Puerto Pinasco, Mexico 2009

May, 2009

Sixty miles south of the Arizona boarder Puerto Pinasco sits at the top of the Sea of Cortez. As our 3rd year on this adventure this trip was probably the best yet for two reasons, first because we went in May and it was warm in the 80’s and second we had the place to ourselves.

The first time we joined this adventurous group mostly, it was late March 2007 & fairly cool. There were 12 rigs & we tried to go out to eat a lot. This year we have evolved. We went out only the last night to the Point high up on the hill. The rest of the time we planned meals to share each night together. There was way too much food and laughs on the beach to go around! We will fine tune even more next year.

The warm weather made all the difference! Everyone swam & sunbathed plus the dogs entertained us romping in the water. They (all 8) completely forgot about their lives on a leash. There were 22 of us this year and our ramrod’s Don & Janice Fox have developed a great routine where we spend a night in Ajo, Az., buy our Mexican insurance and drive into Puerto Pinasco, The Reef RV Park in less then 2 hours arriving before lunch.

The bad press about the banditos & the swine flu plus the economy has taken their toll. All construction projects are stopped. The half built Esmeralda looks the same as it did when we were here last year and the Marriott has pulled out altogether with only rusty rebar columns coming out of a foundation. The people do not have food to feed their dogs so there are many more skinny hungry creatures combing the city streets. The RV Park was just about empty except for us as we made sure we are a couple weeks past the spring break crowd.

Our motorhomes are parked right ON the beach and we soon melted into the relaxation. The 80 degree weather made for delightful nights & campfires on the beach but it also made for more flies. Next year we will bring our 12’ x 20’ screen room for the food.

We made our usual caravan to Choallo Bay for lunch at the cantina overlooking the bay plus several shopping excursions. Some even had dental work & upholstery work while in P.P.. We made our annual donation to the beach vendors & ate wonderful fresh tamales & chili reillanos for breakfast each morning. Barbara Killough tried to single handedly keep all the jewelry stores in business. Larry Bodle was the fixit man. Dick Bathard designated himself Mr. Helpful as he was the clean up crew & right there when ever anyone needed anything including Mary’s search for the right purse. The pilgrimage is highlighted by the annual fish fry. Don Fox prepares his famous fried shrimp, Ed Conklin makes a giant pot of steamed clams and Ruth Jenkins fries up oysters, all of this fresh & purchased locally. What a feast!

Another next year memo was to take a dinner boat cruise. The Sea of Cortez is very quite, at least this time it costs about $25 per person & in May on a balmy evening it would be a delight.

I collected a little sea glass and bill got a little sick. It was a wonderful trip. Everyone present said they would like to return next year for longer then a week perhaps even 2 weeks!