At the Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay Resort, located in Mazatlan, Mexcio, the cantina 'Kelly's Bar' is a labor of love for the resort's owner, Ernesto Coppelo (Kelly).

To enter the bar, is to step through time and space, into a by-gone era that is as much Harry's Bar (see Ernest Hemingway) as it is Pancho Villa's trophy room.

Kelly's decoration seems more appropriate for a hunting lodge than a North American tourist resort. The room is filled with old photographs, display cases full of Kelly brand licquors, trophies from safaris - tigre and antelope heads, and it's centerpiece grand piano sits atop a lion skin rug.

The black and white photographs adorn the walls, reaching as far back as the Mexican Revolution, 1913, depicting ancestor Kelly with his comrades in arms in full Pancho Villa style battle dress.

Other photographs are of the famous family on safari in Africa throughout the years, posing with kills in Botswana throughout the 1950's to the Ernest Coppel Kelly family posing with relief-aid recepients in 2000.

My first time in the bar, I stepped up to take a seat at the bar. There was the head cantiñero, or as he calls himself 'bar-man', Sigifredo, mixing a Spanish Coffee while performing a pyrotecnic show. He is equal parts showman and bartender. Sigi spins bottles, flips coasters, leaps onto the bar to pull bottles down from the top-shelf, all while keeping the pistachio bowl full and the drinks cold.

The mesero's, or waiters, also are familiar with showmanship. Arturo performs numerous sleight-of-hand tricks. He even showed me how to magically put a broken toothpick back together in a napkin. 'Secretos des Meseros,' Arturo said. And Sigi always knows which card is mine in his magic deck.

The bar staff in Kelly's have some interesting things to say about the resort's owner. Ernesto Coppel Kelly lives in a palace of a home in Los Cabos. His favorite drink to order is an Apple Martini with extra Pucker's. He sometimes will dance alone by the piano.

However, what says the most about the man is his music selection. You can hear Ernest Coppel sing 'As time goes by' on the mp3 player rotation along with his rendition of other jazz standards.

Javier, el musico, comes in and plays piano a few times a week. 'As time goes by,' is a favorite of the staff and once I sang it with Javier on piano to an audience of meseros and four vacationers.

The song made famous by 'Casablanca' is representative of what Kelly's bar means to me and to its dreamer, Ernesto Coppel Kelly:

''Moonlight and lovesongs - never out of date,
Hearts full of passion - jealousy and hate,
Woman needs man -
And man must have his mate,
That no one can deny.

It's still the same old story -
The fight for love and glory,
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers,
As time goes by...''

Play it again, Javier.