A statue in the downtown marketplace of Puerto Peñasco. I couldn’t read the plaque.
I view Puerto Peñasco as three distinct parts. There’s Sandy Beach with all the condos and Americans. There is the downtown marketplace with shops, restaurants and pharmacies. There is a marina filled with fishing boats. There are probably more parts to Puerto Peñasco, but that’s what I’ve seen, so far.
This is a photo looking down one of the blocks of the marketplace.We had huevos rancheros one morning in this small second story restaurant at Rocky Point.Here’s a view of Sandy Beach from the downtown marketplace. Sandy Beach is home to the condos.Here’s a shop with my name on it. The shops sell lots of sports logo goods — especially Arizona’s Cardinals.This is the center of town, a block beyond the marketplace.El Camaronero The Shrimp Fisherman statue on the malecon at Puerto Penasco, Mexico. A view of the downtown market area in Rocky Point from Sandy Beach.Every few yards there are “fish markets” that are coolers of ice and shrimp.Pollo Lucas, the best char-grilled chicken I’ve ever had.The view out the window at Pollo Lucas.Sunset at Sandy Beach.
The food was delicious and cheap! We had prime rib dinner with baked potato, clam chowder and asparagus for $15. It’s a Saturday night special. I had tons of shrimp at several restuarants. Plus Pollo Lucas. I can’t wait to go back for the beach, the views and the food!
What’s your favorite part of traveling? Is it seeing new sights or eating new food? Or both?
I’m trying to get my head out of Mexico and a relaxing three-day weekend, back into the real world of everyday life.
Several of my friends were worried when they heard we were driving to Mexico. I had been afraid for more than a year. I was too afraid to go. Finally, I talked to people who have gone there and they assured us it was safe.
Sandy Beach (where the condos are located) looks across the bay to downtown.
The drive is very easy — once you get off Interstate 10 and the crazy Phoenix traffic. It’s a straight shot down a two-lane highway to the border. It’s such an easy drive that I take over in Gila Bend to Ajo and Why — all the way to the Visitor’s Center at the Organ Pipes Cactus National Monument. (Ajo and Why are two tiny American towns.)
The beach resort is one hour from the border on a road exactly like on our side of the border. The only difficult part is what I call the gauntlet. Once you cross the border you have about 300 meters of mutilated beggars, squeegee guys and tamale and tortilla hawkers. They surround your car and we nod our head “no thank you” repeatedly. It’s really a depressing view to enter and depart Mexico. It’s a gut wrenching contrast to our life in the states.
My husband during one of our many beach walks.
Once through the gauntlet, it’s smooth sailing. They love tourists. The resorts are 50/50 Americans and Mexican families. There are security guards and police at every resort and throughout the town.
We took beach walks, collected shells, and I read tons. Then we worried about where to go for dinner. That was it. I really got into a relaxed frame of mind.
Where is your favorite place to relax? What do you like to do during a weekend getaway?
A hand-painted sign in the parking lot of Pollo Lucas On the curb.
Our exploring this weekend took us to a small fishing village in Mexico. Although it’s still a fishing village, Puerto Penasco has grown into a tourist resort town with towering condos and fancy restaurants. Our first trip there was at the end of March. I had asked our realtor, who owns a condo there, where we should eat. He told us his family’s very favorite restaurant was Pollo Lucas for chicken, rice and beans.
That didn’t sound exciting to me, I was on a quest for fresh seafood. So we skipped Pollo Lucas last trip. I remembered it this time and thought, “If it’s his family’s most favorite, maybe we should give it a try.”
The Coca Cola sign with the restaurant name is how you spot it from the street.
The menu is simple: whole chicken, half chicken or quarter chicken. Chicken comes with garnishes of shredded cabbage, onions and home-made tortillas and salsa. Plus rice and beans for 180 pesos or nine dollars for the full chicken meal. That sounds wild right? Maybe I’m off the price for a few dollars.
The chicken charbroiled on the grill and the menu in pesos.Under the grill is charcoal. What a hot job that would be!
My husband insisted on the full chicken, while I said we only needed a half. Boy, am I glad he insisted! We got about three meals plus snacks out of the best chicken I’ve tasted in my life! Juicy charbroiled chicken like I’ve never had before.
The beans, rice, tortillas and salsa were unbelievable, too.
A full chicken dinner at Pollo Lucas.The large tables sit under a tall palapas that is open air on several sides. We shared a table with a Mexican family of several generations and took a ton of food home.I tried the super syrupy sweet original Coke that’s found in Mexico. Wow!
Yes, we’ll be back. This is at the top of our list for favorite restaurants in our new beach vacation town. Talk about winner winner chicken dinner!
What restaurants have you been to that compare to this find in Mexico?What’s the best chicken you’ve ever had?
My husband has been dying to go to Puerto Peñasco (known as Rocky Point to the gringos) for at least six months. I’ve been hesitant because it’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive south and across the border into Mexico. Number one, I can’t stand long drives.
Number two, we hear all these stories of drug cartels and crime in Mexico, so I’ll admit, I was a little afraid. Then, the neighbor across the street said she and her family went to Mexico and got COVID. They had to quarantine in their hotel room for 10 days before they could come home.
She said “People think what’s the big deal, you’re in Mexico at the beach? But we weren’t allowed to leave our hotel room and we weren’t enjoying great food. It was hard.”
Sitting under a palapa outside the hotel, the parade of vendors selling everything from tamales to henna tattoos give the beach a circus atmosphere. The vendors aren’t allowed inside the rope fence and they do respect the boundary.
The drive wasn’t bad at all once we got out of Phoenix. I even drove part of it. We drove through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which was beautiful.
The visitor center at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with an Organ Pipe Cactus in front.
I absolutely love Puerto Peñasco! I loved being at the ocean. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. The food was amazing and cheap. Fresh seafood to my heart’s content at around $20 for dinner for two. The accommodations were wonderful.
I’m so thrilled I got out of my comfort zone and went exploring with my husband. We’ll definitely be back — and I’ll post more photos and details this week.
Downtown Puerto Peñasco after dinner Friday night. The young man on the drums impressed us.
Where have you been hesitant to travel to and then once there discovered you loved it?
We were caught in a whirlwind of activities and travel, running away from our empty nest. We went to the beach, Mexico, Utah, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and Utah in that order in the past two months. Wheew!!! It makes my head dizzy to think about it.
View from University of California Santa Barbara
Now that we have stopped running, I’m anxious to start some big projects. Emptying out the guest room and redoing the bathroom and walls. The first part of this project means I have to go through boxes and closets and books and make decisions about what to toss and what to keep.
We have an armoire with a BIG TV and VCR and drawers full of movies that entertained the kids for years. I feel somewhat sad about tossing out all the Disney classics, but they’re never going to be watched on a VCR again.
I have shelves of books that have followed me from childhood. The complete set of Anne books and Narnia Chronicles I will keep. I still enjoy reading them.I’m holding on to A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, too. I think my husband wants me to get rid of them all, but they are like dear friends that I cannot part with.
I keep avoiding this chore of going through the “guest room” which at one point in our 22 years here, was called the “computer room” because before kids in 1992 it was where my first Apple computer lived. Now I’m on about Apple number nine, wanting to return to work in my computer room. I’m coming full circle becoming the person that I was before. It’s a great feeling, but a little scary, too.
