Hotel Camino Real was among the most popular in Mazatlan, for its bars, social and political gatherings, but it is currently is abandoned.
MAZATLAN. – Perhaps you are too young to know it, but there is an old and abandoned hotel in Mazatlán that was very popular in the ’80s and that even had the visit of a president of the United States, we are talking about the well-known Camino Real, now the closed Hotel El Faro.
The lodging center opened its doors in 1971 as Hotel Camino Real announced at the time as the only one with a ‘private beach’ in Mazatlan, built on one of the Sábalo cliffs, with views of the sea, gardens, 165 rooms, swimming pool, bars, restaurants and lounges that would become the space for press conferences and the most relevant social and political meetings of the time.
It was the first local hotel to have an AA classification, the highest level in the official criteria at the time, which years later was changed to the famous stars we know today. It had specialized restaurants
Perhaps your parents or uncles have told you anecdotes about the “Chiquita Banana”, a bar in the hotel where you could spend your afternoons and evenings with music to dance, it was a fashionable bar back then. There was also the “Puppets”, a disco that was a meeting place for the elite class.
Ronald Reagan’s visit
Its popularity was so great that, in 1988, the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, was in the hotel, together with the president of Mexico at the time, Miguel de la Madrid.
Back then, Ronald Reagan arrived on the presidential plane at Mazatlan International Airport, and boarded a helicopter that landed in what we know as the Pueblo Bonito beach parking lot, to meet Miguel de la Madrid.
In this place, they discussed a bilateral agreement that would allow better access for Mexican products to the North American market and both differed about the situation in Central America and the fight against drug trafficking.
The ghosts of the Camino Real
They say that the legends have some truth and it is that among the ruins of the Camino Real or Hotel El Faro, it is said that there is supernatural activity, ghosts that haunt the old rooms, noises that are heard in the corners and the energy of the place leads to another dimension, or perhaps they are the echoes left by the personalities who walked through that lodging center.
For lovers of this paranormal activity, the hotel is an ideal place for exploration, there are even clandestine videos on YouTube that show what its facilities are like, because if you enter and are discovered you could end up in prison for trespassing on private property.
New name and many changes in the hotel
The Camino Real Hotel became popular with high expectations, and its facilities made Mazatlan a tourist boom along with other hotels, becoming a privileged space that over time became business misadventures, ending its image.
With the transfer, the name, fame, and glamor were lost, its nightclub, its bar on the beach, and its restaurant with a panoramic view, which was fashionable for a while, ostensibly declined until the definitive closure of the facilities.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the hotel is renamed as Playa Real. As of 2003, it was managed by the Hospitalidad Latina group and was called Hotel Faro Mazatlán. At the total closure of the hotel, a strike arose from its workers demanding their rights.
Currently, there is no longer a strike, only a guard who takes care of the main entrance, the place is fenced by those intrepid who seek an adventure inside the facilities, so only the memories of those who had to live in the world of glamor remain. .
Source: punto.mx
