Golfing in Puerto Penasco (Monday, June 18th, 2018)

We woke this morning to the sound of waves crashing outside our bedroom window. It is so peaceful here! We lounged around outside the motor home enjoying our coffee, our breakfast, and our friends. Our camp faces the beach, and is the perfect place to hang out, we love it!

When the tide is out, it is way out!

Eventually the boys fund the energy and took a trip to town, converted some dollars to pesos, and toured around. We girls stayed back, walked the dogs and did some beach combing.

Then Tony and Joyce and the two of us made our way out to the Vidanta Golf course to play a round of golf.

We played this course last June, when Steve and I had only been playing golf for about a month, so it was really difficult for us at that point. So we went out today with an open mind, wondering if it would be any easier, and what we would think of the course this year.

When we got there, we received the same great service that we had last year, and once again, we were the only people around. It is amazing to me that we can play this beautiful course and be the only ones out here. 

We were immediately greeted by Jose, who helped us get our clubs into our carts, and made sure we had everything we needed before we took off.

The view from the pro shop and restaurant.

The driving range.

The pro shop and restaurant.

Then off we went to tackle this very beautiful, difficult course. This is Joyce showing off her great drive.

Look, we're still smiling, despite the abuse this course has given us.

Once again, we thought this is the most magnificent golf course we have ever played. It is so beautiful looking out over the Sea of Cortez. 

But we quickly realized that it is still really difficult and long, even with a year of playing under our belts. The terrain is uneven, with so many sand bunkers and so much desert all around, but also so much fun! It takes at least an hour longer to play than our course at home. 

One of the holes has a colony of zebra tailed lizards nearby. If they feel threatened, they curl their tail up like a scorpion, and run. The underneath of their tail is striped like a zebra.

Oh, these views!

When we were finished with our 18 holes, Jose was waiting for us and cleaned our clubs before returning them to the jeep. We really enjoyed talking to him.  He is such a nice guy!

 He told us that minimum wage in Mexico is $5 per day (plus tips) if you are in an industry that makes tips, and $8 per day if you don’t make tips. That is a wage that we Americans can't even image.  He has a wife and son, and he was looking forward to his day off tomorrow so he could take his wife and son fishing in Cholla Bay.  He fishes for a few different kinds of fish that they will hopefully enjoy for dinner.  Such a treat to meet such nice people in this town.

When we got back to camp, six of us decided to head to town for dinner, and Tony and Joyce stayed behind and cooked at camp. We went to one of our favorite little restaurants, and as soon as we walked in the door, they turned down the music for us (the locals like it loud), and we picked a nice table out on the deck. It was a bit hot at first, but once the sun started to set, it was gorgeous! Four of us had the whole fried fish and two had chicken tacos. Jerry and Mary also ordered some ceviche to go, so hopefully that will be good for them later. 

The humidity has been rising all day, and as we were driving home, we couldn’t get the windows to clear, even with the defrost on. So when we got back to camp Steve looked up the current humidity in Puerto Penasco and it was 84%. No wonder everything is soaking wet! In Havasu we are used to the humidity being about 15% with our skin parched and dry, and here our skin is just soaking up the moisture. By tomorrow morning I should look about 15 years younger! I love this place!

When we got back to camp we enjoyed a nice evening on the front porch eating apple and cherry crisp that Mary made, and brownies that Larry brought, listening to the waves crash on the beach. Very similar to the way we started our morning, except with a little more sugar. Oh so nice. It’s hard to beat this for a $29 a day camp site.