Janet and I get anxious if we don’t have a crab tostada at the Soggy Peso Bar at least every 6 months. Well, it had been over 12 months since we had been there so you can just imagine how badly we were behaving! On April 1, we caved in to our cravings and traveled south to San Carlos for some great tostadas on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
Being the adventurous types, we decided to experiment with the new Costal Highway that is under construction. As one heads south out of town towards Caborca, the first evidence of the new highway appears outside of the San Jorge beach turnoff. However, you cannot access it at this point yet. You need to travel a little farther south to the small town of San Francisco. Here you go right at a stop sign that heads to Desemboque. Drive about 17 miles towards Desemboque; there you’ll find the entrance to this stretch of the Coastal Highway.
This new highway is two lanes in both directions and beautifully done. There are no toll booths (yet) and you will not see many cars on the road. Wonderful views of the coastline can be seen along this stretch. The desert and hills in the area are pristine.
The first destination along this great highway is Puerto Lobos, which is a very small fishing camp. There is excellent fishing off this point and I hear that Yellowtail are running presently. If you’ve never had the privilege of catching one of these guys, I can assure you that a 20-pound Yellowtail fights like a 60 pound fish. They really are fun to catch and very good eating!
The next point of interest is Libertad. This town has a very big power plant that supplies much of the electricity used in Hermosillo and the state of Sonora. You can see the two giant smoke stacks from miles away. By this time you’ve traveled 60 miles on the new highway and really settled into the comforts of a beautiful modern roadway. Oh well, back to reality…the new highway ends in Libertad. However, there are decent roads (one lane in either direction) from Libertad to the Kino Bay road (Route 100). Here turn left towards Hermosillo, but only for a short distance. Go through the small town of Miguel Aleman (gas stations here if you need to fill up) and start looking for a road to your right which goes towards Guaymas. This stretch will require some patience and a sense of humor. The road has more pot holes than pavement and you really need to go slow.
After a while and a few bumps, you’ll pick up the national carretera. Go right or south here towards Guaymas and San Carlos. It is easy going from here on. The travel time for this trip is about 6-1/2 hours, which is the same if you had gone through Caborca, Santa Ana, and Hermosillo.
Unless you need to do some shopping on the way, we found this new route to be preferable. The scenery and views are great; the hassle of going through Hermosillo is avoided; and there are no tolls the entire length. Assuredly, there will be new stretches added on a regular basis as the construction progresses.
Now that Janet and I have had our Soggy Peso crab tostada fix, it is safe for people to be around us. Hopefully, we will not wait 12 months next time; so the people of Penasco will be saved from our angst!
Que tengas un buen dia!
We want Johnny to draw us a map, or mark a current map so we may visualize his explanation of the Coastal Highway from Rocky Point to Libertad!