“Arizona’s Beach” is located three to four hours south of Phoenix (depending on who is driving). Affectionately known as Rocky Point, this town is in the upper section of the Gulf of California. After a drive through the lovely town of Gila Bend, and past the military gunnery range, through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, then you cross the border at Lukeville and into the town of Sonoita. The radar guns that the police in Sonoita have are all fixed on 40 MPH so that when they see a gringo (someone with license plates other than Mexico), they pull them over and tell them that they were speeding through Sonoita where the speed limit is 20 mph. Your options are to go with them to the police station and wait until the Judge arrives (four to six hours) or pay the “fine” of anywhere between $40.00 and $80.00.
After successfully navigating the gauntlet at Sonoita, it is a relatively straight shot through the desert to Rocky Point.
On the way back to Arizona one time, we came up to a traffic jam in the National Park. It had been raining in the area quite heavily. All of the washes were running with water,
and one had washed so much sand onto the roadway that the Highway Department had to bring in heavy equipment to clear the road. Of course, this brought traffic to a stand still for about an hour.
Rocky Point is a fishing village that has evolved into a tourist trap. Many Americans have gone there for a weekend getaway. In fact, North and west of Rocky Point is the development of Cholla Bay that is kind of like the original Ex-Pat hideout. Now there are many developments south of the town that dwarf Cholla Bay.
To the north of Cholla Bay, about ten miles outside of Puerto Penasco, on the road to El Golfo, is a development called Laguna Shores. There are many developments along this stretch of road, but this particular one, we had the opportunity to stay there a few times. It is a development of home sites with a common olympic sized swimming pool on the beach, and a restaurant on site.
The idea is for individuals to purchase the lots and build a house that meets the requirements of the developers. They have plans for an 18 hole golf course, but when we stayed there the golf course was still in the planning stages.
They had developed a few condo buildings with four or five units per building – each one a two or three bedroom unit with a full kitchen and two or three bathrooms. Typically 1600 to 2000 square feet. There were about eight or ten homes built in the development, and a four story apartment building with four or five units on each floor. A rather nice development.
They would rent these condos to prospective buyers. We purchased a packaged deal where we could stay there for five weekends – three days and two nights, check in on Friday, and check out on Sunday. Very peaceful. Swim in the pool or the ocean/gulf. Walk along the beach. North of the property about a quarter of a mile was a place where there was a small estuary. The sand piled up next to the estuary and thousands of large shells piled up here.
When the tide went out, the shore extended out about quite a ways, so that it would take twenty to thirty minutes to walk out to the water’s edge. Then a few hours later, it would be back up near the pool.
Another place we contemplated purchasing for our “shack on the beach”
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 