A warm and fuzzy thread

[mexicoruss]

In response to the lack of great news on this board I thought I would post something I thought was kind of cool.

As some of you know I conduct tours of the city, the ecology and the food here in Penasco. Normally I spend the hot months preparing for the next gringo season (i can say gringo cuz I are 1) normally I dont have any request for tours in July or August.....normally

I had a record month in July including a great travel agent meeting in Scottsdale that will bring over 100 travel agents to Penasco starting in October. These agents in turn will send us 100's of clients in the near future.

I just took 12 guys (bachelor party) who came down (despite all the horrific news they heard that almost kept them away) on a night time bar crawl. They wanted to hang out in cool places and do what they want then get back to their pad safely Friday and Saturday night this week. We went to Wrecked, we went to Changos we cruised the malecon. All of these places were hopping both nights we were there. Changos on Friday and Wrecked on Saturday. These 12 guys dropped serious money into the local economy. They dumped a touch of cash into my personal economy. They stayed out (way past my bedtime) until 2:30 -3:00 each night. They had a great time. Such a great time they have already booked the house they stayed in for another week long trip later in the year. That time they will bring their entire families with them.

They told me over and over how happy they were that they made the trip despite the warnings of their uninformed family members.

They are part of the people who now love Rocky Point! This is a trend that will continue! Remember concentrate on those that love us or want to love us and forget about the rest!

AJUA Life is good!
Yes they are dorks, but we had a good time

 

[brokenwave]

Nice post, Mexicoruss, Now we can get on to other stuff. I do pay attention to all the bad stuff going on, and it will pass.
I was concerned that those threads had just snowball past the point of being informative and just turned into a snipping
session. Must be the heat!! I was worried about everyone. LOL.

For all of the negative stuff being posted here, Just remember all the positive threads are 100 times better.

It seems like all went to hell since, Rocky Point Tides ceased blogging on July 20th. Hummm!! All that good Karma is missing?

 

[tmotsinger]

Awesome, Russ. And I understand and believe your quite learned 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 assessment of the Gringo populace's inclinations toward Penasco. But watching from both Penasco and Phoenix since the shootings and home invasion, reading Forum posts, combing articles from San Diego to New York, and parsing every word of State Department warnings, I have one itching question:

What is Penasco doing about it?

I just became a Penasco homeowner this year, mind you. So, full admission and begging of mercy at the feet of the elder statespersons on the Forum (Perro, Roberto, Kenny, GV_Jack, MexicoJoe especially...Rosy, Russ, and others seem benign enough).

I love to see the billboards in Phoenix promoting Penasco. But the D'Amicos and Republics and Daily Stars and NY Posts and State department chest-beatings about being correct in their February warnings ("don't travel at night") have wrested the upper hand from us (if I may already be a member of us) in the past week.

When my family and I were considering buying-in earlier this year, we researched safety stats mostly so we could explain ourselves to family and our kids' co-parents. The most compelling stat turned out to be, "No American has been murdered there in two decades and that was a transvestite love-triangle thing". To which most skeptics said some version of, "Wow, I didn't realize that. I'm not currently in a transvestite love triangle, so can I use your house when you buy?"

So what organization might fund and mount a campaign countering the "Americans were targeted" torocaca that's soaking into the porous little minds of potential Penascans who are sorrowfully still languishing where the beach is on a fake lake and the beer is sold sin hielo?

Someone needs to liberate these poor, Penasco-deprived souls.

 

[mexicoruss]

Tom please dont beg for any mercy from anyone on this forum......

Tom tell me where you want to start..

I am not sure what to think of the local governments response to this other than for it to go away (the bad news)

I am a staunch believer in educating those who want to be educated about what is really going on. I also believe in bending perceptions back to a little closer to normal. Thats why I dont waste time on the haters.

I feel that we can (as an American community living abroad) do something that has more impact than billboards or paper advertising. We have been asked to speak at several meetings this year in the States. Maybe you want to help us in our endeavors?

I know you and single L love it here and I know you want the paradise feeling to continue. I think we can assist in making that a reality. By the way I have a trip to JJ's coming up this week, you and single L going to be in town?

 

[GV Jack]

Tom, as an elder statesman (LOL), actually forget the statesman just stick with the elder, I agree with what Russ is saying.

I don't have that much longer to travel and enjoy Rocky Point and I'll be damned if I'm going to let fear mongering and snippity
ego driven idiots keep me from enjoying it during the fall of my life. It took me too long to find and appreciate the place, the people
and the friends I've made there and here on the forum. Let the holier than thou babble on and just do what your heart tells you.
Mine says, go there every chance you get.

As an additional note. GV stands for Green Valley, which is the most benign place I've ever lived. Yesterday morning we had a shooting
very close to our area. A 28 year old guy decided to beat the crap out of his 23 year old girl friend at 2:30 in the morning. A neighbor
intervened ended up shooting and killing the guy. Made the last page of the paper, had a quick news blurb and that was it. What it did
prove is that booze and hyper egos don't mix. That's true all over, even in Rocky Point.

If I did what the neysayers preach, I'd never leave this house after dark and hide in the basement. Oh that's right, we don't have basements.

What I'm saying is, stuff happens any place at any time. We can either cower or live our lives to the max. I've made my choice.
Tell your friends that if this old fart can handle it, they certainly can.

Hope to meet you down there some time.

 

[tmotsinger]

Love to you both...you know, in a dude way. GV, I've posted some of my finest scores on your courses and done a ton of biz projects in Green Valley and love the place. And Russ, I'm not talking about herding the haters back into the flock. I'm talking about keeping the redeemable ones in. In times of extreme crisis...like now!

I don't have a biz dog in this fight, except my home value. But those who do, ¡Hey, take up arms!

Russ, don't lie down and cede turf to the haters who can be moved from one of your thirds to a better one. Stop lying down. Get up. Respond.

As a non-expat-as-yet, I may have a more sober perspective on these people than Penascans who are now reluctant to respond. These people want to come. They yearn for a counter-argument to the State Department's issuances.. They want to believe a truth different from what the Star, Republic, and Daily News are saying.

We all know there is such a truth. A compelling one. But one that no one is articulating it to them en masse to potential Penascans.

Who can do it?

 

[Southbeacher]

I have watched over the years as an incident here, and incident there, along with highly publicized horriblizing and warnings -- caused most US tourists to run to their hidey holes. Like a caged rabbit, taken to the wilderness and the door opened -- rabbit stays tucked in the back of the cage. Eventually, slowly, it pokes its head out and, seeing no danger, takes to the field. That, unfortunately, has been the pattern of slow recovery after bad press. Each time, over time, wary tourists slowly re-emerged as they were convinced of security. As mentioned in this post, word of mouth seems to be the best solution, and efforts such as those of MexicoRuss accelerate recovery. So,tmotsinger, keep the faith . . . and talk a lot about your fun times in Pensasco.