Puerto Peñasco

PUERTO PENASCO Story and Photographs by Lloyd and Rose Hamill

Puerto Peñasco is a small slice of Mexico that more and more Americans north of the border are finding a place of quiet enchantment. And on the plus side of this enchantment is the fact that this isolated fishing village on the gulf is less than 220 miles from either Phoenix or Tucson.

Tourists find the sport fishing excellent. And for those who don't care to fish the seven-mile crescent shaped beach is wide and sandy and never crowded. Close to shore the water is extremely calm with no dangerous drop-offs or rip tides. Children and adults alike find it difficult to resist collecting bucketfuls of beautiful sea shells.

Photographers can photograph sunsets over the gulf or the shrimp fleet at dawn or colorful hulks of abandoned boats.

Our family of five long ago fell under the spell of this area. We go down whenever we can fall, winter or mid-summer. Sometimes we camp on the beach, at other times we stay in a resort motel. Either way is a refreshing experience. Splashing around in the surf is lazily comfortable in the spring, summer and fall months. We're native Californians and accustomed to midsummer surf temperatures of 65° in the Los Angeles area. A few weeks ago we checked the surf temperature opposite the Playa Hermosa resort motel. The water was a soothing 85°.

To avoid any confusion about the name, Puerto Peñasco often goes by two other names: the Spanish Punta Peñasco and its anglo translation, Rocky Point.

The town was founded a mere thirty years ago when Mexican fishermen discovered rich shrimp beds just off the coast. There are two ice plants in town to supply the shrimp fleet and three packing plants. There's a railroad, a small airport and a paved highway leading into town from the U. S. border. As for the highway, Puerto Peñasco is the end of the line. There are no connecting roads on down the coast or inland.

"LOW TIDE - PUERTO PEÑASCO" BY RAY MANLEY. Puerto Peñasco, known as "Rocky Point" by sportsmen, is 210 miles from Phoenix on a paved highway. Tides run very high here, averaging twenty-two feet. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/100th sec.; 135mm Symmar lens; January; bright sun; Weston Meter 400; ASA rating 50.

"ALONG CHOLLA BAY" BY LLOYD HAMILL. Cholla Bay is eight miles via sandy road north of Puerto Peñasco. The road is good but washboardy with soft pockets of sand. Vast areas of scrubby cholla are found here, giving the bay its name. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome-X; f.11 at 1/100th sec.; Zeiss Tessar lens; late November; late afternoon with bright sun; ASA rating 64.

"ROCKY COAST SOUTH OF PUERTO PEÑASCO" BY LLOYD HAMILL. Photo taken along rocky beach on south side of Puerto Peñasco (north of town are miles of wide sandy beaches). This scene is terminus of rocky outthrust that gives city its common name, Punto Peñasco, (correct name is Puerto Peñasco, i.e., Rocky Port). Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome-X; f.16 at 1/100th sec.; Zeiss Tessar lens; late November; bril-liant sun.

"FISHING FLEET AT PUERTO PEÑASCO" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Some 66 miles south of the border. At low tide, some of the boats are stranded on dry ground, while others are unloading their daily catches. Besides being a very busy commercial fishing port, it is also very popular with sports fishermen from the States. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f. 16 at 1/25th sec.; Schneider Xenar lens; April; sunny day. The port of entry for Puerto Peñasco is the tiny U. S. border town of Lukeville. Just north of Lukeville stretches Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with its excellent camping facilities and miles of unique desert growth and scenery. To reach Lukeville from the Phoenix area take U. S. 80 to Gila Bend and turn south on Arizona 85 to Ajo. Continue south for eleven miles to the Rocky Point junction, keeping right. You will still be on Arizona 85 and Lukeville is twenty-eight miles. For twenty-three of these miles you will be driving through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

From Tucson take Arizona 86 via Sells. Most of the way to the Rocky Point junction you are on the Papago Indian Reservation. This is open range and you'll want to keep a watch out for wandering livestock. You often see deer and coyote also along this stretch of highway. At Rocky Point junction turn sharply to the left onto Arizona 85. Three miles south of the junction if you'll look up a rocky ridge a few hundred yards to your left you'll see the first clumps of Organ Pipe Cactus. This makes a good rest stop and will give the photographer a chance to record these rare (to the U. S.) cactus.

Lukeville is a town. There are roughly a dozen dwellings, a postoffice and a bar and at times you can buy gas and a few groceries. We recommend waiting a few miles to fill your gas tank at Sonoyta (sometimes spelled Sonoita). There's a good gas station on your left just as you enter town and just before you cross Mexico Federal Route 2 coming in from Tijuana and Mexicali.

At Lukeville you do nothing on the U. S. side. Just across the border you stop and tell the Mexican officials your destination. If you're going farther than Sonoyta an official will direct you to a parking area and ask you to go into the immigration office. Unlike some border stations the one here is closed from midnight until 8 a.m.

Formalities are brief and as of this year your tourist permit will cost you nothing. Among other things you are asked your age, birthplace, occupation and address. The rules are simple. You may obtain the permit up to ninety days before using it. The permit is good for thirty days and is non-renewable. If you enter the country accompanied by minors they must be with you upon departure. When you leave Mexico your tourist permit must be returned to the Mexican immigration authorities.To get your tourist permit you must have with you a copy of your birth certificate. (There's usually a notary public living in one of the trailer houses in Lukeville and should you forget your birth certificate a notarized statement will do.) If you are a naturalized citizen you must carry proof of naturalization. Citizens of Canada must have a Canadian Government passport. Citizens from other countries must have visaed passports.

Coming back into the U. S. you will have to have an up-to-date smallpox card. Pets are subject to U. S. Public Health Service regulations upon entry or re-entry into the States. This more or less means proof of a valid rabies shot.

One item you should take care of before you reach Lukeville is the purchasing of Mexican auto insurance. Your local insurance agent or travel agent can usually get this for you. Costs range from around $1.90 a day for a fairly new car to $2.85 a day for a car and house trailer or car and boat. In our opinion it is absolutely a must to get this insurance. Your U. S. auto insurance is of little help to you across the border and you could be delayed for days or even weeks should you be involved in any kind of an accident (even to running down a stray cow).

As for money, it is not necessary to exchange your dollars for pesos. The businessmen of Puerto Peñasco will gladly accept U. S. dollars just as most leading merchants in Tucson for example accept Mexican money. The current exchange rate is 12.5 pesos for $1. With this exchange ratio you need only multiply pesos by .08 to find out how much you should pay in U. S. money.

There's a Mexican customs check station on the south side of Sonoyta. The station is often unmanned and if an officer is on duty he merely checks your permits and waves you on. Once out of town you're back in desert country very much like that on the Arizona side. Fifteen miles below the border you're still surrounded by rocky ridges and peaks. Vegetation is dense: Organ Pipe, senita, saguaro and cholla cactus plus mesquite, creosote, ironwood and palo verde.

The highway is paved and kept in good condition. However, the road is narrow and there is no dividing stripe. Caution signs warn of vados (dips) and others show a silhouette of a cow to warn of livestock.

Emerging from the desert, Puerto Peñasco is a rerefreshing sight. On your right is a calm, blue-green bay tected by a long rocky out thrust. This bold outcropping of rock gives the town its common name: Rocky Point (Spanish: Punta Peñasco). The fishermen here are a hardy lot, forever optimistic about bigger and better catches. They work hard from September through April with October, November and December the big months. During the late spring and summer they beach their fleet (currently seventy-five boats in the 65-foot class) and spend long hours scraping and painting and tinkering with engines. And there are nets to repair and songs to sing. This past summer two new shrimp boats were built right out on the sandy beach. Much of the wood for these new boats came from heavy mesquite logs hauled in from the Sonoyta River area. The business district is perched right on the tip of the rocky point. There's a modern bank and school, a church, city hall, postoffice, the former New Cortez Motel, packing plants and a score of stores. Some of the townspeople live on the rock too, but many more live north and east on flat land. How many people live here is anyone's guess. A sign north of town proclaims a population of 7,000. A local businessman told us the average population for the past ten years has been about 4,500.

The restless tourist in search of gay nightlife will find none. Perhaps this lack of nightlife prompted the Pemex Travel Club of Mexico City to have this to say in their 1964 brochure on Puerto Peñasco: "No one has ever thought of Punta Peñasco as the ideal place to spend a honeymoon, for instance, or to take a relative whose health is failing for a good rest cure."

Frankly neither of us agrees with this evaluation! Accommodations are in short supply and in order not to be disappointed have your travel agent make reservations several weeks in advance of your planned arrival. There are two hotels downtown on the point and one resort motel on the beach. One hotel is the Peñasco and is quite good. The building is made of stone and has one long corridor. The ceiling is very high and the walls are hung with beautiful Indian metal masks. A few of the rooms have bathrooms, the others do not. Price for a room with a double bed and bath is $4; for two double beds, $8. There is no air conditioning. There are electric fans. The people who run the Peñasco speak little or no English but there is usually someone around who will gladly translate for you.

The motel resort is the Playa Hermosa on the right as you enter town at kilometer post 102. This is the only overnight accommodation that the Mexican Government Tourism Department would recommend to us. The Playa, surrounded by tall palms, is right on the beach. The rooms are clean, the beds good. There are thirty-four air conditioned rooms (fourteen connecting room units) each with bath. Cooking is not allowed in any of the rooms but many families bring barbecue grills and cook on the verandas or on the beach. There is an armed guard who patrols the resort from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. daily.

For those who care to bring a trailer or to camp, the Playa has an area for this next to the motel on the beach. Space charge is $1 a day and this includes water. Rates at the motel range from $6.96 for one person to $13.36 for five in the one room units and from $9.20 for two to $14.40 for five in the two room units.

After a rather sharp drop off in front of the motel (there are steps for those who don't want to scramble up and down the bank) the beach has an exceedingly gradual slope. This same gradual slope extends for hundreds of yards out into the bay. For those wanting to fish, the motel manager can arrange for a boat and local guide for about $40 a day for up to five people. A Mexican fishing license (also obtained at the motel) will cost you only 80s and is good for your stay.

Most fishermen, however, shun Puerto Peñasco and instead go to nearby Cholla Bay or Sandy Beach. These fishing and camping spots are from seven to eight miles from town. On your way from the border look for kilometer post 99 and take first road to right (west). If you miss this one there is another road just before Km. 100. This second turnoff to Cholla Bay has a small faded sign reading bahia de choya. Both are dirt roads and come together about a mile after leaving the pavement. Bear slightly right and cross the railroad tracks. Continue in a northwesterly direction. Ahead of you the first point of rock up the bay from Puerto Peñasco is Pelican Point. Sandy Beach is left of this point and Cholla Bay is right. Sandy Beach each is ideal for the family that wants to camp on the beach or bring a small house trailer. Fishing from shore with a spin outfit (using fifteen pound test monofilament line) is unpredictable sometimes you can go for a day without a strike and then again you may land thirty or forty sea trout in a couple of hours. These good eating fish run about twenty inches long. Many fishermen like to use small (no longer than three inches) chrome spoons like the Fiord with one treble hook. Others use a feathered jig. But small off-shore reefs play havoc with lures and you can lose a small fortune in a day or two. To cut down on this expense many fishermen use a plain hook baited with shrimp or a small chunk of fish and cast without any sinker. Always fish with the incoming tide. That's when the fish are coming in to feed near shore. In addition to sea trout you may also catch pompano from shore.

If you have a boat, follow the road that leads to the right (north) side of Pelican Point. At road's end is Cholla Bay. The entire length of the road into Sandy Beach and Cholla Bay is narrow, sandy, washboardy. Even on the better stretches top speed would be 20 mph. If you pull off the road you may sink to the floorboards in soft sand. Our VW bus did when we stopped to take a picture of the sunset.

Cholla Bay can be a disappointment. Americans have leased the land and put up a lot of jerry-built shacks. However, on the plus side there are a few handsome vacation homes. Cholla Bay, like the entire town of Puerto Peñasco has no drinking water. Tank trucks haul water (100,000 gallons a day from wells some twenty miles north of town). The water is sold for 32 a 50gallon barrel in town.

With U. S. money, the University of Arizona in cooperation with the University of Sonora, has built a de-salting plant at Puerto Peñasco. The plant, run by solar energy, is a pilot affair and has been producing about 3,000 gallons daily. This pure water is given free to the local hospital and school.

But as of now tourists should not drink local water bottled or otherwise. Take your water supply with you or if you must drink local water boil it for ten minutes or use two Halazone tablets per pint. Let treated water stand thirty minutes before drinking.

At Cholla Bay a local resident will launch and haul your boat back out for $3. You can usually rent a boat here too for $40 a day. Up to five people can usually go out. If you use your own boat be sure it's seaworthy. It should be at least a 16-foot one with a broad beam and good depth. If you're going out into the blue water you must have at least a 25 hp motor and in addition you should have an auxiliary motor just in case. Once you are away from the protection of the little bays fierce waves can engulf you with awesome swiftness.But far out or in close the fishing can be fabulous. And the selection is widely varied. You may catch white and black sea bass, sea trout, grouper, red snapper, halibut, pompano. And now and then a sailfish. Just to keep the action going you'll probably hook and land numerous sharks.

And while you're out fishing the landlubbers in your party will be swimming, sunbathing or gathering those sea shells by the bucketful.