Newb here...Glad to find this online community. Thanks for all the info everyone!!
I was in the fish market Wed morning at 10am having breakfast at the Point over the ocean patio...enjoying the birds..noticed several helicopters flying around the west side of Sandy Beach along with a medium sized fixed wing military plane. Being naive tourist/americans we figured there was just an exercise with the military/police taking place. Didn't think anything of it. Looking back, I should have taken it more seriously I guess. The market was a ghost town...we were the only gringo's around. Seemed kinda strange, but chalked it up to it being Wed before Xmas. Anyways, we planned to head back to Phoenix after breakfast and were greeted by a heavily armed checkpoint on the way out of town. (Below) We were questioned by a soldier who had a thick accent, so I couldn't make out his spanish, but I said 'Phoenix?' and he said aggressively.."GOOO" and pointed down the road. The helicopter followed the road back to Sonoyta while we were driving, like we were following it. Once in Sonoyta, roughly 11:30-12, the chopper did a few circles slightly NW of 'the turn' past the gas stations and we continued to the boarder.
At the boarder we were greeted by about 50-75 military soldiers all with what looked like HK-308's and plenty of ammo. There were too many of them so I was afraid to take a photo. We waited ~5 mins until they cleared the road to let us through. Got the usual interrogation from the US boarder guy and went on our way. Was thankful to be back in the US as I figured something was going down, but didn't know what until I got home...
I've been educating myself on the cartel action ever since and find it intriguing as to how they run there business. I didn't feel like we were in danger at any time, yet knowing how close we were (although not as close as others here) it makes you think twice about the environment. The fact that PP seems to be heavily involved with the cartels (as pointed out here as well as other sources online) is discomforting. I've read the whole town/police/everyone could be on the payroll. Makes you wonder if/when they would be desperate enough to turn on an innocent tourist. Are all the vendors at the fish market involved? Someone has to buy all that crap and it's all the same stuff in each store.. Can they make a call if you blow them off/not buy from them; to have you f'd up on the way out of town? Just some preliminary and probably unfounded concerns.. Anyways, it was an enlightening experience outside of the country. Thought I would share my experience/thoughts....Movie quality...that shit is real sometimes. ;-) Enjoy, but stay safe!