by John and Margaret Fleming

Thirty-five years ago we used to travel to Rocky Point to vacation with a group of friends. We'd form a caravan of 3 or 4 vehicles so that if one of us got stuck in the sand, there would be others to dig us out.

In those days, the town was quite small, and the streets were unpaved. Las Conchas had not yet been conceived, and the highway to Caborca was several years into the future. We all met at the plaza in the center of town across from the police and fire departments--the one with the statue of a 4-foot shrimp. It was surrounded, not by local businesses, as it is today, but by lots of open space marked by indistinct sandy trails. At the plaza we ritually let air out of our tubed tires--down to about 15 pounds--to give them more traction, piled back into our cars, held our breaths, and took off across the sand on a 25-mile trip to our favorite site. We tried not to stop because that would risk getting bogged down in the sand.

Rarely did we reach our destination without having to stop at least once--sometimes 2 or 3 times. But all the trouble was worth it when we arrived at the beautiful estuary hidden from the "road" by a high ridge. We parked, climbed up, and trekked across, lugging all our camping gear. The location had everything the most ardent camper could desire--an expanse of turquoise sea, a beautiful sandy beach, shallow water for snorkeling, and a bay with a tidal current that would carry us around it for hours, eventually making a complete circle. The official name of the place was Estero La Pinta, but because the land was owned by a man named José Espinosa, we called it Espinosa's Estuary or, more informally, José's Place. Once there, we relaxed, discarded our everyday problems for the weekend, and simply enjoyed being there. We ate, drank, talked, swam, slept, fished, snorkeled, watched the children playing, sang, reminisced, and finally--sandy and sunburned--headed back to town, reinflated our tires, and made our way home.

And so, because of those long-ago experiences, it is of great interest to us that the very place where we used to have such ideal vacations is now the site of the Mayan Palace, the biggest resort development in Puerto Peñasco. The beach and the estuary are as beautiful as ever, and the turquoise sea still beckons tourists with its enchanting water.  The Mayan Palace has built a large hotel and several condo buildings, which are currently being sold as time shares.  But more, much more, is planned. The 12,000-acre site is to be home to thousands of single family residences, a golf course overlooking the sea, retail shops, storage buildings, clubhouses, and all the other amenities of a world-class resort.The Mayan Palace is to be the biggest development of the eight owned by Grupo Vidafel in Mexico.

Today the United States, known world-wide as the land of plenty, has no more developable beach property. And so we are looking southward to Mexico with its 9,330 km. (5,797 miles) of coastline, much of it still undeveloped.

Puerto Peñasco is one of the hottest real estate markets in Mexico.  New developments are rising along Sandy Beach and being sold out before they are completed. Successful developers are constructing additional buildings as soon as a previous one is finished. Beachfront lots in Las Conchas are nearly all sold out, so buyers are having to settle for second and third tier lots. New hotels, restaurants, and bars are being opened, and many other small businesses are springing up to meet the need for various services.

Although our experiences in Puerto Peñasco go back over 35 years, it's only in the last 10 years that we have been doing business in the city. But even in these last ten years, we have seen many changes. The adoption of NAFTA in 1994 coincided pretty much with the Mexican government's policy of phasing out fishing as an industry and promoting tourism. The Hotel Plaza las Glorias was being built; condo developments were in the works; houses were being built and renovated; new restaurants and bars were opening. As real estate people, we saw opportunity all around us.

Growth depends on marketing, and many publications have helped to sell Puerto Peñasco, ours among them. Our first corporation in Mexico was El Futuro Mercadotecnia (marketing). In 1994 we began publishing a monthly newspaper, El Futuro. At first it was an English language periodical but soon became bilingual, which it was for a number of years. Then the name was changed to www.penasco.com to coincide with our Web site of the same name, and it became monolingual again. The Rocky Point Times had begun publishing shortly before we did (in English), and the Mexican newspaper De Frente (in Spanish) started about the same time. Several years later two magazines, The Rocky Point Explorer (English) and Peñasco Magazine (Spanish), and a newspaper, Join Us Entertainment (bilingual), joined us, as well as De DeVeras, another Mexican newspaper. From time to time other newspapers, magazines, and single-purpose publications, such as the Rocky Point Restaurant Guide, have been part of the marketing effort.

Internet marketing has also been important. We started www.penasco.com, the city's first Web site, in 1995, and have maintained it ever since. It has over 5,000 pages of information, including all the articles from the newspaper. At one time we were getting from 5,000 to 10,000 visits a day on it. Since then other Web sites have been created and are absorbing some of the traffic.

Growth and improvements have continued. In 1994 there were only 2 Pemex gas stations in town, one on Blvd. Juarez and one in the Old Port. Last week we counted 8. There was 1 traffic signal in 1994, and only the main roads were paved. But as the hotels and condo towers went up, the road from Sonoyta was being widened and improved, and other improvements followed. Many Americans and Canadians bought lots in Las Conchas and other parts of town and began building homes on them. Like us, others in the real estate business were attracted to the growth they saw happening, and they began opening offices. This led to the establishing two years ago of the Puerto Peñasco Association of Real Estate Agents, which we were instrumental in organizing. The group started with 13 people meeting to talk about possibilities. Now there are 50 real estate agents working for 14 real estate companies and 4 affiliates. The organization meets regularly, has its own web site, and operates a listing data exchange service for its members. Professionalism in real estate is now part of the Puerto Peñasco scene.

As real estate developed, many small businesses followed--builders, architects, pharmacies, cell phone companies, hardware, variety, groceries, beauty shops, gyms, and many others. Then larger businesses began to enter the picture: Ace Hardware's Socoada a couple of years ago; the PH food market, a large department store franchise based in Caborca; and just this year (2004) a new supermarket, Super Ley; and a new department store, Coppel's, both local franchises of large national corporations. All these new businesses created new jobs. No longer were all the employees and service personnel locals; we began to see an influx of people from other parts of Sonora and of Mexico.

A new highway is being built, which will stretch from El Golfo Santa Clara, northwest of Puerto Peñasco, southeast along the coast as far as Caborca. This will open up new stretches of sandy beach for tourist development and will make access to Puerto Peñasco easier and faster for visitors from Yuma, El Centro, San Diego, and other U.S. cities farther north.

To encourage tourism via water as well as land, the Mexican government is developing the Escalera Nautica, or Nautical Ladder, a 1.9 billion dollar project. The ladder consists of a series of 22 ports along the west coast of Sonora and Sinaloa, and both sides of Baja California. Some of them are already in place; some exist but need to be expanded; and some are being built from scratch. The marinas will provide necessary services for seagoing vessels and are planned to be one day's journey apart by boat. In the future, it should be possible to start at Ensenada, south of San Diego, sail south to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja, north along the other side and around to Puerto Peñasco, then south again along the coast of the mainland as far as Mazatlan.

The early conquistadores sought El Dorado, literally "the golden man." They hoped to find actual gold in Mexico. Now the gold is figurative, a symbol for opportunity. We were conscious of it In 1994 when we wrote an article called "Puerto Peñasco, Mexico's New El Dorado."  More recently we used the same metaphor in our book, Beaches of Gold, about buying and selling real estate in Mexico. The golden promise has been there for us and is still there; in fact, it is expanding all the time.  Mexico continues to attract contemporary adventurers, those seeking romance, challenges, and rewards.