Beaches and Sea of Cortez opened in Puerto Peñasco

By Beverly Arrowood On Aug 4th, 2020

August 1st, Puerto Peñasco began to open it’s beaches and water access to the public. Many thing have changed in the last 2 weeks. It was announced that people would be able to have access to the beach and water in certain areas of the city and surrounding beaches.  There were long lines coming in from the Sonoyta to Rocky Point Road as well as coming from El Golfo.  It also has moved the sanitation tunnel from just north of the city to a beach access spot on Sandy Beach.  The weather was beautiful even though this time of the year is our hot and humid season. Sunday provided a great deal of wind, so many people did not go to the beach, but rather choose to go shopping and do other activities.

Now the city is open to everyone at last. When planning your trip down, you will be required to get into one of 2 lines with one being for tourists and the other for residents and owners. This has not changed from previous posts.  They will be pulling over randomly cars from the lines and one person will be asked to do the rapid test and remember it is at your expense and will cost about $32 USD.  The rapid test is a finger prick test an takes about 20 minutes to get the results. They do take credit or debit cards.

Sunset boats have been allowed to go out but still can not serve alcohol and are not at full capacity. Restaurants and bars are open but at limited capacity as are hotels. If we keep our virus case count down, things will eventually open up more and more.  Please wear you face masks when in public areas and follow the mandates that the city has set.  We did see license plates from all over including Texas, California, Nevada but mainly they were from Arizona.  People have waited so long for this day and it proved to be worth it. The vendors were making sales and businesses were busy. This was so needed as our economy was really down as we have have been in quarantine for over  4 months.  The community has really come together with feeding locals who’s families depended on tourism and now not no money for food or electricity, etc.  The Family Church of God alone fed 5,500 people with bag lunches last week.  This was down from their high of 5,900.

When entering onto Mexico via Sonoyta, be prepared to be stopped and asked to look in your vehicle and you may or may not get stopped by the military as well.  As always, please, obey all speed signs to avoid tickets. There is one area were it drops down to 20 KM or about 12 MPH.  Remember the beach and water will be waiting for you.

The Zip Line is open as are the horse stables for your enjoyment.  You can go out and check out the tide pools in front of the resorts or hotels where you are staying for some educational fun. Don’t forget the puppies at Barb’s Dog Rescue love people to come out and pet them and bring them food.