In Which We Camp On A Mexican Beach

True fact: even though we are living in a large desert in southern Arizona, we are only a four-hour drive away from a beach. The catch is that the beach is in a different country! Puerto Peñasco (or "Rocky Point" to us gringos) is located in the Mexican state of Sonora; it sits on one of the northernmost parts of the Gulf of California. For decades, Puerto Peñasco was a sleepy fishing town; in the last few decades, though, it has begun to morph into a popular tourist destination for landlocked Arizonans.  Large resort hotels are starting to pop up along the shoreline; golf courses, restaurants, bars, and other forms of entertainment (four-wheeler rentals, sailing classes, etc.) soon followed. The recession in the late 2000s slowed Rocky Point's growth considerably, but it is still a city in transition, from a sleepy industrial center to a lively tourist trap.

Nathan and I heard about Rocky Point very soon after moving to Arizona. Nathan actually visited the city a few years ago on a short business trip, and he brought back a favorable report. We often talked about taking a trip there as a family, but we never made concrete plans to go. Finally, this fall, we were inspired to give it a try by many of our friends who have already made the journey.

The Egbert family, who are members of the LDS congregations adjacent to our own, have taken family camping trips to Rocky Point twice a year for several years now. Their preferred destination is the Playa Bonita RV Resort (an offshoot of the next-door Playa Bonita Hotel). It is a low-frills RV park that is located right next to the beach. The Egberts (Richard, Kara, and their five children) drive to the park, set up their large family tents, and camp out beach-side for several days. They'll spend hours at a time relaxing on the beach, letting their kids build sand-castles and ride the waves. At other times, they'll also go exploring the town and try out new experiences there as well. Over the years, they've invited scores of friends along for the adventure, and a few families have become "partners" with the Egberts in planning and organizing the camp-outs (typically, they go once during the early fall, and then again in the spring).

In recent years, legends of the Puerto Peñasco camping trips have expanded throughout our community, and more and more families have been interested in participating--us included! We finally decided to join in the fun this fall, for a few reasons. Our family hadn't taken a camping trip yet in 2015; we knew many of the people going, and thus wouldn't feel too lonely or out of our depth; we wanted to try a camp-out of more than one night (which we had yet to accomplish as a family); and we wanted to see more of Mexico. So far, our family's experiences in Mexico have been limited to an occasional day trip in Nogales, which is hardly representative of the country as a whole.

Besides those reasons, most of us were curious about what it would be like to camp on a beach; Nathan and I aren't the biggest fans of the beach, but we thought it might prove fun for the kids and at the least a unique adventure for us. Best of all, Nathan would be able to navigate our way around the country, since he still speaks fairly good Spanish. The kids were excited by the prospect, and Nathan and I thought it would be a great little vacation to close out our long Arizona "summer."

So we contacted the RV Resort, mailed them our deposit, and started planning our trip.We decided to stay three nights, mainly because Nathan wouldn't be able to get any more time off than that (especially considering he'd already taken time off to go see Wicked just a day before). On Friday, October 2nd, we hurriedly packed our car; the very next day (Saturday the 3rd) we headed out in the afternoon (after listening to some of the LDS General Conference broadcast). The drive was uneventful; the roads were in good shape, the traffic was minimal, and the weather was warm and pleasant. We arrived in Puerto Peñasco shortly before the sun set.

 

We were immediately impressed by the view, and we had a lovely walk along the beach that night just after setting up our tent. We also drove into town for our dinner; there are a lot of yummy little cafes throughout the city that we gladly sampled during our stay. That night, however, we noticed something unexpected: it was pretty windy! Our tent was constantly creaking, swaying, and rocking back and forth, due to the heavy gusts coming in off the Gulf. Needless to say, the noise (plus the wall of the tent knocking me on the head over and over) made for a mostly sleepless night. The next night was more of the same.

I know you can't see it here (except manifested by the waves), but there was a lot of wind in these pictures.

Sadly, this wind was our near-constant companion on this trip. The Rocky Point veterans we stayed with (the Egbert and Carlsen families in particular) were as surprised by the weather as we were. They swore it had never been windy for them before; at the majority of their visits, the air and the water were both calm and still all day and into the night. Not this time, though! I sometimes wondered if the weather gods decided to play a special prank on us to welcome our family to Mexico.

We waited (and waited, and waited) for the wind to die down. Throughout Sunday and Monday, however, it continued unabated. In fact, on Monday morning, it grew especially strong...up to thirty-mile-per-hour gusts! While walking around outside, the wind sometimes threw me off balance.  Palm trees groaned under the strain; the waves got really choppy; birds sought shelter. We sought shelter, too...luckily, the RV park had a "social club" and we were able to spend a great deal of time inside. Luckily, lots of the Carlsens are board-game lovers and brought along several of the European-style games that our family loves. That, combined with the games already on hand in the social club, helped us all pass the time.

 

I braided Celeste's hair; it both kept me busy while sitting indoors, and helped keep Celeste's hair from blowing into her face for the rest of the trip. Lorelai and Aurora both refused braids of their own, however. In spite of the wind, the girls still had a lot of fun at the beach; they would spend long hours running in and out of the surf, looking for shells, riding the waves, building sandcastles, burying themselves in the sand, and exploring the shoreline.

 

 

Sitting on the beach was less fun for me; due to the wind, I was unable to set up the shade structure we'd brought. I had to park myself on a beach towel (that blew away every time I stood up), with no protection but my sunglasses. We all got pretty sandblasted and sunburned on this trip!

By Monday night, the wind had slacked off a bit, but by then the damage was done. Our tentpoles had been so battered by the gusts of wind that the entire shape of the tent had become warped. Just after darkness fell Monday night, the tent collapsed and we weren't able to fix it. We had to pull out our sleeping bags from the wreckage and spend the night in the social club. We felt a little bit like hurricane victims hiding out from the weather. It was also a little embarrassing to be in that predicament when many others in our party were managing just fine. In a way, this trip reminded us how ill-prepared we were for "roughing it" on our own.

However, we weren't alone in our frustration. In fact, this outing (which was originally to have had 12 families participating) shrunk significantly as the wind raged on. Several families packed up and went home after just one night, citing their frustration with the weather as their reason for leaving. So even if we grumbled a lot, at least we stuck it out and finished our stay, despite the temptation to leave. If nothing else, it made us feel like we'd accomplished something difficult.

But hey! Things weren't all bad on this trip. Let's take a look at some of the highlights:

 

We got to eat at a lot of yummy restaurants...especially Pollo Lucas, which was a no-frills fire-grilled chicken diner. We ordered a whole chicken; it came with sides of tortillas, salsas, rice, and amazing spicy refried beans. It was incredibly delicious; !

On our last day, we got to eat at this little roadside diner. They had all sorts of different items on their menu...if you were in the mood to eat cow. If you were craving any other animal, then sorry...they couldn't help you!

 

I decided to walk on the (slightly) wild side and try a taco de cabeza (meat from the cow's face!). It wasn't half bad! For the record, it tasted a lot like pot roast...nice and tender, a little on the fatty side, with a mild flavor.

 In spite of the wind, we still had a lot of time to catch up on our reading. I brought a nice mystery as my "beach book," and Lorelai inched closer to finishing out the Harry Potter series (she'd finish the final book just days after we got home). Nathan spent more time doing puzzles than reading, but he enjoyed it anyway. It was a nice activity to do while listening to General Conference broadcast through the Egbert's cell phone.

 

There was a "hot tub" next to this little ramada; I'm not convinced the water was heated at all. But that didn't stop the girls from spending hours playing inside it, both with themselves and with their friends.

 

We took several short trips into town; however, my favorite trip was further down the shoreline into a tiny village called Bahia la Cholla.  It sits just adjacent to Sandy Beach, and is home to some really cool tidal flats. It was fun to drive our car right out along the flats, and explore the lands which would be covered by water again in a few hours.

 

We got to see lots of incredible shells and pebbles on the tidal flats.

 

I also saw several tiny crabs scuttling along the ground from hole to hole. They looked exactly like most crabs (big pincers, sideways walk), but they were barely bigger than ants! I wasn't able to get a clear picture of them, but they were still really neat to see.

 

The morning we left (Tuesday, October 6th) was of course calm and beautiful. I shook my fist in rage at the sky, cursing the weather for calming down just as we were headed home. At least we had one lovely morning on the beach with friends! Lorelai learned how to boogie board, and wanted to stay and practice for hours.

I was relieved she had so much fun that morning; she had been the grouchiest of our three children regarding the weather. I was happy she made some nice memories that last morning.

Despite having to wait a while at the US/Mexico border, our drive home was uneventful. We left behind several families, including the Egberts and Carlsens. The Egberts in particular were real troopers; they stayed from Friday night until the following Thursday! They were amazing campers and their high spirits were a real inspiration to us. I wish we could have shared their enthusiasm, even in the face of the unfortunate weather. We couldn't have chosen better people to go camping with!

Overall, I'd say our trip was about half good, half bad. Nathan was a good sport throughout, even though neither he nor I especially enjoy beaches or camping. I wish the weather had been better, as it really restricted what we could do at times and it discouraged us on several occasions. However, we enjoyed a lot of our outings, and we saw a lot of potential in another Rocky Point trip in the future.

Next time, though, we probably won't bring our tent! The Playa Bonita Resort hotel, which sits right next to the RV park, had very reasonable room rates. It's very possible we'll return to the beach...but this time, with a cozy, secure hotel room to retreat to, if the wind should decide to pick up again. I guess this proves that I am a city-fied wimp...but if that's going to be my label, so be it! I would love to go camping again...and I would love to visit Rocky Point again...but I don't think I ever want to do both those things at the same time again. Either way, though, it would be nice to have friends along at our next Rocky Point visit; they made our challenges more bearable and our downtime more fun. We're blessed to know a lot of great people!