Its a Wrap

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I can summarise as doing very little and the highlights and low lights were:

• home cooked dinner Tuesday – Green Chilli Chicken Burritos
• Hunter breaks his arm Tuesday and gets a cast Wednesday
• took kids to Tepanyaki at Sapporo on Wednesday night as P&G had a birthday engagement
• did a little bit of window shopping but didn’t buy a single thing
• moved into P&G for Thursday night as I was originally leaving on Thursday
• relaxed a lot

Friday morning and we manage to leave Phoenix around noon and head to Mexico, 310 kilometres and a four plus hour drive away. For some reason there is a delay leaving the USA – go figure – and it takes five hours! We have to stop on the way at one of the many stalls that offer insurance for the car while in Mexico as it isn’t covered by regular car insurance - $41 for three days car and third party.

 

We arrive at the apartment which is very suitable. A little dates but 115 sq metres 2 bedroom + 2 bathroom and settle in nicely. Quickly off to dinner in a nearby open air, lets call it beer garden like restaurant. Food was excellent with the area known for fresh seafood and it delivered.

 

I really like it here at Rocky Point/Sandy Beach/Puerto Penasco, whatever you want to call it. It’s a say 3½ star area resort area with a five star view. It suffered badly with the GFC with a lot of projects abandoned but it could be a great resort area except for the fact that 100 metres from the beach is just sandy desert. Well except also for the high ‘Bogan’ factor there seems to be here.

 

One of the main activities here is All Terrain Vehicles which they rent by the hour ($20/$40) which crazy people drive around the sandy hills and try and kills themselves on – see above re Bogans!

 

All in all a good place to chill out for a few days – EXCEPT – we realise on arrival that Graeme has in fact brought his passport holder BUT without his passport in it. We are all worried about this but Graeme seems most unfussed.but we are all worried about what will happen especially me who is catching a 17:00 flight to Los Angeles!! Anyway it will be what it will be.

 

Saturday and we leave Graeme to sleep in and have a coffee at the adjoining hotel. Back to the room past all the stalls on the beach.

 

We decide to walk the 3km into the main part of town, well main in the sense that there is a lot of activity involving souvenir shops, cafes, restaurants, cantinas and bars. After looking at the offerings we settle into a restaurant overlooking the Sea of Cortes but after discovering that the corn chips were “bought Doritos” we move to the adjoining sports bar where I can watch the Champion’s League Final and Bayern Munich victory. I decide on a taxi back mainly because Graeme is totally sun burnt in the face and I am TIRED!

 

All drugs and medicines are available here without prescription so there are many “Farmacias” offering everything from antibiotics to Viagra – no I didnt buy either one or the other.

 

Siesta time although I didn’t sleep much and then a great dinner thanks to TripAdvisor where I found an Italian Restaurant – MareBlu – where the food was great sitting on a terrace on the beach watching one of the most amazing moon risings I have EVER seen – AWESOME!

 

Sunday morning, Penny’s Birthday and we are all feeling a bit lazy. Shower and off to the adjoining hotel for breakfast and coffee. Very pleasant sitting on the balcony overlooking their pool and beach.

 

A short drive through what is best described at Iraqistan – a desert with sand roads and very little other than abandoned half built buildings to be seen – and we arrive at a nearby village and veg out in the local bar sipping drinks and nibbling food.

 

Penny and Graeme take me to “Rodeo Drive” a strip of shops selling local chachkas, a lot of pewter items, jewellery and souvenirs. Of course I buy a few small things to make sure I exceed my luggage limit from Phoenix to Los Angeles although I am OK after that with an allowance of three bags.

 

It’s mid-afternoon so we go to the local cantina which is a tin roofed shack with 1960’s armchairs and amazingly good food.

 

Back to the apartment for a Siesta and a wonderful dinner at the Lighthouse restaurant. A million dollar view with a McDonald's budget.

 

Next morning we leave earlier (08:00) than we had planned (10:00) which was good. Apparently Memorial Day Monday is the worst day of the year to cross the border. It takes us an extra 1.5 hours and later in the day it can be an extra four hours. Despite Graeme having forgotten his passport a most obliging Border Protection Agent spun us through without any problems whatsoever.

  

 

  

 

 

 

  

  

 

I catch my flight from PHX to LAX no problem. Usual delays in getting luggage and collecting rental car but I still make my dinner with David Franchi at Nobu Malibu. There were some tensions in our friendship which thankfully have now dissipated as I enjoy his company and chatting with him every few days.

Next morning time to pack up and ready myself for my 22:30 flight to Sydney. I do some last minute shopping buying a few minor items at Tommy Bahama, Container Shop and other places in and around Century City. I get my nails done to fill in the time and make the airport well in time for the plane but the use of the lounge makes that mildly pleasant.

The plane leaves an hour late because it would otherwise arrive early in Sydney before the 06:00 curfew. So we get to Sydney and are diverted to Melbourne where:

• we sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half waiting for a gate
• no gate finally put into the cargo area
• wait one and half hours for a refuelling truck during which time the pilots and then the flight crew exceed the maximum number of hours
• we are offloaded on the plane to clear customs and flown home domestically.

I arrive in Sydney 11 hours after the scheduled time. Oh well this doesn't happen too often.

I really enjoyed my trip but because I didn't plan it till quite late went to Los Angeles and San Francisco as something easy to organise and I should have done other things. Oh well next time - which BTW is in August in Atlanta.

XD