Bogley

[Brewhaha]

Well, we did it. We pulled our popup trailer to Mexico (about 1500 miles round trip from Monticello) to spend Christmas vacation. We were very lucky with weather and enjoyed temps in the low 70's from Phoenix south. We arrived in Mexico on Christmas Eve and stayed 4 nights. The beaches in Puerto Penasco were a favorite with the kids. They spent almost all of their time wading, looking from hermit crabs, and collecting many many shells. All day long on the beach locals came around selling Mexican rugs and blankets, pottery, jewelry, sunglasses, kites, hair braiding, burritos, fireworks, and more. They loved to barter on the prices and were always very friendly. We learned that you start by offering half of what they ask for and only increase slightly from there. Things are always cheaper on the beach than they are in town. In addition, the beach salesmen seemed more willing to barter than those in the downtown shops.

The older kids enjoyed buying very good fireworks for cheap. Our oldest boy went through several (200 count) packs of black cats there on the beach over the time we were there. They cost $2 per box and so they were cheap entertainment. In fact, I think he used more $ worth of matches and lighters than fireworks. They also sold all the great fireworks that you can't get in the States - cherry bombs, m-80s, bottle rockets, roman candles, regular rocket-type burst fireworks, and more. Every night on the beach several groups in the RV park put on fireworks displays with the fireworks they purchased that day.

We also went into town. Mexican towns (even resort towns) can be very depressing. We basically stayed on the main tourist strip and enjoyed walking through the colorful shops and seeing the friendly and colorful people. We were able to purchase amazing (and big) shrimp for only 7$/lb. We went out to eat once and were fortunate to find a good little restaurant called Senor Shrimp above a shrimp shop.

Crossing the border was easy. They just waved us through on the way down and only checked my license on the way back through. We took our own water of course.

If you are interested in going down let me know if I can answer any questions for you. I can tell you a little about the available RV parks down there. Other activities that can be enjoyed there: there are lots of places to ride 4 wheelers and motorcycles (you can rent atvs on almost every street corner), it is very easy and affordable to charter a fishing boat, there is a golf course or two, you can charter a mini-personal motorized glider to fly you around the beaches, you can go on a variety of booze-cruises, it is also possible to watch dolphins. Oh, and did I mention the fireworks?

Although we had a great time, the trip was not without its challenges. In fact, I really think that National Lampoon should do a Mexican Vacaction movie. They could use many of the instances from our trip: a broken water pump in the middle of the reservation on my van on the trip down, a blown water pipe on my van on the way back, a pitbull-bite to the face of my sister-in-law requiring a visit to a Mexican emergency clinic and about 20 stitches, a broken water pipe in my sister-in-laws pop-up that flooded them out. Oh so many memories. Fortunately we all returned home safely.

Well, here are some pictures. PS - the pictures appear in reverse order, starting with our return trip and ending with our first days in Mexico.

BTW I just noticed that this is my 100 post, :cool2:

[tanya]

Does that make you Trail Master? Great shots!!!! It's hard to imagine that was December!

[Sombeech]

That looks like a lot of fun.

[accadacca]

Awesome just awesome! Hats off to your and your family! Olay! Olay! Olay! :bandit:

[KillEmAll]

Sounds like a great time. I've been wanting to do something like that, but I hear so many horror stories of Mexico. Most of them I'm sure are blown out of proportion. Is this something you'd do again? Was the RV park open to the public, and if so were the prices reasonable?

[Brewhaha]

I would definitely go again. However, you do have to adjust your expectations. Things aren't always as polished as they are here in the states. For instance, the RV park we stayed in was beautifully placed on the beach, was very well laid out with big spaces and good connections, had a very beautiful office and small store, had a restaurant, and a wonderful website. But someone forgot to put in decent bathrooms! The bathrooms were worse than the worst porta-pottie I have ever seen. So...as long as your RV is self-contained with bathroom and showers you will be fine. The trick with something like that is to not let it get in the way of having a good time. One other example has to do with reservations. Despite having a very nice website (http://www.thereefrvpark.com/) all reservations have to ultimately be made via snail mail.


Overall, we had a good experience despite the challenges. The atmosphere was very well worth the trip. BTW, the RV park cost $17/night.

[mroy]

Nice! I was across the sea from y'all in San Felipe. I plan on checking out Puerto Penasco soon, maybe in a couple months.

Here are my pics; http://www.mikepearce.us/Mexico06/default.asp

I started by crossing in Tijuana, which I never want to do again. I thought, hell I'll do this without getting the mexico insurance and within 5 minutes of crossing and having to do all kinds of lane changes in bumper to bumper fast moving traffic and forcing my way in a couple times I decided the insurance would probably be worth it just for doing that. I came out of it okay though. I stayed one night on the Pacific side of Baja close to Ensenada, but I didn't like that area very much even though the coastline was gorgeous so I headed over to the Sea of Cortez side to San Felipe which was my backup plan. I love it over there.

I'm constantly harassed at the border and pulled over for inspection everytime under different circumstances. It took about 1.5 hours for me to get through Mexicali w/ the inspection. Would've been an hour otherwise.

I'm definitely going back. I love it down there in San Felipe, and just sleeping on the beach in the great weather is so relaxing. I need a lot of that in my life. ATV's & dirt bikes are the main activity in San Felipe, if you like that stuff, it's pretty close to heaven.

I haven't been able to find many good pics of Puerto Penasco, but from Google Earth it looks really flat, I'm glad to see it's got some definition to the land.

How long did it take you to get from the border to the town?

[tanya]

mroy wrote: Nice! I was across the sea from y'all in San Felipe. I plan on checking out Puerto Penasco soon, maybe in a couple months.

Here are my pics; http://www.mikepearce.us/Mexico06/default.asp

I started by crossing in Tijuana, which I never want to do again. I thought, hell I'll do this without getting the mexico insurance and within 5 minutes of crossing and having to do all kinds of lane changes in bumper to bumper fast moving traffic and forcing my way in a couple times I decided the insurance would probably be worth it just for doing that. I came out of it okay though. I stayed one night on the Pacific side of Baja close to Ensenada, but I didn't like that area very much even though the coastline was gorgeous so I headed over to the Sea of Cortez side to San Felipe which was my backup plan. I love it over there.

I'm constantly harassed at the border and pulled over for inspection everytime under different circumstances. It took about 1.5 hours for me to get through Mexicali w/ the inspection. Would've been an hour otherwise.

I'm definitely going back. I love it down there in San Felipe, and just sleeping on the beach in the great weather is so relaxing. I need a lot of that in my life. ATV's & dirt bikes are the main activity in San Felipe, if you like that stuff, it's pretty close to heaven.

I haven't been able to find many good pics of Puerto Penasco, but from Google Earth it looks really flat, I'm glad to see it's got some definition to the land.

How long did it take you to get from the border to the town?

http://www.mikepearce.us/Mexico06/img_2088.jpg?xy=489

Looks like paradise!

[Brewhaha]

mroy wrote:

How long did it take you to get from the border to the town?

It was only about an hour from the border to Puerto Penasco.