Trip report Aug 8, 2020

[brokenwave]

Update on another trip, 8/21/2020.
I crossed the border today, Friday 8/21 at 10 am.
I got the green light, the Marine check point waved me thru.

This is the first trip in a long time I didn't see a Sonoyta police lurking in the shadows
waiting for some unsuspecting Gringo to blaze thru Sonoyta at 45kph. Not one manned cop car anywhere.
There was 1 unmanned one at the donation spot.
Gas is still 15.34 pesos per liter in Sonoyta and 19.34 in Penasco.
I hit the sanitary check point coming into Penasco past the bridge went thru the left lane and a Police officer looked at me
and said Alto, I did and I said Buenas Dias and then I'm a resident.
I handed him my tax receipt. He looked at it for 30 seconds and by the look on his face he had zero
idea of what he was looking at. He waved me on and I said Gracias.
I passed thru town and there was a lot more traffic vs when we came down 13 days ago at almost the same time.

I drove out to Cholla and stopped at Garcias store right before the RR tracks going into Cholla Mall. I picked up a few things
and noticed they had 2/3rds of their normal stocked items vs in Feb before Covid.
I continued on to Cholla and at the spray tent the lady running it, was sitting in a chair looking exhausted and waved me on.

I opened my house up to a nice 94 degrees with 65% humidity, I switched on the mini-split A/C's and 4 hours later it's still
82 degrees but only 35% humidity. I'm sure after the sun set's it will cool down faster.
It is Really Windy today, but you can actually feel little wisps of cool air coming off the ocean in the wind guts.
Soon the weather will start to turn nice, time for a Cerveza.

 

[Mexico Joe]

Update on another trip, 8/21/2020.
I crossed the border today, Friday 8/21 at 10 am.
I got the green light, the Marine check point waved me thru.

This is the first trip in a long time I didn't see a Sonoyta police lurking in the shadows
waiting for some unsuspecting Gringo to blaze thru Sonoyta at 45kph. Not one manned cop car anywhere.
There was 1 unmanned one at the donation spot.
Gas is still 15.34 pesos per liter in Sonoyta and 19.34 in Penasco.
I hit the sanitary check point coming into Penasco past the bridge went thru the left lane and a Police officer looked at me
and said Alto, I did and I said Buenas Dias and then I'm a resident.
I handed him my tax receipt. He looked at it for 30 seconds and by the look on his face he had zero
idea of what he was looking at. He waved me on and I said Gracias.
I passed thru town and there was a lot more traffic vs when we came down 13 days ago at almost the same time.

I drove out to Cholla and stopped at Garcias store right before the RR tracks going into Cholla Mall. I picked up a few things
and noticed they had 2/3rds of their normal stocked items vs in Feb before Covid.
I continued on to Cholla and at the spray tent the lady running it, was sitting in a chair looking exhausted and waved me on.

I opened my house up to a nice 94 degrees with 65% humidity, I switched on the mini-split A/C's and 4 hours later it's still
82 degrees but only 35% humidity. I'm sure after the sun set's it will cool down faster.
It is Really Windy today, but you can actually feel little wisps of cool air coming off the ocean in the wind guts.
Soon the weather will start to turn nice, time for a Cerveza.

Couple of questions, what is the peso right now? Second, if I were to come for Labor Day and staying in Cholla what lane would I have to use and what do I need to show? I thought Penasco was open to the public now???

 

[brokenwave]

Hi Joe,
Local exchange rates at the Cambio are 19.5 to 1, so places will be giving you 19-20 to 1. Depending on where.

Peso is 22 to 1 if you're using US bank account to withdraw at local ATM. Which is what I do.
My favorite ATM's are Banamex brand, in the Super Norte and across the street in Sam's and the Bodega, fee's are
30ish and if you have a no foreign transaction debit card, Capitol One, Schwab etc. It's even better.
Limit is 6000 pesos per day at Banamex ATM.
If you have a reservation at a hotel/Condo you use the right lane, the left is for residents, maybe guests?
There isn't a spray station at the bridge check point, but there are ones at the local resorts and one at the Cholla
police station.

You would need to show your reservation to where you are staying, this part is murky because I don't know about anything
but the resorts. I'm not hearing anything about places is Cholla needing to be sanitized or put on an approved list now.

You need to wear a mask while driving in Sonoyta and maybe Penasco if there's more than 1 person in the car, I heard different
stories on this, so I wear one anyway.

 

[Scrounger]

View attachment 17028

Do know where I can I can find a detailed map like this ??

 

[brokenwave]

Tues 8/25, Update on my trip report,

I left Cholla at 10am drove past the spray station, people running it had waved the 2 cars I saw there thru.
For my 5 trips into Cholla for my I was sprayed once.

The weather has been brutal the past 3 days but I still saw people doing the zip line, riding rental ATV's and riding on the ultra lights.

I also saw the aftermath of an accident near where the zip line station is, last night some locals flipped their SUV,
my local friend said some of the people had died. I saw the SUV on the side of the road this morning when driving home.

There are lot's of Mexican Nations visiting Penasco and Hispanic's from California based on the different license plates I saw.

When I left Cholla today at 10 am, it was 97 with 68% humidity, air was thick and you could cut it with a knife.
That 97 degrees was the coolest I saw during my trip back to Phx.

At the border, no sign's of the corrupt Sonoyta Policia, I drove over the detour bridge to see if it offered
any advantage to the way I usually go. Probably stick with my normal route.

6 car wait at the Lukeville station, 1 lane open and I got to try out the new car X-Ray booth they have, it takes 3-4 minutes total.
Outside of Gila Bend at 2 PM, I saw my outside temp gauge rise to 117 and while driving thru Phx on the 10 it was 118 degrees.

Heck at least it was a dry heat.

The past 2 nights the sunsets were pretty nice, the hazy humid air helped with that.

Another advantage of this trip was to have some work done on my daughters 09 GMC Acadia, needed 2 new front struts installed.
3 different places in Phx wanted $1,300-1,650 to do it.
Plan B, I bought 2 strut assy's. from Detroit Axle under $200.
I went to my local buddy's mechanic it took him less than 2 hours and charged me 1000 pesos ($47) I tipped him another $10.
He did an align to get wheels straight and told me to have it re-aligned back in Phx.
So for total of $325 including gas for the trip vs $1,500 avg in Phx. Trip was well worth it

 

[Mexico Joe]

Tues 8/25, Update on my trip report,

I left Cholla at 10am drove past the spray station, people running it had waved the 2 cars I saw there thru.
For my 5 trips into Cholla for my I was sprayed once.

The weather has been brutal the past 3 days but I still saw people doing the zip line, riding rental ATV's and riding on the ultra lights.

I also saw the aftermath of an accident near where the zip line station is, last night some locals flipped their SUV,
my local friend said some of the people had died. I saw the SUV on the side of the road this morning when driving home.

There are lot's of Mexican Nations visiting Penasco and Hispanic's from California based on the different license plates I saw.

When I left Cholla today at 10 am, it was 97 with 68% humidity, air was thick and you could cut it with a knife.
That 97 degrees was the coolest I saw during my trip back to Phx.

At the border, no sign's of the corrupt Sonoyta Policia, I drove over the detour bridge to see if it offered
any advantage to the way I usually go. Probably stick with my normal route.

6 car wait at the Lukeville station, 1 lane open and I got to try out the new car X-Ray booth they have, it takes 3-4 minutes total.
Outside of Gila Bend at 2 PM, I saw my outside temp gauge rise to 117 and while driving thru Phx on the 10 it was 118 degrees.

Heck at least it was a dry heat.

The past 2 nights the sunsets were pretty nice, the hazy humid air helped with that.

Another advantage of this trip was to have some work done on my daughters 09 GMC Acadia, needed 2 new front struts installed.
3 different places in Phx wanted $1,300-1,650 to do it.
Plan B, I bought 2 strut assy's. from Detroit Axle under $200.
I went to my local buddy's mechanic it took him less than 2 hours and charged me 1000 pesos ($47) I tipped him another $10.
He did an align to get wheels straight and told me to have it re-aligned back in Phx.
So for total of $325 including gas for the trip vs $1,500 avg in Phx. Trip was well worth it

EPIC!

 

[brokenwave]

8/29,
Another trip, my 3rd trip in August, I must be a little Loco by now.
Left Phx area 6:30 am, semi overcast most of the way down.
There were a fair amount of cars heading south, gas station in Why was packed
Hit Sonoyta 9;30, got the green light, nobody at the Military check point.
Lot's of window washers, vendors and beggars crowding the entrance there.
Did the 40kph crawl thru town at the donation stand at the south end of town saw a crooked Policia
with an unhappy guy pulled over. Continued out of Sonoyta got 2km past where the 80kph part starts and
there was another Policia with a girl pulled over. Humm they aren't usually that far out. Drove past the baseball
park and around the 9-10km marker there was another Policia with 2 cars pulled over. Never saw them operate
that far out of Sonoyta.
Arrived at the bridge check point, (the bridge is open for traffic both ways now), at 10:30, told them we were residents got waved
on. Hit the Super Norte got some pesos from the ATM and a few other items.
Hit a new Modelorama on the Cholla road stopped to see if they had any Pacificos, Yes they did. Picked up 4 for 76 pesos with deposit
and 2 bag's of ice for 36 pesos. will go back with a case of empties for some fresh Pacifico's.
Arrived at our place in Cholla a bit before 11 am.
I had a buddy turn on the AC and fridge for us, so the house was 82 when we walked in with much of the humidity removed.
Overcast and really windy today, We're hoping to see some storms develop this weekend.

Updated 8/30
Well we have had some serious winds and nice waves, but high humidity Sat and today.
Went over to JJ's to say hi, compared to last Sunday which was really hot about 100, did some serious sweating,
today wasn't too bad on their patio, almost a non sweating afternoon.
My wife and I went over to the New Mexican restaurant on the way to Calle 13, the good news, it was nice and cool,
it has Pacifico and other beers $2.25 ea.
Now the bad news the food was only OK and at 5:30 we were the only customers there. Before we left another US couple came in.

Drive back to Cholla was an event with lot's of traffic heading that way and by the looks of how people were driving, some drunk driving.
In the middle of Cholla by the new Six store lot's of crazy locals driving around drunk.

Sanitizing tent was closed for the day, so this trip 4 trips into Cholla with zero sanitizing sprays.

 

[brokenwave]

8/31 Update,
Heat has returned, still some wind.
The wife and I went to Collin's Sports bar at the Princessa Condo project, I've never been there, it's small with 10-12 tables
and bar seating. They gave us some hand sanitizer and scanned our arm for our temps.

Well they had a happy hour for burgers when we were there, two for one. Pleasant surprise.
We had 2 large bacon cheese burgers with fries a ice tea and a coke. Bill came to $10.75 - 215 pesos at 20-1.
Burgers were 1/2lb which were pretty good for Penasco and the fries were also good, the service was very good as well.
Drove back into Cholla and the sanitizing tent was off-line as they were spraying water on the road in front to keep the dust down.
Yea! No spray downs this trip yet, but still have a few more trips into town tomorrow and Wed.

 

[brokenwave]

9/1 Update
Really windy and some rough seas out there. But look what I spotted out there patrolling off of Pinto Point in Cholla Bay.
It's bow was really bouncing from the waves. It was still 4-5 miles out. Big zoom lens is nice to have on a real camera.
It's probably a 300 foot long ship and this was shot with a 800mm lens .
We saw some very similar ships last month when we were in San Diego area the end of July.

 

[Idyllwild]

8/31 Update,
Heat has returned, still some wind.
The wife and I went to Collin's Sports bar at the Princessa Condo project, I've never been there, it's small with 10-12 tables
and bar seating. They gave us some hand sanitizer and scanned our arm for our temps.

Well they had a happy hour for burgers when we were there, two for one. Pleasant surprise.
We had 2 large bacon cheese burgers with fries a ice tea and a coke. Bill came to $10.75 - 215 pesos at 20-1.
Burgers were 1/2lb which were pretty good for Penasco and the fries were also good, the service was very good as well.
Drove back into Cholla and the sanitizing tent was off-line as they were spraying water on the road in front to keep the dust down.
Yea! No spray downs this trip yet, but still have a few more trips into town tomorrow and Wed.

Burgers and margaritas at Collins with Monday happy hour pricing is a must. Possibly the best burgers in town and the price is right.

 

[Idyllwild]

9/1 Update
Really windy and some rough seas out there. But look what I spotted out there patrolling off of Pinto Point in Cholla Bay.
It's bow was really bouncing from the waves. It was still 4-5 miles out. Big zoom lens is nice to have on a real camera.
It's probably a 300 foot long ship and this was shot with a 800mm lens .
We saw some very similar ships last month when we were in San Diego area the end of July.

View attachment 17043

Might be Durango class patrol vessel. 267 ft in length.

 

[tortuga]

Burgers and margaritas at Collins with Monday happy hour pricing is a must. Possibly the best burgers in town and the price is right.

They also have the best onion rings in town.

 

[brokenwave]

Updated 9/2
We decided to go home today, Over the past 3 weeks of trips we've seen it go from from Hot and really Humid
with some days of OMG, Hot and Humid to very warm and humid.

We left Cholla at 9:30 am, passed by the sanitizing tent as they were getting it ready.
Amazingly 5 trips into Cholla this trip with zero sprays. Total for the 3 trips is, 15 trips into Cholla only 3 sprays.

A fair amount of traffic going south most hauling a Razor or a toy hauler trailer, we arrived in Sonoyta and
the Policia were hiding in their usual spots looking for victims.
We drove over the new bridge and it was still partially covered with mud and debris from the storms that soaked Sonoyta Sat-Mon.
Lot's of debris has clogged up the river bed under it.
Got thru the border, 1 car in front, with only 1 casualty incurred, an agent opened our ice chest and found some
Mexican eggs we were smuggling back.
She said it's a $200 fine if they wanted to press charges against us. WTF. this time only a warning. X-Ray machine was not running.
We had to follow 6 dirt hauling trucks being used for the WALL, We saw close to 25 of them going both ways coming home.

Arrived in Ajo and decided to have lunch at the Agave Grill, it's an interesting simple place that looks like it should be up
in the mountains. The food was very good, cheese burger and fries very good and my wife had mixed springs with Cali-flower rice,
Kale, grilled chicken and other healthy things. Place is a bit pricey, bill was $30 plus tip. they had a $1.25 sur charge on burgers
for increased food costs. But I would eat there again, it beats the crap out of McD, Burger King and other similar places.

We saw 3 Ajo sheriff's parked under tree's shooting radar. Rest of the trip to Phx was uneventful.

Looking forward to the next trip in 2 weeks and the weather should be a little cooler but the humidity will still
be there until mid-October.

 

[brokenwave]

I haven't seen this in many years, but on Friday at 7:45 pm, there was a 2.5-3 mile long line waiting to cross into Mexico at Lukeville.
Apparently not many were aware that the border closes at 8 pm since they changed the hours in April.
Result many slept in their cars in the 95-85 degree temps.

Many drove to Ajo for lodging only to find everything booked, more drove to Gila Bend, some drove back home and some
decided to drive to Yuma to cross at San Luis which added 8 hours to their trip because SL had a 2 hour wait.

A lot of unhappy campers.

Years ago for Thanksgiving we went hit Lukeville on Wed at 9 pm and found a 1.5-2 mile wait because the Mexican agents were checking every car thoroughly. it took us almost 3 hours to cross, there was a 2 mile line behind us that didn't make it in that night.
You hear stories about some people who had to sleep in their cars because their time management is poor, but not to this magnitude.

 

[Buffalo Marty]

I haven't seen this in many years, but on Friday at 7:45 pm, there was a 2.5-3 mile long line waiting to cross into Mexico at Lukeville.
Apparently not many were aware that the border closes at 8 pm since they changed the hours in April.
Result many slept in their cars in the 95-85 degree temps.

Based on reports here yesterday, those lucky few who did make it across may have also had another long wait at the sanitary filter, right? A 1-2 hour wait to cross the the border, then another 1-2 hours at the covid filter? Good lord, that would be a nightmare. I hope the filter goes adios as planned Sep 8th...

 

[Queen of Kings]

They aren't missing much. The weather is brutal. 100+ degrees and humidity out of control make going outside pure torture.

 

[brokenwave]

They aren't missing much. The weather is brutal. 100+ degrees and humidity out of control make going outside pure torture.

True what you say,
I talked to my local buddy and it was the worst on Friday he's ever seen it in 30 years of living in Penasco.

We were there last week and came home on Wed, weather was a bit better than the week before just enough to tease us for
the weather coming in Oct. when it goes from OMG nasty - to not too bad - to perfect.
And this Labor Day weekend it's OMG Nasty.

 

[Buffalo Marty]

True what you say,
I talked to my local buddy and it was the worst on Friday he's ever seen it in 30 years of living in Penasco.

Holy shit I just checked accuweather.com and it shows 104 temp with a humidity "real feel" of 116- in the shade!. Sounds f'n brutal..,
We're headed down next weekend and staying for 10 days; we've been down in mid-September many times over the years and never really minded the weather. Sounds like this year may be different...

 

[brokenwave]

Holy shit I just checked accuweather.com and it shows 104 temp with a humidity "real feel" of 116- in the shade!. Sounds f'n brutal..,
We're headed down next weekend and staying for 10 days; we've been down in mid-September many times over the years and never really minded the weather. Sounds like this year may be different...

With the shorter days now at least the nights will start dropping down from the high 80's into the low 80's.
The ocean is still 88-89 degrees. I wear my mask while driving, rules on this is still unclear. My local buddy got stopped yesterday
for not wearing one while driving, he got out of a ticket because it was too hot to breathe with one Friday, the cop agreed.

If you like burgers stop by Collin's Cantina at the Princess on Monday's, they have 2 for 1 burgers and some drink specials.
In the Rocky Point Times all the restaurants that used to have specials with their Ad's aren't showing any specials currently.
Bryan's Sports bar has some secret ones too.

 

[Mexico Joe]

Holy shit I just checked accuweather.com and it shows 104 temp with a humidity "real feel" of 116- in the shade!. Sounds f'n brutal..,
We're headed down next weekend and staying for 10 days; we've been down in mid-September many times over the years and never really minded the weather. Sounds like this year may be different...

I use a heat index calculator found on google that showed Saturday or Sunday being 130!!! I use heat + relative humidity... Scary!