Puerto Penasco: RCPM.... things got weird


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North America » Mexico » Sonora » Puerto Peñasco
June 16th 2010
Published: June 18th 2010
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This trip started off with a little more intensity than normally goes into one of my trips; of course I normally travel alone this time, however, I had 16 travel companions. We started our journey at Nick and Tricia’s place in Mesa, AZ. The group was a little slow to get moving as the night before we decided to consume an obscene amount of alcohol while playing tippy cup/flip cup. Things got a little “weird” that night, turns out that would be the theme of the entire extended weekend.

Three vehicles were enough to get the majority of the part loaded up and on the road. We took off with: Bart, Blake, Sarah, Samantha (Sam), Nick, Tricia, Artie, John, Haley, Ashley, Josh, Brandon, Nicole, and me (Derek). Chris would be added before we made it out of the Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area; he was standing at an exit looking like a hitchhiker when we picked him up. After we found our way back onto the interstate, Nick got a little bit testy with this one, we started the three and a half hour drive down to Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. (Rocky Point in English)

The drive down to Rocky Point offers some pretty beautiful desert scenery, save the last 30 or so miles which is barren and filled with trash. Crossing the border the economic differences of the two countries is extremely evident, (the first time I came to Rocky Point was in 1998; the collapse of the peso that threw Mexico into economic turmoil happened in 1994 it has gotten better since then for sure the growth and recovery are actually pretty impressive. With that said it is still Mexico…).

Once one arrives at the resort it is easy to see the draw of the place. Relatively untouched until the early 90’s there are now several well kept resorts that follow the coast of the Sea of Cortez, we stayed at the Sonora Sea. I read an interesting tidbit somewhere that I don’t know how else to fit in, but it was said that during prohibition, while Americans were escaping over the border to find booze, Al Capone would frequent Rocky Point. There was a casino and water well that had been built by an American, but after a quarrel with some locals the owner blew up both and left the area. Crazy huh? I don’t even care if that is true. I like the story.

After settling into the three condos, and meeting up with Troy and Kristin, that had been reserved we put on swim wear, set up shop outside the room, and hit the ocean and pool. The guys did some body surfing, as the there were some decent waves that were breaking, basically, right on the beach. I managed to scrape my face and chest a bit while getting slammed into the sand. Beauty right? Yeah, I’m an effing genius. After a few drinks at the bar in the pool, I decided to join in on a few of the games that were being played, Corn Hole/Bags and Washers. Not to call out John or Blake or anything, but Nick and I totally owned them and ended the trip undefeated. Just saying.

Things started to get fun after a while. Alcohol will typically help facilitate stupid human tricks, and that is kind of what it turned into…. That and a dance party, but that may have just been Haley and I and we just thought everyone was dancing with us. Regardless, it was an awesome time. (This is probably not the time nor the place, but I am going to use this as a vessel to end a debate between Brandon and Blake. “From Merriamwebster.com: usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. It’s fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.”) Some of the things that happened: standing back flip by Blake, handstand competition, Cirque De Soleil feats of strength, yoga moves, Tricia’s walk over, and I am certain that I am forgetting some things. Other rooms were coming out onto their balconies to watch us and take pictures. We were definitely entertaining.

After our little impromptu show we split up and got ready for the concert, which was the primary excuse used to go to Rocky Point in the first place. Playing that night was Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. (www.azpeacemakers.com) the group is made up of the lead singer and drummer from the Refreshments, a band I used to listen to in college. Troy, Blake, Sarah and Kristin are pretty big fans, and that is probably an understatement. No one really slowed down once we got there. The concert, from what I remember, was an amazing time. A couple of thousand people singing along to drinking songs about Mexico. What more could a person ask for? I’ll tell you what. Cheaper beer. The beer tents were charging $20 for a six pack or $4 per. Anyhow, we had no problems getting to the point we needed to be at and then some. I don’t know at what point, but I definitely lost track of time and the order of when certain events took place. At some point the girls came back with a water bottle filled with vodka, which they oh so cleverly encouraged others to take a drink of insisting that it was just water. More than a couple of the group threw up immediately after taking a drink. This is what I really remember being the catalyst that led to the rest
One of the vendorsOne of the vendorsOne of the vendors

They are all pretty tricky scheming
of the debauchery. There were wrestling matches, a de-pantsing, peeing in the sand, peeing in/on shorts, throwing up, Artie bought a Tecate tent and a full bottle of crappy tequila, photos taken with random people, about a 100 tacos ordered and destroyed, Artie tipping a Chiclets girl $100, Sam encouraging her to apply that to her education fund, lost earrings, shirts torn off, numerous sexual gestures, people throwing up in the sand and on chairs. In short it got a little more than a little weird, but an amazing time was had by all at the concert. Just don’t ask Troy…. He won’t remember.

Walking back to the resort was pretty entertaining as well. There were taxis and people, who had been drinking all day in the sun, lining the street. There was even this sort of dune buggy type vehicle that had a stripper pole coming out of the back of it. Someone’s little girl was using it, quite proficiently I might add, as we walked passed. Sam and I were the first back to our room to discover the door was locked and to realize that we did not have a key. We retraced our steps to find Nick, Tricia, Bart and Artie and to get a key, I am going to leave out what they were doing and who they were talking to. When asked for the key Nick informed us that he had lost it, probably about the same time his shirt got ripped off. Artie had lost his as well. So we walk to the front desk. They have no keys there. Housekeeping is closed so they have no master key. They did have a flat head and a Phillips screwdriver, the desk guy handed me that. They didn’t work. Nick and the posse roll up and I explain the situation to the Situation, (Nick had his hair blown out like a guido, so we called him the Situation, aka the Sitch, all night), him and I go around back to climb up to the second floor balcony to go around and unlock the door. I boosted Nick up and he climbed over the balcony to allow the group into the condo where we proceed to pass out for the night. The funny thing is that this wasn’t the last time Nick had to be boosted up to scale the balcony.

In the morning we were a little late to rise, but once everyone was ready we headed to La Curva for breakfast. This place is amazing, it comes highly recommended. To ward off the hangover much of the group drank bloody marys, and got things rolling right into the day. The conversation over breakfast was hilarious, the group trying to collectively recollect the events of the previous night. It was a great way to kick off the day.

Back at the resort most of the guys elected to go golfing, the Bart, Blake and Josh made ceviche, and the girls and I went to the pool and got things started. We made a few friends, did some tricks into the water, worked on our tans, and drank a bit while relaxing in the sun. I had two favorite parts of the pool session, the second one was me jumping in off the deck and catching beers tossed and landing in the water. (Yes I know, I purposely left out the first one.) The only story I heard from golf is that they almost rolled a cart and John managed to give himself an enormous contusion/hematoma.

That night was a bit of a mess. The plan was to go eat at the fish market. I decided to lie down for a bit after getting ready. That didn’t work out, I went right to sleep. The majority of the group played cards, using shells as currency until the betting started to get ridiculous; the rest of the group went their own ways, I think most of them were sleeping. At about 11:00 someone had the brilliant idea to go out to some Rocky Point clubs. So eight of us loaded up and headed out to check these things out.

Everywhere we went we took the party with us, buying drinks, shots, taking pictures, being loud and obnoxious. We were pretty much the reason they were even staying open. Artie pulled his, now, usual move and bought a bottle of Patron which we then passed around in the club. Did I mention we may have been a little bit obnoxious? We did not care because we were definitely the life of the party. Half of our party headed back leaving Nick, Tricia, Artie, Chris and I to be the ambassadors of the group. After a few hours, way too much tequila and
Troy found a friendTroy found a friendTroy found a friend

I couldn't believe the mother just let him pick her up. Never in the US.
a chipped tooth we decided to head out. On the way to the vehicle we were approached by a pimp who had a very tempting offer of $700 for a guaranteed virgin. Yes we did start the questions about how he was so sure and could provide such a guarantee. At the time it was kind of funny, but a very real and sad scenario. Poor girls. We made our way to a taco stand and killed 20 tacos between us before heading home for the night. Make that 21 tacos, Tricia had to buy one to give to a stray dog begging outside the place.

That next morning I walked out to check out the tide pools. Rocky Point has some of the world’s largest tide swings, meaning the difference here between low tide and high tide is one of the greatest in the world. In the tide pools one can find crabs, fish, snails, sponges, a couple told me that they even found a four foot squid. It was kind of crazy and worth looking at.

The rest day picked up where the previous had ended; although this time everyone went to the pool/beach for the
Nick and I and our $20 six packsNick and I and our $20 six packsNick and I and our $20 six packs

It was easier to put them on our belts than to carry them.
full day. We kicked it off with some snorkeling; Artie, John and I were out trying to spear fish. We came back and spent some time at the pool before grabbing a frisbee and going down to the beach for some ultimate frisbee. This may sound like a nice relaxing thing that hippies play in the center of campus, but when you have a group of guys where the majority of us played football in college and one guy drafted into the majors for baseball, it was anything but relaxing. Running in the sand is like that for an extended period of time is grueling; I was sweating and panting within the first five minutes, feeling absolutely miserable. We took a brief halftime to go lay in the water which may have been one of the most relaxing things I did all trip. After we finished the game we headed back to the pool after entertaining the idea of playing sand volleyball; we decided against it thankfully.

We swam for a bit, laughed at some of the stories that were divulged, many of previous trips, and had a bit to drink. The girls were playing cards as a separate group setting up there own little joke. The boys all went snorkeling for a little while until Blake was almost decapitated by a jet ski, which quickly ended our fun. (We saw a lady get moved off on a stretcher because she was hit by a jet ski that same day.) Walking back though we saw a fish in the water which Artie promptly speared, John grabbed the fish and threw it up onto the sand. Tricia was upset though and wanted to set it free, so it was released back into captivity. As the afternoon was winding down the decision was made to go ahead and get ready, we were going to head to the fish market that night for dinner.

It is a bit of a drive into town and to the fish market from the Sonora Sea. The sun was setting when we arrived, painting a magnificent scene to dine by. Tricia nearly ended up with another pit bull before we even made it to our table. Others made their way into one of the Pharmacias to check out the offerings of a Mexico Pharmacy.

Dinner was a laugh riot. We sat around talking about
Some of the groupSome of the groupSome of the group

Hanging out at the RCPM concert
all of the memorable things that had happened already on the trip, things that happened on past trips, and some people, *cough Artie *cough Haley *cough, divulging way too much information to the group. Haha! We paid two groups of mariachis to serenade us before our meals came. The good news was that my stomach hurt from laughing and not the food. After dinner we had a short lived dance party in the restaurant which may have been caused, at least in part, by the complimentary shots provided to us by the management staff. Nick decided to have his picture taken with a statue on the walk back to the vehicles, only to have the policia roll up and squawk their siren, and ending the photo shoot.

Once we got back to the resort everyone was good and loose, so we just kind of rolled with it. Some people went to bed; others of us sat outside chatting or making new friends with passersby. Nick and Tricia decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a short jog. This led to Nick having to climb to the second story balcony, actually it was more Brandon that caused Nick to have to scale up to the second story, but that is a different subject. The night ended fairly late with everyone filtering out back to their rooms.

The next morning consisted of packing and cleaning, followed by a return trip to La Curva for breakfast. After breakfast the three vehicles went separate ways. Blake’s to return snorkel gear, and Bart’s to do some shopping and ours to take a driving tour of the city. The drive home was a lot less noisy with the group recovering from the long weekend of defiling ourselves. It was a relatively uneventful trip back to Mesa. I remember Nick making the comment how the flight we went on Friday morning seemed like months ago. (I took Nick up in a Cessna 172 on a horribly windy day; Nick got sick and had to throw up out of the window and all over the plane. Pretty humorous.) I couldn’t have agreed more. We packed a lot into those three nights. What a great trip with fun and gorgeous people. One of the group members made the comment how she felt like she was in an episode of the Hills, it was kind of like that. Can’t wait for the next trip.



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ArtieArtie
Artie

They swiped two chairs from one of the vendor tents and we set up shop
Mmmm... TacosMmmm... Tacos
Mmmm... Tacos

John and Haley killing some tacos
Blake, Troy, Artie and BartBlake, Troy, Artie and Bart
Blake, Troy, Artie and Bart

Clockwise from left
Hacksaw Jim Dugan aka the SitchHacksaw Jim Dugan aka the Sitch
Hacksaw Jim Dugan aka the Sitch

I found a wood stick with a rusty screw in it in the sand.


19th June 2010

Great Blog
Nice Job , great description on the weekend in Rocky Point. I was in town that week and dont remember much so thank you. Did you fly from the new airport or old ? http://www.123rockypointrelax.com

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