a man slip and fall (thankfully, he was ok), I was extra careful to step carefully on each stone while descending.
We celebrated our successful climb with what would be our last meal at MAWE. I tried their molletes and as always, was not disappointed. We said our goodbyes to the MAWE staff, knowing we would miss their food. We spent the afternoon looking for souvenirs and frankly, there wasn’t much we were interested in. Not a big shopper anyway, I settled for some magnets that now bring me joy every time I open the fridge.
Our last dinner at La Ruta was amazing! I ordered the tacos compleados, and because they were having a two for one special, I took some with me to enjoy the next day during the long wait at the Mexico City airport. We said goodbye to Paul and he encouraged us to come back for a visit sometime.
Vegan in Mazatlan
We purposely positioned our accommodations between the two vegan restaurants in town: MAWE Cocina Vegana and La Ruta Vegana. Our first meal of the day was a two minute walk to MAWE and we ate dinner, almost always late in the evening after watching the sunset, at La Ruta Vegana, only a 6-minute walk from our AirBnb. After dining for an entire week, we got to know the staff at each eatery on a first name basis.
MAWE Cocina Vegana
Located at 309 Roosevelt, MAWE offer delicious food made from scratch with friendly service at good prices. I was immediately drawn to the pink neon sign that read “Vegan Food” and my heart warmed when I saw a little private garden with tomatoes almost ready for harvest. In fact, later during our stay, we ate some of those tomatoes in our meals.
MAWE Cocina Vegana is a family affair, the owners being Wendy and Mario and their daughters are Adelita and Denisse, whom we got to know over the course of the week. For both the owners, running a restaurant is a second occupation. Wendy is a forensic specialist and Mario is a medical doctor. Frustrated at the lack of vegan options in their town, they decided to open a vegan restaurant and did so on May 28, 2022.
I can not say enough about MAWE. Each time I went, I tried something else from their menu and everything was fabulous from the avocado toasts, to the pancakes to the pasta dishes, the sandwiches, the tacos and the smoothies. My favorite dish on their menu was the MAWE tacos, with the tacos al pastor a close second. The only dish I wouldn’t rave about was the chilaquiles.
MAWE’s drink menu is extensive. The pink smoothie was Chrissy’s favorite, so much so that she had it every day, but you can’t go wrong with anything. I was so happy to discover that they make their own kombucha. Lemon was my favorite.
La Ruta Vegana
Located at 216 Vicente Guerrero, La Ruta Vegana became our second home every evening. The staff, especially Paul, always greeted us and seemed genuinely happy to see us when we arrived, always having walked there from the Malecón after sunset. La Ruta is situated in a really neat space, with beautiful wooden tables and lots of potted plants out front. It has a casual and relaxed, but professional, atmosphere and I loved the painting of a cow on the wall.
The menu is fantastic and has quite a nice variety from Mexican tacos to burgers to Asian-inspired dishes. A unique feature of La Ruta is how they made vegan cheese with potato. Having sampled lots of vegan cheeses and even made many different kinds, I had never encountered a cheeze made with potato. It tasted great on the nachos!
The burgers were good, as were the tacos and the vegetable pasta and the udon dish. The only dish I didn’t care for was the pizza, as I found the dough too spongy and undercooked. They often have two for the price of one specials, making it easy to share with a loved one or to take home for lunch the next day. My favorite dish on the La Ruta menu was the tacos capeados.
Overall, it was a fantastic week in Mazatlán, the perfect mix of newness, excitement and highly-needed relaxation.
Vegan Vixen Ventures 