The 12-square block historical district is surrounded on three sides by a city now numbering approximately 700,000 inhabitants, encircling the park-like Plazuelto Machado, a small square of shops, bars, cafes, and the renovated Angela Peralta Theater provides an acoustic experience worth noting.

The walking tour with "Moose" is another because the district is like a small town.

All over the district, which seemingly is filled with real estate opportunities like that seized by the Eyers, the cleanly shaved head of Harry is easily recognized and attracts acknowledging shouts of "Hola, Harry"!

He knows the nightspots like Restaurant Pedro & Lola on the plaza that does a great bar and dinner business frequently entertained by an American ex-college music prof. flute player from the Northwest who bought a yacht and sailed south to Mazatlan with a younger woman he'd just met. Still together, they've moved on land.

Two nights later at P&L's it is a local rock Ôn roll band with a great Gringo play list. The owner stops by the table, thanking Harry and his guests for their patronage.

And you can't get back to the La Jolla Pension without a one-drink stop at Davy's SonSin bar, an ex-patriot hang out.

The Old Mazatlan district is pulsating with life, Harry says, noting that every evening "Mazatlecos" gather to enjoy the warm breezes and the mouthwatering fragrances that float through the neighborhood carried by ocean-spawned wind currents.

Classical melodies from the art school, invite you to peek through the windows to watch sculptors, painters, and musicians at their work, he explains. "Anyone who loves culture will be enchanted by the Centro Historico experience".

Just outside the district is the centuries-old Mazatlan port and its marina, now being left mainly to commercial vessels, cruise ships included, and shrimp and game fishing fleets.

Also nearby are the El Centro Mercado and the Moorish-style twin spires of Mazatlan's Catholic Cathedral, the Catedral Basilica de la Purisima Concepcion. Started in 1856 by the Bishop Pedro Loza y Pardave, the cathedral was built at the site of an Indian temple, but because of Mazatlan's turbulent history, it was not completed until 1899 and then elevated to basilica status in 1937. The city's patron saint, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, rises over the gilded main alter.

Just to the south from the Centro Historico rises Cerro Creston, which is topped by El Faro, a lighthouse, with its 515-foot elevation.

And from this southern most point of Mazatlan, which means, "Land of the Deer",traveling north for a few heavily trafficked miles up the Malecon, filled with cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, and Mazatlan's unique vehicle, the Pulomonia taxi, an open-air golf cart-looking VW, to the north is the Zona Dorada or the Golden Zone, where most turistas are more familiar.

Hotels like the Playa Mazatlan, visited by John Wayne, or the once private Denverite-laden Balboa Beach Club, and others such as Los Sabalos, the time-sharing Pueblo Bonito, and El Cid, a mega ocean and golf resort, along with two new marinas, are making Mazatlan even more attractive.

Not long ago, PGA pro Lee Trevino's nine-hole  addition to El Cid's 18 holes opened up. The newest course is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design for Estrella del Mar, a new residential community where Harry is getting a good deal on his golf by working as a course marshal.

Mainland Mazatlan is known for attracting Americans and Canadians for vacations and maybe to become seasonal, if not full-time, residents. Nearly directly across the Pacific-fed Sea of Cortez to the west is the tip of Baja California and Mexico's Aspen, the upscale, tony Cabo San Lucas.

Getting to Los Cabos from Mainland Mazatlan is less than an hour's jet plane flight away or overnight on the ferry to La Paz. Porter-Staby, former resort newspaper owners,  are now freelance travel writers/photographers living in Frisco, Colorado, located between Vail and Breckenridge.

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