Mazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding municipality, for which the city serves as the municipal seat, is also called Mazatlán. It is located at 23°12′ N 106°25′ W, on the Pacific coast, just across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula.
Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning "place of the deer". The city was founded in the 1820s, and served as the capital of Sinaloa from 1859 to 1873.
With a population of 340,000 as of 2000, it is the second-largest city in the state and Mexico's largest commercial port. It is also a popular tourist destination, its beaches lined with resort hotels. A car ferry plies its trade across the Gulf of California from Mazatlán to La Paz, Baja California Sur.
In 2005, Mazatlán hosted the "Serie del Caribe", which is a baseball tournament with teams from México, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic.
Every year, Carnival is celebrated during the week before Ash Wednesday. There are a lot of festivities, including the election of a Queen, parades, and balls.
Info retrieved from wikipedia.org