We would like to wish everyone a great New Year! Thank you to all of our friends, advertisers, subscribers, and our readers, we hope all your goals are achieved this year!

It’s cold weather now in Peñasco, it started about mid-December with a one day rain – lots of rain – that made everything colder. We’ve been waiting for months for the weather to cool down and boy it did…in one day. But with holidays and cold weather comes the tamal season! It’s a national tradition to make tamales at home (or buy them) and have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By the time you read this, I will probably be sick of tamales. And continuing with food, the asparagus season is here too! You will now see people selling the little bundles of fresh asparagus alongside the streets and in the neighborhoods. Most of the people selling asparagus are usually from Caborca and they sell them pretty cheap, so if you love asparagus you should take advantage and buy all you can from them now that they are fresh and crispy.

The year 2017 went by pretty fast, it was probably because we were so busy with the paper: Sandy had us running all over town – eating everywhere and visiting everyone, not to mention our trips into other parts of Mexico. We hope to continue to be very busy in 2018 and hope to see lots of new businesses and visitors to our city. There has been lots of news lately about our Home Port being kicked into gear again since the The Arizona-Mexico Commission was held locally. The Home Port has received more money to finish the project, so hopefully we should start seeing work done pretty soon. We love to hear positive news like this because it means, more investments, maybe more construction of hotels, restaurants and that means more work for our locals. Another big thing they talked about was the Sentri Lane being opened in Lukeville, which will make crossing so much easier and quicker, especially for those big holiday weekends. It seems that some road work needs to be done in Sonoyta to make this a reality, but sometimes once things get going they get done in a hurry. All in all 2017 was a very good year for Rocky Point with lots of tourism, starting with Spring Break to the Motorcycle Rally, all of the hotels, resorts and condos pretty much filled up every weekend and we expect to see an even bigger increase in 2018.

Shrimping season has also been great. State news report that the State of Sonora has shrimped at least 13 thousand tons of shrimp, just up to the month of November 2017. This is great for our local fishermen as well as those of you who come to Rocky Point for the best shrimp in the world! Remember, when you’re looking to buy fresh shrimp you need to compare size, prices and vendors. You should visit at least two vendors to compare and get the best price and best quality for your money.

Talking about locals, don’t forget that January is the best month to pay your property taxes. January gets the biggest discount and then it lowers down for February and March. Don’t forget to ask for your discount…if you don’t ask, they won’t mention it and you will not get it.

We would like to give a big THANK YOU to Laguna Shores for donating 110 bicycles to needy children of Puerto Peñasco again this year. I had the opportunity of taking the photos and I got to see a lot of happy faces. This is a great organized program and the families who receive the bicycles have a social-economic test done to see if they qualify for the program.

We have some great events coming up, RCPM JAM X will be at JJ’s Cantina in Cholla Bay on the 12th of January and the Balloon Festival will be February 23rd, 24th, 25th starting at 7am at Islas del Mar, previously known as Laguna del Mar. In other news, the Zip Line is back open! I personally talked to the owner and they are back operating with all their permits okayed. Some disappointing news is that the Royal Tap bus line from Phoenix to Peñasco has been cancelled. Apparently, the line was bought by another company and they have not, as of yet, stated as to whether they will continue the route or not. But if you are in need of transportation to Rocky Point for this coming year don’t forget that HeadOut has been a constant source of reliable transportation for many, many years. And if you drive your own vehicle, don’t forget to get Mexican insurance online or along the way to Rocky Point.

We bid farewell to 2017 and welcome 2018 with open arms and high, high hopes for progress in Rocky Point and we would like to wish everyone the very best for the coming year.