Category Archives: Life in Mazatlán

Desayuno de los Pollos/Breakfast of the Chickens

Our group driving into a neighborhood on Christmas Eve morning as part of the Desayuno de los Pollos project.

Since 2007 we have had the privilege, as a family and with families of friends, to participate in Desayuno de los Pollos. It is the BEST way to spend a Christmas Eve morning that you can ever imagine! If you have not yet participated in this homegrown, very powerful effort, now is your chance!

Delivery schedule in 2010. As you can see, more than 2000 chickens go out to familias necesitadas.

Over 2000 whole chickens and 7-10 days’ of food are given out to families in need in the poorer areas of Mazatlán. Before we participated in this project, we hadn’t even known about some of these neighborhoods.

A group of kids in one of the communities wait their turn to get clothes and candy.

As in most any city worldwide, amidst the luxury you can find extreme poverty. These colonias on the outskirts of town do not have power or water, and the homes are cobbled together mostly with scraps of wood and metal that residents have been able to find.

The dignity of the people is beautiful to witness, and they are so grateful for the food, the love and joy we bring, as well as the clothing, candy and toys that many of us also collect to hand out that day.

Yolanda at left and a community leader on the right

You may know my friend Yolanda Medina. She sells crafts in the Plazuela in the evenings. She is Jorge Medina’s sister. You may know Jorge from Rotary or from his ironwork business, Quince Letras (that’s the area of town the family lives), or his wife Isa, who is very active in our bilingual community as well.

Jorge is on the right, with our goofy son (a few years ago) on the left.

Well, Yolanda is responsible for this most incredible project. She began it back in 1990. Just before that, sadly, her daughter María Yolanda suffered an illness. Here is how Isa tells the story:

“It was Christmas Eve, and María Yolanda’s days were counted. Yolanda and her late husband, Modesto, were in no mood to eat, let alone have a Christmas Dinner with all the fixin´s. But that night, a woman knocked on the hospital room door and peeked to see if there was someone with the patient, and came in to hand Yolanda and Modesto a box with a hot Christmas Dinner meal — roll and all — and told them Merry Christmas and that God was with them. Yolanda never forgot that gesture.”

“After María Yolanda was gone, Yolanda got us all together and told us what had happened.  So, the first couple of years, we had culinary arts students volunteer their time to prepare a Christmas Dinner meal, with donated ingredients from friends and family, and again, all of us volunteered to fill the disposable thermal boxes (like box lunches) with the hot dinners and then put them into several cars and pick-up trucks, and off we went, to hospitals, traffic intersections, parks, wherever we thought we might find people that, for one reason or another, wouldn’t be privy to a nice Christmas Dinner.”

“However, this was a huge effort, and very expensive, so we couldn’t cover that much ground. So we thought in terms of something more practical, that may be cooked and prepared at home. This way, we could make sure many more families could have a Christmas Dinner. That’s when we started the Desayuno de los Pollos, and the rest is history.”

A group of madres de familia waiting their turn for despensas

Happy kids in one of the communities during Desayuno de los Pollos on Christmas Eve morning.

Homes in one of the communities and a mobile business

The Desayuno de los Pollos project has been written up in the local newspapers the last few years, and has really grown every year we’ve participated. It is a true community effort, with aid now from the food bank (Banco de Alimentos) and Protección Civil.

This woman, first in line, was 87 years old when I had the pleasure of giving her a chicken a couple of years ago. She told me her husband was 93.

What funds this ability to buy whole chickens and kitchen staples for 2000 families? A breakfast. Yes, a simple breakfast. This year (2012) that breakfast will be held on Saturday, December 8, from 8:30-11 at the API dock/cruise ship dock. Tickets are 150 pesos.

The breakfast is served by local teenagers who volunteer their time, and your ticket includes a raffle and entrance to a Christmas handicrafts bazaar. It’s fun. Even if you can’t attend, please buy some tickets or make a donation to this very worthy cause. 100% of your donations go to those in need, as everyone involved volunteers their time and talent. A couple of years ago we didn’t have enough money, and Yolanda borrowed $600 from her now-deceased mother in order to buy the required chickens. Let’s get the funds we need for everyone to eat this year!

One truck is loaded and ready to go. If you have access to a truck early morning on December 24, let us know as we could use your help!

We hand out the supplies in big convoys to 5-6 different colonies on the 24th of December, starting about 5 or 6 am when we begin packing, sorting, and loading. Anyone coming can bring candy for kids, used good condition clothing to hand out as well. Wear Santa hats. It’s well organized and very humbling. The people receiving the food so need the help, and have so much dignity and gratitude. It’s beautiful.

The plastic bags are filled with despensas or food staples. This is the loading line, moving the food from the house to the trucks outside.

Yolanda, Isa, and others go out to the colonias a week to ten days ahead of time, to meet with community leaders and organize things, to be sure that every family in need gets a ticket for a chicken and staples. And, so that things are fair, to ensure that some families don’t double dip. It is all incredibly well organized, efficient, and filled with joy.

We are fortunate in Mazatlán to have so many groups and projects designed to help others. This one doesn’t have a formal group surrounding it, more an extended family and friends who come together each year in incredible ways.

Contact me (Dianne) for tickets to the breakfast or to donate items (dianne@vidamaz.com, or cell 6691-22-8962), in English or Spanish. If you know Yolanda, Jorge or Isa, you can always contact them, too. There will be breakfast tickets at the door on December 8, if you prefer to just show up.

If you are able to save your (gently) used clothing and toys for this project, or you or someone you know can donate toys, clothing, or food, or who has a truck to drive on December 24, please let us know!

Two families we have been privileged to meet

Smiling kids are always a joyful sight!

Two Santa Clauses handing out candy and toys. It is a good lesson for kids about helping others whenever we can.

“Thank you for coming and Merry Christmas!”

We do hope you’ll join this project and help us bring joy to more families in need during the holidays. Thanks!

The scene in the living room a few years ago prior to loading the trucks. This room is filled with clothes, blankets and toys.

The garage filled with whole chickens, delivered that morning frozen solid. We have to get them in the hands of their recipients quickly, before they melt. Most people tell me they cook them in a pot of water over a fire, though there are those occasionally who tell me they’ll roast theirs over an open flame.

Other posts on this blog about Breakfast of the Chickens:

Fine Swine

Where in Mazatlán can you get:

  • Pork loin that is lower in fat and cholesterol than a boneless, skinless chicken breast? (The pigs are fed yoghurt and a special mix of grains.)
  • Chorizo that’s low in fat and made with fresh chile, so it doesn’t give you heartburn?
  • Beef, chicken, fresh panelita cheese, marlin escabeche, as well as
  • Priceless advice on anti-cancer nutrition from a cancer-survivor with a masters in food science, accompanied by
  • A history of Mazatlán as told by long-time family business owners (many of our readers may remember Restaurant Doney on Cinco de Mayo, now the government library).

This multi-faceted carnicería is one we have been enjoying for a few months now, and is called Chikkowi. It is on the malecón, just north of the fishing pangas, right next to Pescadería del Mar (Paseo Claussen No. 97, telephone 193-0144). Alfonso Tirado Ibarra (Poncho) opened it in mid-June, and you can find him at work alongside his mother, Lourdes Ibarra Almada, Monday through Friday 8 to 3, and Saturdays 9 to 2. Poncho and Lourdes both speak excellent English as well as their native Spanish.

Theirs is the family that ran Doney Restaurant on Cinco de Mayo for over 40 years. After it closed, Lourdes sold Kowi pork out of her home to friends, neighbors and restaurants, delivering it all over town for 20 years. The Sonora-based Kowi company is owned by Lourdes’ brother-in-law, Manuel Santini. “Kowi” means “pork” in the native language from the Sonora area of Mexico. Kowi is a huge operation serving all of Mexico as well as the U.S., Japan and Korea. They are HAACP and USDA certified. They have various varieties of pigs and design custom diets to ensure the healthiest and tastiest pork products available.

With grandchildren to tend to and her son home in Mazatlán, Lourdes and Poncho decided to open a store where anyone could enjoy the great pork products brought down from Sonora. Being Mazatlecos they know that locals don’t eat a lot of pork; here it’s fish and beef, followed by chicken, with pork in a distant fourth place. So, the mother and son team sought out the best beef and chicken as well to round out their offerings. The beef they bring in is from Monterrey; Monterrey and Sonora are known for having the best beef in Mexico. The chicken is also from Sonora. Sadly for us, they don’t (yet) offer lamb. In addition to meats, they also have queso fresco from El Quelite and eggs from El Rosario.

The offerings in the store are too varied to be described in detail here. We primarily want to share with you that we love having these products so close, part of our daily walk, and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know Poncho and Lourdes. If you take the time to stop in and meet these two, we are confident you will leave with something. You can choose pork tenderloins, pork medallions wrapped in bacon, pork roast stuffed with fruits, BBQ baby-back ribs, carne adobada, turkey salchichas for grilling, bacon, Canadian bacon, black forest ham, NY steaks, rib-eye steaks, whole tenderloins, sirloins, machaca (best in town for sure), the list truly goes on and on. Many items are pre-cooked and ready to heat up, while others are ready for you to make wonderful on your own. To help in this effort, they gladly hand out a series of recipes.

They have wonderful plans for the near future as well. They want to add homemade, ready-to-cook meals such as meatballs, burgers, and marinated chicken breasts. And, in a throwback to Doney’s fame, they will soon be preparing cooked shredded chicken for enchiladas. They will package this with sauce made with the original Doney’s recipe for enchiladas suizas. This secret recipe is around fifty years old and has yet to be replicated outside of the family. It is a Mazatlán classic.

Poncho was born in Mazatlán, attended school at Anglo Moderno, graduated high school from Tec, and then moved to Monterrey to obtain his B.S. in food science. From Monterrey he went north to Washington DC and Miami, working for the nutrition-improvement NGO “Sustain.” They paid for him to get his M.S. in food science, sending the Mazatleco of all places to another beach paradise, Hawaii. He stayed in Hawaii for about eight years, working for a fresh, ready-to-eat food processing company (salads, fruit cups), and opening both catering (tacos) and surf tour businesses.

Two years ago Poncho came home for Christmas, but he had a fever and a cough. Mom forced him to go to the doctor, which led to a diagnosis of stage 3 Hodgkins Disease. The following year was dedicated to chemo and radiation treatments in Culiacán and León, plus a crash course in anti-cancer nutrition research. A year of juicing and focusing on regaining his health, and 35 year old Poncho was able to both open his new shop in June, and, just last week, swim in the Travesía Anual with 200 others out to Deer Island (he swam the distance in about two hours)! Talk about an accomplishment!

Doney Restaurant was opened by Poncho’s grandmother, Reynalda Velarde, or Doña Reyna, in 1959. It started out on a rented corner on Cinco de Mayo, becoming popular because she had the first rotisserie machine in Mazatlán. People would come to stare at it going round and round, fascinated, and this helped her business grow.

Reyna took over more and more space, eventually purchasing an 1800s-era Spanish nobleman’s house (Casa Echeguren) on Mariano Escobedo in which to house her restaurant. Her son, Poncho’s father (also Alfonso), was an architect, and he remodeled and updated the house (which had also been a hospital), roofing in the central courtyard. Doney was very popular for over 40 years; I remember dining there often when I visited Mazatlán in the 70s and 80s. Doney was famous for its home style cooking: enchiladas suizas, camarones gobernador, regional food, and homemade pies and cakes. As I remember the interior was gorgeous, with arches and open space, and the walls were covered with historic photos.

Sadly, the legendary restaurant closed in 1994, due to the economic downturn (you’ll remember that the value of the peso vs. the dollar halved in less than a week’s time) and the fact that Poncho’s father had been kidnapped (thankfully he survived the ordeal).

Their business is doing quite well in the few months they have been open. They have begun servicing many restaurants in town as well as walk-in clientele. So, who knows, you may have already had some of their great meat products!

Those of us who live here are always looking for something new and different. I think you will agree that Chikkowi fits that description. The pork loin at right is wrapped around a fruit center (plums, grapes, papaya, apricots, cranberries…) and is ready to heat and serve. We are excited for their early success and hope you will take the time to stop in and say hi. As they will tell you, there is perhaps no better view of Mazatlán than the view from their shop (featuring the pangas and all three islands).

Cross-Continental Bicyclists Sarah and Jacques Visit Mazatlán

We met Sarah and Jacques on Day of the Dead. They were just packing up their bikes, as you can see. They had left Sarah’s home of Vancouver Island, Canada in July, bicycling south along the coast for four months. Then they hit Mazatlán.

“Soooooo much nicer than Baja,” they gushed to us. “We’ve ended up spending three weeks here, our longest stop yet. We have to get going again or we’ll never get going.”

Thus we met two additional interesting people who love this port of ours.

“We stayed here in our friend’s house,” Jacques explained as Sarah locked up. “We loved being here. We had two weeks of ‘Mazatlán,’ and then this last week things changed completely. The Northerners started arriving. It’s like there are two Mazatláns: the summer and the winter version.”

They are planning to pedal their way south to Argentina. I asked how long of a trip they are planning, but it sounds pretty open-ended. They have their whole lives ahead of them, they told me.

“Did you enjoy Day of the Dead festivities here,” I asked. “Did you join in the callejoneada last night?”

“Oh, yeah, it was awesome,” they told me. “It is cool, too, how it’s the extranjeros keeping the Mexican culture alive—artwork, dressing up…” Fascinating to hear a passer-through perspective.

If you’d like to follow their journey, their blog is at www.peacewheel.wordpress.com. We very much wish them many wonderful adventures, much joy, insight, health and safety, on their journey!

La Callejoneada for Day of the Dead

Greg absolutely hates Halloween, but Day of the Dead is his favorite holiday here. Go figure! He loves it even more than Carnavál, and that’s saying a lot. His favorite part of Día de los Muertos festivities is the callejoneada, the parade that winds through the narrow streets of the Centro Histórico. This year I had fun putting together a “scary movie trailer”-type video (above) to commemorate the event. I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve written a few posts about Día de los Muertos here in Mazatlán. This year there were a few things different, of course. One was the gorgeous, colorful katrina costumes in the callejoneada. They were breathtaking! You can see them in the video above. Many of them actually lit up, which was extra cool!

Another new development we noticed is that the print shop just down from us put up a big outdoor walk-through Day of the Dead display, complete with life-size katrina statues and a large altar, all lit at night.

At the bottom is the map of this year’s “official” altars that the Katrina visited last night during the callejoneada in order to accompany the dead to the other world.

18th Annual “Golden Deer” Awards

Last night at a beautiful gala dinner, quite a few of us were feted with special recognition for contributions to the Mazatlán community. We were delighted with two glorious evenings of celebration—lots of eye candy, good food and drink, music and dance. I felt so privileged to be acknowledged in this way by our neighbors, and it was also incredibly humbling.

Rodolfo Lopez Negrete, COO of Mexico Tourism Board, Oralia Rice, Sinaloa State Secretary of Tourism, Dianne Hofner Saphiere of VidaMaz.wordpress.com, and the President of the Mazatlán Hotel Association

I was told I received the award because of the work that Greg and I have done with this blog over the years, helping families to navigate Mazatlán, because of the various videos we’ve created and in which we’ve appeared, plus the Mazatlán YouTube channel we created.

All I can say is, it has been a labor of love. We are so fortunate to live in this gorgeous city, surrounded by so many big-hearted, open-minded friends and neighbors. We are merely living our lives and sharing a bit of it with others in hopes it might be of aid or interest. Thank you for including us, Mazatlecos queridos, and helping us feel at home here!

Mazatlán has a lengthy history of foreign residents, making this a traditionally multicultural community. Joining the indigenous inhabitants of the area came of course Spaniards, then Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Germans, and French, and more recently Canadians and US-Americans. We are fortunate in this small city to also have friends who are Belgian, Dutch, Vietnamese and Quebecois. We delight in living in Mazatlán because it has such natural beauty, is a real, functioning city with a variety of industries (shrimping, tuna and other fishing, agriculture, coffee, beer, etc., in addition to tourism), and also because of its rich multicultural tradition.

Most humbling to me in receiving this recognition was to be included in a group with such incredibly devoted, passionate people. One such honoree was the  Zorros de Sinaloa, the local amputee soccer team (founded by Don Benett, award received by coach Berc Zorraian). They are SUCH an amazing group, and last night it was announced that they will be bringing the WORLD CUP of amputee soccer to Mazatlán! Such a powerful, constructive contribution to our community, and to inclusiveness and respect in our world!

Another well deserving honoree was Arnie Garcia, who since 1989 has volunteered to teach chess to local school kids, bringing the international chess championship tournament as well as chess masters from around the world to Mazatlán. What passion and perseverance. We are so blessed to have such people in our community.

There were quite a few groups of people recognized for their selfless, volunteer contributions to the community, including Friends of Mexico (received by President Steven Backman), Mazatlán Tourist Aide Volunteers (received by Peter Larson), Vecinos con Cariño (received by Rudy Villalobos and Arlene Johnson), and La Viña church (received by Gail Villalobos). Another individual honoree was Glen Rogers, who started our beloved Art Walk and nearly on an annual basis seems to have a new idea for cross-pollinating the US and Mexican art scenes. We are truly blessed with a hard-working community here, in which locals and foreigners alike join together to better how we all live.

Other recipients last night included those in communication, such as Mike Veselik, who has operated the Pacific Pearl for something like 22 years; Janet Blaser, publisher of the beautiful M! Magazine; Mazatlán Life (Sheila Madsen); Mazatlán MyCity (Simon Lynds); and blogger Nancy Dardarian (Countdown to Mexico). All of them have made huge contributions to our local community in their unique ways. And, we know so many people who were not recognized who have also made huge contributions. Fortunately La Gran Fiesta de Amigos de Mazatlán is an annual event, and this is its 18th year.

Thank you very much, Mazatlán Hotel Association. We love living here, we write our family truth honestly and from the heart. If in some small way it contributes to building a stronger community, we are very, very pleased.

The Golden Deer awards (different from the recognition we received, though given out at the same event) are given out to tourism industry professionals, including airlines, tour operators and reporters. One of them was awarded posthumously to Jackie Peterson and accepted by Mike from Pacific Pearl, where she was a writer for many years. Another very noteworthy Golden Deer, for me, went to our gorgeous Mazatlán International Center, which has transformed our city’s convention and meeting offerings in important ways.

Hearty congratulations and thanks to all recipients, and all who love Mazatlán.

¡Viva Mazatlán!