In 1955 the Hotel Playa Mazatlan opened its doors for the first time; local workers and customers were trucked in over a dusty unpaved road that lead up to a secluded lagoon. Between the lagoon and the ocean was a thin strip of sand on which the Playa was constructed facing the nearby off-shore islands.

U.S. George or El Gringo Loco, as he was affectionately tagged by local skeptics, was the talk o the town; for putting a building right on the beach, so close to the ocean that the waves and the sand could potentially destroy it.