Over the past 2-3 weeks we have been quite busy. Before Dan and Wanda left we spent several days with them. They ended up staying a week longer than planned but had to eventully leave as the Canadians buy special medical insurance when they come to the US. Their insurance is only good for a set number of days and Wanda and Dan had to be home by the end of March. Received an email last week saying they made it home safe.
Pat and John(Judy and Jan's sister) left on March 22 and Judy, Ken and Jan left on Monday March 24th. We spent a lot of time with them and was sorry to see them leave.
We decided to go ahead and take a trip down to Puerto Penasco, Mexico after the Jackson's left. We all talked about going together next year but since we had little going on this past week decided to just leave the motor home here in Yuma, drive the car down and get a place to stay for a night. Puerto Penasco is known to the American's by the name of Rocky Point. It is located about 3-4 hours from Yuma. Since we had no idea about the driving in Mexico we decided to drive to Gala Ridge, AZ and cut down to Lukesville to cross the border there. That meant we only had to drive 60 miles in Mexico to get there.
When we got to Lukesville, we stopped before crossing the border and bought car insurance for Mexico. I believe it cost $59.00 for 3 days. After leaving Lukesville we drove it seemed forever as the road was 2 lane and wound around several mountain ranges. We drove through a part of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, which was about the most scenic sights we saw on the trip down. The mountains and low lands were covered in Cactus. One of my favorite cactus is the Ocotillo Cactus, which grows very tall with thin cactus shoots and have a beautiful orangish-red flower at the tip of each cactus shoot. We saw many of these mixed among the organ pipe cactus.
After almost 2 hours of driving we came into Puerto Penasco. Larry had made a reservation online for a hotel and after driving the town a couple of times, one of the fishermen gave us directions to find the hotel. When we got there it was not terrible looking but could not have been a 4-star hotel as advertised on the web. We got the room key and went up to the room and pulled the sheets back on the beds looking for bugs. This is the first thing I do regardless of where we stay. The beds looked clean but the room was just barely adequate. We did not take any of our luggage in and got in the car to drive down to the ocean. We were starved and found a nice little bar and grill called 'The Hut' and stopped for lunch. Larry always has the urge to order something extra ordinary and then complains that he doesn't like it! So true to form, he ordered shrimp in some type of strange sauce. It was like a tomato base but very thin and flavored with Basil, which just wrecked his day! He sat and picked out the little pieces of Basil all during lunch and finally was able to eat the shrimp. Since he never wonders out of the 'box' on his likes and dislikes of food it amazes me that he orders the weird offerings from the menu. I had a chimmachunga which was editable but not the best I've experienced. The only thing that was great was the beer!!!!
The city of Puerto Penasco is quite poor in most spots, however it appeared they had some upper class areas just east out of town and the west side looked pretty new. The majority of the main town was very poverty stricken. I was a little concerned about the area the hotel was located as well and was wondering if our car would be stripped when we came out tomorrow morning.
View from our Condo of the Sea of CortezAfter we finished our lunch we drove back in an area of new Condo's located on the Ocean front on the Sea Of Cortez, and Larry wanted to stop to find out if they had rentals available. He went in and ended up renting a Condo for $220. We now have now invested $80 for the original room plus the amount for the condo for 1 night. Oh well, the condo was so beautiful, I could have cared less about the money. We had a 1 bedroom condo, which was really huge, on the 4th floor of the Los Palmos Resort. What an absolutely beautiful resort with probably 4 pools and 2 or 3 hot tubs and was right on the ocean front. The views were amazing!! We had a beautiful covered balcony with wicker furniture and the temperature was perfect the whole time we were there.
We went down to the beach and ended up stopping at the pool side bar for a drink. We sat there enjoying the weather and the beautiful view and a waitress came up to ask if we needed anything. We started talking to her and found that she had been deported from Phoenix, AZ. She grew up in Phoenix, married and had 2 children. Her husband was an American but after their divorce she got stopped by police for running a stop sign and they found she had no legal papers and deported her. What a sad story because she had to leave her children with her mother in Phoenix and she is forbidden to return for 10 years. She was 28 years old and she said she spoke little Spanish which made it hard for her to find a job. She is living with her Aunt in Peurto Penasco and was deported with only the cloths she had on! She talked about how corrupt the Mexican police are and how they find anything possible to put you in jail. We felt so bad after hearing all she had to say but I told Larry I had a feeling there was more to her story than she shared. Regardless, to have to be separated from your children for 10 years is a horrible punishment!!
We decided rather than risking driving back into town for dinner that we would just eat at the resort. We went down to the restaurant and each ordered a hamburger and after ordering soda to drink the waitress came back and brought us each a beer. She told us it was free with our meal but would have been nice to know before ordering the soda. She then brought out a tiny tea cup with something in it. We asked her what it was and we thought she said soup so Larry asked for a spoon. She indicated we just were to drink it from the cup. We started laughing as I don't think there was a spoon small enough to get inside the cup. We drank some of it found it was basically bouillon but when we got to the bottom, there were tiny bits of shrimp in it, which I assume deemed it to be 'soup'. She brought out the hamburgers and fries and when I took the first bite of the hamburger, I thought my lips would burn off and the meat had a really funky flavor!! Larry made my meal complete by saying it was probably ground donkey meat. Needless to say, I didn't finish my meal. Good thing I wasn't that hungry.
We had them make us a coffee to go and went back up to the condo. We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the beautiful evening. I was a bit surprised at how dimly lit the entire resort was. I did not feel entirely safe walking back from the restaurant even though it was part of the resort. During the day, there were many security guards present and I can only assume they were around after dark but because we could hardly see to walk back, I wasn't sure.
We got up on Friday and ordered coffee and rolls from room service. Took our time relaxing before we checked out. When we left the resort Larry wanted to drive down the ocean a short distance to a camp ground one of the guys from Los Quintas in Yuma had told us about. We drove a short distance and the paved road ran out and was nothing but a sand base to drive on. We found the campground and stopped in the office to find out a few details and ask if we could drive on into the camping area. When we drove in a short ways, we saw a lady walking so stopped and asked if she was staying there and she said yes. We asked her if they liked it and she said it was very safe with security around all day and night. She, her husband and kids had been coming down from Tuscan for many years and she told us a lot about buying food, etc. We noticed when we drove into town on Thursday that there was a Sam's Club and she said a lot of what they buy comes from Sams but that there were several grocery stores that she trusted in town. She also said that if we followed the road that we came in on we would come into a little village called Cholla Bay. We continued around the RV park and saw that many of the sites faced the ocean and there were many people staying in the campground. We saw about 3 or 4 Tiffin Motor Homes parked facing the ocean.
We drove down to a point on the ocean and through the village of Cholla Bay. Some parts of the village were very poverty looking and then there were many parts that were populated with beautiful expensive homes. Many of the big homes were setting next to very run down poor areas. We stopped and talked to a guy who was getting ready to fish. He was an American and said he spends about 6-7 months each year at Rocky Point. He said he felt very safe being there and loved the winter weather. Where we talked to the fisherman there was a bar that we went in and I bought a Tshirt and beer cozies.
We drove back to Rocky Point and on into town. We went down to the harbor and bought shrimp and scallops from the fisherman. It was past lunch time so I asked the guy we bought the shrimp from where a good place was to eat. He pointed to a very small restaurant across the road but when we drove past, there was no place to park so we drove on into town but saw nothing that looked promising for lunch. We turned around and drove back and happened to find a parking place so we parked and went in to the restaurant the guy told us about. It was called 'The Coffeehaus'. The place was small, very nice and clean and the waitress's were very clean and spoke English quite well. We were looking at the menu when 5 people came in and sat at the table next to us. We realized they were Americans so I started talking to the lady next to me. She said she had lived in Rocky Point for 24 years in a Condo and the other 4 people lived at an RV Park just a short distance from the restaurant. She said everything they served was wonderful but she recommended the BLT. We both ordered the BLT and shared a salad and fries. It was the best BLT I've ever had with maybe the exception of one Leslie made us last summer. The bread was homemade and was just delicious. We talked a lot to the group next to us and the guy gave Larry instructions on how to get back to the Costal Highway which would take us to San Luis Border Crossing and cut our travel time down by more than an hour. He said the highway was a very good road and lightly traveled. He found a local paper at the restaurant that had a map in it to give us.
Before we left the restaurant, we ordered coffees and a piece of homemade streusel which was also recommended by the lady next to us. She also told me I could buy T-shirts and souvenirs just down the street so we drove down and found the shop. I bought the little girls a tank top and Oliver a t-shirt, the girls each a dress that I think they will like and Larry and I a t-shirt. I haggled with the lady and made a pretty good deal on the lot.
We drove back out of town to find our route back to San Luis and finally found the right road or at least it seemed to match the description from the guy at restaurant. None of the road signs are in English so it's a guessing game. We were quite sure we were on the right road so we left town and the road was a wonderful road, very wide and a nice surface for driving.
We drove about 2 hours and many places we could see the ocean along the highway. Other than the beautiful sights of the ocean there was nothing else to see. We met few cars and few cars passed us so I can see where it is not a real safe road but we encountered nothing unsettling until we got to within about 40 miles from San Luis. We came to a Mexican check area and when we stopped, we were questioned in Spanish. We tried to tell the guard that we did not speak Spanish. I believe he said he did not speak English and I think he asked where we had been and he understood Rocky Point. The whole time we were there, he had a smurk on his face like he could blow us away and enjoy it!!! Finally after he rattled on and no one was understanding, he waved us on. I had just a moment of panic after we left. Makes you realize that your life lies in the hands of the Mexican authorities regardless of how careful you are.
We arrived in San Luis Mexico and were shocked at the size of the city. We have been to San Luis, AZ just on the US side of border and it is a tiny, dirty town. The Mexican side is a huge city but also pretty dirty looking. We missed the road to the border and had to turn around and try to find the right street to take us to the border crossing. We ended up going down a one way street the wrong way and when we made a U-turn, the car in line where we made the turn held back and we were able to cut in line ahead of a huge line of cars. We sat in line for probably 20 minutes to cross but when we got to the US side the line of cars going into Mexico was probably 2 miles long. We were very relieved to be back in US. San Luis, AZ is only about 20 miles from Yuma so had a short drive home. I think the trip home was about 3.5 hours verses the trip down of probably an hour longer.
We talked about possibly taking the motor home back down for a couple of weeks to Rocky Point after we leave here on the 5th. We thought about it more and decided to wait until next year. Mike, a guy who is here in Los Quintas goes down with his motor home every year before coming here and we saw many motor homes at the RV Park on the ocean that we visited. Mike says he has never had any problems taking his RV across the border.
Saturday we went into the Farmers Market at the mall and bought tomatoes. We then went to the outdoor flea market as I had a top to exchange and we stayed for a couple of beer and listened to the entertainment. When we came home I cleaned and cooked the shrimp and scallops that we bought at Rocky Point. The shrimp was wonderful but I messed up the scallops as I think I cooked them too long and they were rubbery.
Hank our neighbor from New York State is leaving tomorrow so I walked over to say goodbye after dinner. His son is flying in to Yuma tonight to help him drive home.
Sunday I worked all day on laundry. The weather was really weird today and the wind kicked up the dust so bad that we could hardly see the mountains. It got hot enough later in the day that we had to turn on the air conditioner again. In a lot of ways I'll be glad to go home as the heat is just as bad as the cold.
Wayne and Evelyn who we have been next door to for the past 2 years are leaving tomorrow for home as well as Doris who is across from us. We met Doris the first year we came here. She is from Idaho and Wayne and Evelyn are Canadians. Will be very few people here next week as so many have already left.
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