Mexico March 12th and 13th SPRING BREAK 08!

March 12, 2008-

-Bought some Mexican car insurance in the border town Nogales and hit the road into Mexico. Customs went smooth but the traffic wasn't so smooth. Amazingly nobody hit me, I made it through town with great skill, some sweat and lots of luck. After what felt like hours we finally reached the open highway in route to Desemboque. Eventually we got to a town to fill up and as we stopped we were immediately swarmed by the local window washers and candy sellers. We managed to break free from them and with a sparkling clean windshield we filled up con la roja gasolina. 5 hours later after cresting the sand dunes we could see and smell the ocean, and the quaint town of Desemboque. Feeling very out of place we drove around the sandy streets with the whole town staring at us. Finally we pulled into a restaurante and ran towards the ocean with frisbees in hand. With no footprints on the beach and only tire tracks we were a little nervous to swim so we just wandered around and tossed the frisbee around.

Mexican open highway

Practicing my flute skills while catching a frisbee

Mary at her beach

Tire tracks and Mary throwing a frisbee at the ground

Spring Break 08

Blue jelly fish (the reason I wouldn't stick my feet in)

The original plan was to stay at Desemboque and beach it up- but after a few too many awkward stares, and a dead seal on the beach, we decided that maybe a more popular beach would have more appeal than we had originally thought. So after asking around we found a guy who was actually heading to Puerto Penasco who offered to show us the way. Little did we know that highway 37 actually means highway 003, it was a good thing we had a guide.

Driving from Desemboque to Puerto Penasco

We ended up in the Puerto Penasco after dark and started trying to find a place to stay for the night. We stumbled upon The Reef, an open campground area on sandy beach which also has a restaurant and night club. We parked our RV in the line of RVs and called it a night.

Thursday March 13th:

Camping location right on the Beach

Fellow campers on the beach- this line went on for quite a while

Spectacular catch

Another great catch

Mary hustling for the catch

Mary needs some sun

Mike marvelling at the ocean

We woke to fellow American spring breakers volleyballing and ATVing it up. It was strange being in another country and not really having any idea because we were only surrounded by fellow Americans, and dumb ones at that. One incident that really got me going was this group of guys who had been sitting around and drinking beer all morning went down to the ocean. Down there they met up with an injured seagull who had been sitting on the beach all morning waiting for the tide to come in. They figured that this bird should not be sitting in their vacation spot, so they started throwing rocks at it. I, not being too far away, witnessed this event and left Mike in confusion as I stormed down the beach. I had some choice words with them, which ended in them asking if I was an animal lover or something, and they explaining to me how they wished they had there shotgun so they could blow the little birdy up. At least they stopped throwing rocks at it. And eventually the tide did came in, and the bird swam out to sea. Other than this rather unfortunate encounter we did manage to enjoy ourselves. Some swimming and lots of frisbeeing was had.

When we tired of the ocean we figured it was time to head back to the states. We stopped in Sonoyta Mexico on the border and got lots of yummy fruits and lots of fresh tortillas. I was even brave and tried a tamale from a street vendor, luckily with no ill consequences. As we crossed the border we headed into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where we stopped for sunset and washing of pineapple hands. It was beautiful.

Typical Mexican scenery

Organ Pipe National Monument USA

Mary and her tall friend (Mary looks as short as Emilie)

Cactus

pretty

sunset

Desert Creature

Much too soon we had to head back to Phoenix to get Mary on her plane. It was a tough night since the plane didn't leave until 1 am and we had been going to bed around 9. We passed the time by eating endless pancakes at Dennys and starting to dread my hair...pictures to come soon.