Driving to Puerto Penasco, Mexico (Friday, April 28th, 2017)

We have wanted to visit Puerto Penasco, Mexico for a long time, but didn’t really know how to go about it. But our friends Tony and Joyce have been there before, and wanted to head down again, so we joined them on their adventure. We headed out of Lake Havasu City at 9:00 this morning. Our first stop was in the small town of Gila Bend. We stopped at the Loves, on the far side of town for gas, then continued on. 

Highway 85 South between Gila Bend and Ajo is desolate, but very beautiful, with huge saguaros, hills and cholla.

Our second stop was in Ajo, Arizona, where we purchased our auto insurance for the 5 days we will be in Mexico. It was $11 per day (each 24 hour period) and a $15 processing fee. They had some warnings about the speed limit in the border town of Sonoyta, and that it is strictly enforced.

Went through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which had beautiful scenery. This would be the perfect time of year to spend some time in this park. Everything was blooming. Late April to early May would be ideal. 

We have spent a lot of time in Mexico in the past, but we have never driven into Mexico, so this will be new to us. As we crossed the border, a Mexican border Patrol came out to our RV and asked if we would open our door for him, so I walked back and unlocked the main door. He came in and quickly walked around the RV and looked into the bathroom, then wished us a good day and sent us on our way. Joyce and Tony said that they had to provide the registration for the jeep they were pulling for prove that it wasn’t stolen. Other than that, no hassles.

The town across the border is called Sonoyta, and has a large gas station and lots of pharmacies. It’s a pretty big town, but not a tourist town, and definitely not a big city.

The road from Sonoyta down to Puerto Penasco was a really nice two lane highway. It has signs that say “Hassel Free Zone for USA” We're not sure exactly what this means, but the road was in great shape and almost all of the cars were from the US. We only saw two Mexican license plates on this road.

We got to our RV Park at about 4:00 and checked in. We stayed at the Playa Bonita RV Park.  We got two spots side by side, on a Friday afternoon with no reservation. The spots were about 20 feet wide and 25 feet deep.  We had water, sewer hook ups as well as 30-amp power hook-ups.  Our RV spot cost us $24 per night that must be paid in cash.  They do not accept credit cards.  The park was fairly full but definitely had lots of spots available. We got settled into our spots and then immediately headed to the beach for our first beach combing experience of the trip.

The beaches are super clean and beautiful!

We walked along the beach toward the malacon, but didn’t make it clear down there. 

We passed by a restaurant that was part of the Playa Bonita Resort and went in for dinner. 

Steve ordered a fish Veracruzano, a large grilled fish fillet with a tomato, white wine, caper, onion, olive sauce on top. 

Fish Veracruzano

I had a seven seas soup, which was tomato based fish soup with seven different kinds of seafood. Clams, mussels, oysters, fish, shrimp and crab. 

Seven Seas Soup

They were both super healthy and really tasty. The soup was $12.95, fish was $13.25. Beer was $3 and red wine was $4. We would definitely order the again!

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset while we had our dinner and then made our way back down the beach to our camp.

 We walked back along the beach to our RV Park. This little town is so friendly and feels very safe!