Hope you all had a great 4th of July holiday and are resting up for a fantastic Labor Day Weekend, the last summer holiday of the year. Lukeville’s extended Friday border hours are supposed to come to an end in September, but hopefully CBP will extend them or even give us back our pre-covid POE operating hours, which were 6AM to Midnight, oh, wouldn’t that be great! Through September the border is open every Friday until 10PM and every other day of the week until 8PM.
August and September are typically slow months events wise, but it looks like a lot of bars and restaurants are remaining open, or just trimming their hours, and still have entertainment, games and air conditioning – yay! Some will close for a couple of weeks or a month and do repairs or take their holiday, but most will be back open by the Labor Day Weekend. La Cava will be closed during August to do some remodeling and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out. I’ve only picked them out because we all know how much I love vino.
Highway 8 seems to be remaining in decent condition, thanks again to Esmeralda Resorts for filling the ginormous potholes. There is still a fair amount you need to dodge, and it’s still a bit rough, but it’s definitely a lot better. And our city water woes seem to be affecting just about everyone now. It’s nothing new to those of us who live here full time and get city water, but it will come as an unwelcome surprise to visitors who rented a house or condo. At the Ranchito I’ve had to have my water trucked in for months and months now because I’m not getting a trickle of water from the city. And it’s not to complain, but just to make people aware that “stuff” happens, Peñasco has its issues, and you probably have access to a lovely pool and are beachfront at the condo you rented. Just think of the poorest people in the barrios who never, ever get city water and can’t afford to pay for a truckload of water: All they can manage is to get a 55-gallon drum filled. How in the heck do you shower, cook, bathe the kids, keep the dust down and do laundry on a trash bin full of water? Maybe we can come up with a solution to help people get access to water until the city figures out the problem or get more support to the legit charities and organizations that get water delivered to families in the barrios. We’ll work on that because we all desperately need water during these very hot months.
One more ugh and then I’m done with the bad news. Though this is nothing new, it seems that there has been an unusually high number of people being pulled over and ticketed for the dark tint on their vehicle windows. Apparently dark tint was supposed to be removed by March 31st, but we missed that announcement. The Commander of the Traffic Department of the State of Sonora recently made a statement asking that people remove the dark tint, so they are not sanctioned by the municipal police. This is a State of Sonora traffic law (Article 72 of the Traffic Law of the State of Sonora) so it will apply to anywhere you drive in the state including Sonoita and Puerto Peñasco. They are mainly focusing on the windshield tint (honestly, I don’t know how some people see how of their windows at night) but are also trying to regulate the side windows so that the inside of the vehicle is visible. The po-po don’t wanna roll up to a blacked-out vehicle. The fine for excessive tint is $2,932 pesos so just be aware – you may never be pulled over for it, but you’ve been warned. And please don’t try to bribe an officer, it just makes it worse for the next person who gets pulled over and it’s against the law.
Our beloved contributing writer Cap’n Greg turned 200 last month penning his 200th column – I forgot to give him kudos and thank him for keeping us entertained. Jodi Johnson, another great contributing writer has been taking a break from her monthly article to work on her book: Not sure if I was supposed to leak that, but cat is now out of the bag. And Happy 20th Anniversary to Gustavo and Optica Turati which reminds me I need to get my glasses fixed and go get another eye exam!
Happy August and see you at the beach!
