Sea Lice

Ok another story on ocean wild life. The whole family traveled to RP over memorial weekend. All of us swam in the ocean. My wife stephanie, come up to the room too change out of her bathing suit, and she finds that she has this bright red bumps on both of her breasts. She is freaking out obviously at this point and is visabily upset. Upon our return to the states she sees a demitoligest who identifies the red bumps as jelly fish larve.

Turns out that for a few weeks leading up to jelly fish season, jelly fish larve form. Their small microspocpic cells. The cells contain the same venoum as the adult jelly fish. When the cells get stuck between your suit and skin the you end up with the red bumps.

The dermitologs gave steph some lotion and medication to help reduce the inflimation.

Check this site out it gives you some more detail on "sea lice"

A Perspective on Mexico Travel

By Grant and Judy Mackenzie, Sr.
May 26th, 2009

Sometimes we all need to be reminded to put things in perspective. It happens all the time, something may seem earth shattering in the moment it is occurring and when we have the ability to  stop and look back we think well…maybe we over reacted. Perhaps that's what is happening right now when it comes to Mexico travel and tourism.  

Puerto Penasco Mexico is a beautiful destination 60 miles south of the Arizona border. A quiet little beach town with a population over 50,000(see Wikipedia info) it has had little violent crime and offers beachside relaxation and fishing on the beautiful Sea of Cortez.

It is not close to Mexico City. The capital of Mexico has a population exceeding 22 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world by population according to the United Nations and other organizations.

In fact Puerto Penasco is only 215 miles from Phoenix, Arizona the 5th largest city in the United States. Phoenix is 1,998 miles from Washington DC the capital of the United States and Puerto Penasco is less than 2000 miles from the capital Mexico City. This quiet little seaport town is no closer to the capital of their state capital than Phoenix is to Washington D.C.

Think about it if something happens in Washington DC with violence or murders or swine flu, do we close the borders of the United States? It is our capital, just like Mexico City is Mexico’s capital. When the sniper attacks occurred in the DC suburban area did we close the United States down and send warnings not to visit the US? Certainly no one would have thought to announce any warnings about Phoenix with issues happening in DC? Do other countries close their borders from the US and cancel their trips to all of the United States when something concerning happens in our capital?

Or let us use a smaller more comparable town to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. For this example, how about Show Low, Arizona, a beautiful mountain town with some of the largest Ponderosa Pines in the world and great skiing. Definitely smaller population then Puerto Penasco but a unique tourist destination similar to Rocky Point. So, if we hear about something happening in Show Low will we avoid the entire US or Arizona? For that matter will we cancel our trips to Show Low? Of course not, that sounds ridiculous. Well, then why are we cancelling our beach vacations to Mexico?

In March 2009, a shoot out occurred in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Show Low, Arizona ( see article on murders) . The murders happened right around spring break time and Show Low, Arizona with its rugged high elevation and beautiful mountains is a Spring Break skiing destination…why didn’t universities issue warning about going to Show Low?

Because sometimes bad things happen no matter where you are at in the world.  People get the flu, a horrific shoot out happens at a Wal Mart in a small town, and someone shoots a man on the freeway in Phoenix. Horrible bad things happen in small and large towns every day. Do we stop traveling and stay at home? Of course not. Let’s get some reality.

Perhaps, before you cancel your trips to Mexico, you should understand where you are going and what happens in your own neighborhood and put things in perspective. Think about the 36,000 cases of flu last year in the United States.

As of today, unlike Phoenix, Arizona, there has not been one report of H1N1 previously known as swine flu in the town of Puerto Penasco or the state of Sonora.

What does this mean to you?
 
Plan a weekend road trip to Rocky Point. Go to a laid back place where you can have lunch with the sound of the waves and sit on a blanket under clear skies with millions of stars. Go have some fun in the sun without any smog and clear air.

Go jet skiing, parasailing, swimming, beachcombing, have some margaritas and eat a few yummy tacos. Just returning from a long weekend in Puerto Penasco, the weather was fantastic and the water is at a perfect temperature. The business owners are waiting for you ready to ensure you have a great vacation and hoping tourism picks up, I guarantee you will get spectacular service!

The weather is beautiful, wish you were here!
See you soon! 
Judy and Grant
www.ourrockypointrealtor.com

Pelicans at Aqui es con Flavio

My wife and I had lunch at the Aqui es con Flavio in the old port. Nice restaurant on the inlet to the puerto penasco porte with a spectacular view of the Sea of Cortez and the resorts of Sandy Beach.

Our friend above was literally 2 feet from us. Very beautiful bird with a long beak and share short teeth running up and down the length. Not afraid of human in the least. The waiter tried a couple of time to shoe him off. He finally had to push the bird off the rail.

Very exciting for the customers. We had people two rows deep around our table, taking photo graphs and feeding the bird. This was in-spite of the big sign on the wall asking “Please, don’t fee the birds.” Oh well, it was very exciting.

Stung by Sting Ray

My wife and I had arrived in RP around 11:00 am Saturday May 30th 2008. Beautiful day!. We were both looking forward to a relaxing weekend on the beach in front of Las Palomas where we own a condo. Around 2:00, after a few drinks, we built up the courage to go parasailing. Upon our return, the tide was very low, the boat dropped us off as close to shore as possible. I jump into the water - knee high, took a few steps and boom - the pain was horrible. First I thought I had cut my foot on the submerged rocks, then I though maybe a jelly fish had stung me. I booked it back to my lounge chair on the beach, sat down to investigate the damage to my foot - blood was gushing out and the pain had intensified - worst pain I have ever felt - excruciating pain. By looking at the entry wound I guessed it was a Stingray.

Within a few minutes the Las Palomas security showed up and they called the paramedics. The paramedics were there in about 5 minutes. Very professional. Knew exactly what to do. They clean the wound, told me to let it bleed, applied iodine as a disinfectant and shot my foot with Novocain to reduce the pain.

My wife and I were aware of possibility of sting ray stings and jelly fish stings. We had prepared a first aid kit - as a just in case necessity. We had the instructions on how to care for the wound and what to expect.

Upon return to our condo, I soaked my foot in hot water - very hot - as hot as I could stand for 90 minutes. This worked beautifully - much better than the Novocain. During that time the wound bleed. I changed the water several times.

After the soak the bleeding subsided, I applied a topical antibiotic and a gauze bandage- which had to be change a few time during the night.

The wound seemed to be healing well for 5 days but on the sixth it started to reddened and became swollen. A trip to the urgent care on sunday confirmed it had become infected.

I had an xray taken - as recommended - no barb had been left in my foot.

I am thankful that I was the first to have been stung in our family. I would not of wanted my daughter and wife or parents to have the first experience with the sting. It was very, very painful. Now we now what to expect.

I highly recommend that you prepare a first ad kit to include treatment instructions, topical antibiotics, gauze, and fabric bandages. I found the fabric bandages work the best. I also recommend having a list of recommended doctors in Rocky Point - this is one list we did not have, and it would have come in useful. Third, I recommend that you visit your personal doctor immediately after returning to the states and request an xray to be sure no barb or venom sack was left in the wound. Lastly, watch out for signs of infection. Saltwater marine life do harbor harmful bacteria that can cause serious infections.

So that’s my story - by the way the Parasailing trip was wonderful.

Memorial Day Weekend

Hey all - Can't wait until the Memorial Day weekend. The entire family is going. 9 in all. We are renting an additional condo at Las Palomas. If you haven't done so already check out our web site. We are always adding additional reviews of resorts, dining spots and interviews. I'm going to be adding some old post to our new blog site. One of the post covers my encounter with a sting ray. Not pleasant! Stay tuned.

Thanks
Kyle and Steph
www.puertopenascoliving.com

Swine Flu

Seems like it's one thing after another. First it was the financial crisis, then it was the drug violence, then it was the swine flu. I feel like turing into a swine. Now its a shoot out in Puerto Penaso. If this were to happen in the state it would be a non issue. But that it happens in Mexico, watch out.... Do not travel,,,, according to the U.S. Media.

Yes, other part of Mexico may have there problems, but Rocky point has remained relatively immune. It's a wonderful community.

Kyle
www.puertopenascoliving.com