Miramar is a small port where fishing is the main activity of the locals. A great diversity of fish is sold in neighboring towns and in the ramadas that line the beach, where you can taste an excellent variety of fish and shellfish.
Here it is common to find foreign tourists who enjoy the tranquility of the town, the tropical atmosphere that surrounds it and its beautiful beaches, such as Platanitos, which is located a few kilometers from the port and where you can find a reserve of turtles and alligators.
Platanitos is a huge bar that gives rise to a beautiful lagoon-estuary, where a large number of tropical birds gather in the evening.
Also attractive are the beaches of Manzanilla and Boquerón, a short distance from the port.
On one side of the small community El Cora, 10 km from Miramar, stands a beautiful waterfall with several falls that form small natural pools located in the middle of dense tropical vegetation.
From Miramar beach to the north you can see an old 19th century mansion, with a semi-destroyed dock in front, surrounded by banana trees, coffee plantations and lush trees, a river crosses it just before it empties into the sea.
A group of Germans settled here in the middle of the 19th century and developed highly prosperous industries. On one side of the house, built in 1850, you can still see an old coconut oil soap factory, which was exported through the ports of San Blas and Mazatlán.
The first owner of the house and the soap factory was Delius Hildebran, who also promoted agriculture and pig farming in a small neighboring community, El Llano; In El Cora, coffee cultivation and mining were developed with great success, and La Palapita came to have an important mining boom.
All this bonanza was possible thanks to the labor of the Coras Indians, who at this time populated the region in great numbers.
Mrs. Frida Wild, who was born in this old mansion in the second decade of the century, tells us: “At the beginning of the century my father, the engineer Ricardo Wild, was the manager of the property in Miramar and of all this emporium started by the Germans since 1850. Most of these were from northern Germany, mostly from Berlin, but were hired in Hamburg. Many of them were initially hired by the brewery of the Pacific in Mazatlán.
In my time, that is, between the twenties and thirties, the entire property was crossed by two important streets that today have disappeared and that reached the small town of El Llano (4 km away): Hamburgo Street and Calle de los Illustrious Men, where motor vehicles that were brought from Europe circulated. Every day "El Cometa" left the dock, a boat that made the fast trip from Miramar to San Blas. There was also a light train that carried the goods and the various products that were harvested at that time (soap, spices, pepper, cocoa, coffee, etc.) to the dock.
“At that time, in front of the house there were other houses where more than fifteen families of German engineers lived.
“I have very present the terraces where the Cora workers put tobacco to dry, they put palm leaves on top so that it would not be completely dry, then the tobacco was strung with rope and hung. On one occasion, one of the boats that was going to San BIas, transporting cans of honey, turned over; for days engineers had to dive to rescue each and every one of those cans. It was arduous and difficult work, too much I thought, for a few simple cans of honey; It was when I learned that the gold extracted from the El Llano and El Cora mines was transported in them.
“The parties were without a doubt the most important events, and the most anticipated. For those occasions we prepared a liqueur with the dates that came from Mulegé in Baja California Sur. Sour cabbages as in Germany were never lacking; First we put them with salt and on top we put sacks of sawdust and we waited for them to ferment, then we served them with the classic sausages.
“Dinners were held to receive important guests who came to Miramar very frequently. They were great gatherings, the Germans played the violin, the guitar and the accordion, the women wore huge floral hats and all the details were of great elegance.
“I remember that in the morning from my balcony I would see the men on the beach in their long striped bathing suits and the women riding the fine steeds that were brought to them from the stables. It was also traditional for all the guests and Miramar engineers to spend a few days at the recently opened Hotel Bel-Mar in Mazatlán. One of the things I remember the most was those trips I made with my father to the Marías Islands, which were already prisons at that time; We were going to carry goods, I always stayed on the bridge of the ship, I saw the prisoners with their striped suits and their chains on their feet and hands.
“But without a doubt my most vivid memory is that October 12, 1933. We were all eating at the hacienda when the agraristas arrived, cut off the telephone and destroyed the pier; we were cut off, the safes were shot open and all the adult men, including my father, were gathered outside the house: they were hanged right there, none of them were left alive.
“El Chino, who was the cook, recovered the corpses and buried them. All the women and children went to San Blas and Mazatlán, most of them had left earlier, since the rumors of the arrival of the agraristas had been constant for several days.
Since then the property remained abandoned, until in the sixties it was acquired by the then governor of the state, who made some restorations and extensions.
On his death, his son sold it, and today it belongs to a family from Tepic, who built a small, very comfortable hotel next to the original house with excellent services for anyone looking for a peaceful place to spend a few days of break.
In the port branches we highly recommend the restaurant "El Tecolote Marinero", where you will be warmly attended by its owner (Fernando).
IF YOU GO TO MIRAMAR
Leaving the city of Tepic take federal highway No. 76 towards the coast, after traveling 51 km you will reach Santa Cruz. About two kilometers to the north you will find the small town of Miramar, where you can taste a wide variety of fish and seafood.
