Our original intent for visiting Mazatlan was to learn about this up and coming destination for expat living. Of course, you’re probably saying you’ve heard of Mazatlan as a destination for years, but it lost its luster during the Sinaloa cartel wars. In recent years, however, it’s been making a comeback.

I’d visited a couple years prior and determined the town to be too small for more than a short visit for me, but Joan had been reading about it in various publications so we decided to investigate it together with the possibility of bringing future tours here.

We headed north to the popular expat areas of Sabalo and the Golden Zone but found that an exhaustive exploration of the town could be completed fairly quickly, and I began to look for other things to do. I joined the local Facebook expat group, but I think the greatest source of activities in the area is the website MazatlanToday.

The site recommended a day trip to a place called Stone Island, which isn’t actually an island but a peninsula. Since accessing the peninsula by vehicle requires driving one hour to the southern end where it connects to the mainland, a 5 minute ferry ride is the conveyance employed by most to get there, giving it the feel of an island.

We hopped in an Uber, with our friend Valerie, to the ferry terminal. The driver dropped us at the pier, and we followed the masses of people, arms filled with beach towels and inflatable beach toys, towards the water. After purchasing our round trip ticket for two dollars, we gingerly stepped aboard the bobbing ferry boat.

It was just a few minutes across the inlet, and when we went to disembark, the driver said that this was not the main stop. While I understood what he meant, we were already standing, and I proposed to Joan and Valerie that we get off there so we could check out the town on our walk to the beach. They agreed so we hopped off and made our way along a dirt road to the village.

We were amazed that only a 5 minute boat ride from the busyness of Mazatlan was a rural village that looked like it might not even support indoor plumbing. Valerie was excited as she considered how much further her money could go living on Stone Island with the convenience of Mazatlan just a short boat ride away.

The walk to the beach took about 45 minutes, but that was probably much longer than it would have taken normally. In our case, Joan and Valerie were engrossed in each other’s stories while observing the new surroundings. The rural nature disappeared the instant we walked onto the beach. The shore was lined with restaurants in either direction vying for the attention of passers by. Since it was early in the day, the owners attempted to solicit us in. Later they’d ignore us for the larger Mexican families who rarely traveled to the beach with fewer than ten people.

We dug our toes into the sand as we sipped on our drinks and enjoyed the warm breeze off the ocean. As you followed the beach around to the north, it curved to a massive rock for which “the island” was named. Valerie mentioned how much nicer the beach would be away from the noise and the crowds. In fact, with the arrival of more people came the musicians and vendors.

Everyone who’s been to public Mexican beaches knows how annoying it is to fend off vendors every 30 seconds. In fact the only thing of value I’ve considered buying from one of those vendors is a sign that says “no gracias” that you can stick in the sand next to your beach towel. Having never bought one, I am not really sure if they are actually effective.

My own exploratory nature made me want to walk out towards the towering Cerro los Chivos, so after we finished our meal, we headed around the beach towards the rock. When we arrived, we found the beach to be a little quieter but the restaurants appeared to be more of the same. None of us was particularly hungry or thirsty, and I was hoping for a different experience than the one we’d just had.

Toward the end of the beach, I spotted chairs that looked nicer than the molded plastic ones used by all the other restaurants. As we approached, I saw that everything about the place looked a little nicer, and it seemed like the perfect place to sit and enjoy an afternoon cocktail.

La Caleta was covered by a giant palapa with dark stained wood floor and ceiling fans to drop the temperature enough to make it comfortable. There appeared to be a full bar so we made our special requests with the waiter, and he said he’d see what the bartender could do. They weren’t the greatest cocktails, but the setting made up for the lack of quality.

I noticed that our waiter was wearing a shirt from one of the restaurants I’d wanted to visit in Mazatlan, and he said they were the same restaurant. That explained its distinction from the other cheap beach restaurants. The menu at La Caleta offers amazing food, and we were all disappointed that we were still full.

After our relaxing cocktails, we headed out of the restaurant and were told they offered free shuttle service to the pier. Given how hot and humid it was in the late afternoon sun, we happily acquiesced to this service, and 5 minutes later we were at the pier.

Another 5 minutes, and we were back in Mazatlan where we hopped in a taxi back to our apartment. For only $2 dollars we’d found an island escape just a couple minutes from Mazatlan. It’s probably the fastest I’ve ever gone from a bustling city to a rural beachfront and certainly went a long ways toward selling Mazatlan as a destination.