Rocky Point, Mexico

We woke up Saturday morning, and Lisa asked if I wanted to go down to Rocky Point for the day. I was flabbergasted, but didn't want to take the chance  of her changing her mind, by asking what prompted her desire to go. I just said yes, and we started getting ready. Grabbed our passports, and we were on the road by 8:30. Stopped for gas and cash, and off to the border. It was a nice morning with lightly clouded skies.

Got to the border around 11:00 and crossed behind a truck with a Mexican license plate. The driver was questioned and a quick visual search conducted. Soon one of the federale's with an assault rifle came over and directed the driver to pull over (we assume for a more detailed search). We stopped at Vasquez's in Sonoita for street tacos, vanilla extract and picked up some drinking glasses.

Before going into Rocky Point, we decided to head out to Cholla Bay. We took the road we were familiar with, but after we got into it a little bit, thought there was probably a new road we didn't know about, as we could see cars driving off to the left. It was windy and the blowing sand obscured the road. I could rely on following the edge of the road for direction. As we entered Cholla, there was a police substation that we had never seen before.  We were welcomed by bay full of aqua blue water, as we stopped at the site of the old trailer. We were surprised to see a house now standing on the site, last time we were there, it had only the concrete slab.  The tide was in with the bay full of warm, aqua blue water. We wandered the shoreline, collected seashells (by the sea shore), and  took a few pictures.

Time to move on. We headed to JJ's and came across a short patch of paved road in Cholla (must be the upscale neighborhood). JJ's was busy with the typical crowd. We each had a bottle of Tecate. Lisa had chicken strips & fries, and I had fish & chips. Two different people came up to us and offered to take our pictures. After lunch it was off to Rocky Point.

Driving to Rocky Point, we go by Sandy Beach, and all the high rises, built in anticipation of an influx of visitors brought in on cruise ships. Last time we were there, there were just a couple shacks on the beach.

In Rocky Point traffic was snarled as we approached the shipyards. One of the cars next to us had a little boy and a little girl, probably 4-6 years old, standing up with their heads out of the sunroof. They were all smiles. A third child, a girl, maybe 6 years old  was sitting on her father's lap steering as he controlled the gas and brakes. Several vehicles had people riding with their heads popping out of the sunroofs. Welcome to Mexico.

We found a place to park on one of the curios shop lined side streets. As soon as we got out of the truck, we were approached by the adjacent shop's owner, "welcoming" us to his shop. "Beautiful shells, don't you think they're beautiful?" We escape and move on to another shop. This time, as soon as we enter the shop, the vulturess swoops in to try to sell Lisa a "beautiful" little purse, emblazoned with a colorful "Puerto Penasco". "this one is beautiful, this is very pretty, don't you like this one", etc.

What we once knew as "Fisherman's Row", is now lined with restaurants and bars. The few independent fish mongers who remain have been relocate off the main drag to smaller roads near the marina. We stopped on the way out of town and bought a couple pounds of medium shrimp for $6.00 per pound, and a couple pounds of flounder. The English speaking vender, held out a piece of flounder for me to smell for freshness. We were parked, ensuring our fish was well covered with ice and getting ready to leave, when an oncoming car veered head-on toward us in our lane, to avoid a large puddle in the road. We thought for sure this idiot was gonna hit us.



The drive home was uneventful. We got to the border, and stopped for Border Patrol to take our pictures; Never going through this process before, I had my head turned away from the camera. We pulled forward to the checkpoint. The Border Patrol agent asked what we were bring back with us. Vanilla, fish and some drinking glasses  - that's it, no alcohol, medication, illegals, or anything else. He said, "You two are no threat", and told us we could proceed. I think I felt offended. There was a second checkpoint outside of Why, then it was off to the races.

As we were exiting I-10, onto SR51, a car cut in front of us. We were sure glad and thankful I had been paying attention. We had just mentioned watching for people doing last minute lane changes. We got home at about 7:00.