Sorry about the lag here but I have been fighting a cold these last few days and that kept me from wanting to get on the pc while at home. In any case, this past weekend we took part in a madly-fast adventure into the Mexico-US border.

Puerto Peñasco (or Rocky Point as it is known in the US) is a small town that sits next to the Sea of Cortes and is only about 3 hours away from Phoenix. The small distance from Phoenix, makes this town the prime spot for residents of Arizona to get away for a quick party trip to the “beach”. I had heard of the town for many years now, since I was here for Junior College, but I had never managed to get across the border. Sarah was approached by one of her friends to go see the town on a quick overnight trip. Since neither one of us had ever been, we agreed to the madness of going into Mexico for just a few hours.

We left friday afternoon and as I said before, it is only 3 hours from Phoenix. By the time we met with Francesca (sp?) and her husband Lamar, we were in Mexico shortly after sunset. We were sort of bummed because we thought we might be lucky enough to catch the sunset by the beach but we missed it. However, this was Sarah’s first time into Mexico (other than our visit to XelHa) and she was able to see the poverty and quality of life associated with border towns. Why do I bring this up? Because, I want to show her that Mexico should not be known like that. Mexico is so much more than that but unfortunately so many people only know to associate poverty and cheap beer and food with the country where I was born.

Missing the sunset, meant we had to drive around town at night. Neither one of us had ever been in Rocky Point before so we weren’t sure where to go. Of course, streets signs do not appear to be a big investment in Puerto Peñasco so we had to take the “scenic tour” around much of the little town. At least, it made for a very quick introduction to the town, even though it was dark. After some running around, we managed to find our hotel and we were ready for a beer and some ceviche.

Disappointment #2 – we were recommended a restaurant that sits on the street where most of the action WAS supposed to be happening. Again, keep in mind we have never been here, so we took the receptionist’s word and ventured out to “Rocky Garden”. The food was not very good, variety was scarce and it was expensive. I figured out that life in this beach town was expensive all together since they can get away with pricing everything in dollars and at close to the same pricing scale as their American counterparts ($2.00 for a beer!).

After dinner, we decided that our weekend was not going to be ruined by dinner and the lack of people, in such a well known PARTY spot. We were going to drink our sorrows away and make Rocky Point be the party spot we wanted it to be. If nothing else just for the sake of remembering it that way!!! The girls kept up and we all party like rock stars (don’t ask how we all felt the next morning) and passed the night thinking we were in Ibiza (even though we had hurricane-like winds outside!!).

Morning came once again and it was time to wrap up our party weekend and head back to Phoenix. We caught lunch by the boardwalk and finally found a decent place to have some good ceviche and other sea food. It saved the weekend and kept us from going home without having some good grub ocean side.

I would say the very best thing about the whole experience was getting to know Francesca and Lamar. We had a lot of fun together and Sarah and I hope that we can become friends for a long time.