How did Rocky Point become Arizona's beach?

This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew, well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer find more on Facebook. There are a lot of things dividing the state in this country. Ugly political posturing, which a little goes a long, long way. There is, however, one thing I think every Arizona can agree on. Our state would be immeasurably better with an ocean. Imagine running for governor with that as a central plank of your platform. This, however, seems unlikely to happen. I'm no scientist, but is it even possible to build an ocean? I think not. Otherwise, some forward-thinking person would have done it already. I was going to say, where would you get all that sand? But we do live in a desert. This means that those of us who live in Arizona are, as they say and gone with the wind, sort of, dependent on the kindness of others. A lot of people go to San Diego for beach trips, enough to be known as zonies by the locals there. Some go to Los Angeles, but frankly, that's not much of a beach vibe. But where Arizona's really like to go is Puerto Paniasco, or in the English translation, Rocky Point. To spare you my attempts at Spanish, I will, for the duration of this podcast, use the English name. With apologies to Mrs. Pierce, my high school Spanish teacher. Los Hento. Welcome to Valley 101, a podcast by the Arizona Republic and azicentral.com. I'm your host, Bill Goody Coons. This week, we answer the question, how did Rocky Point become known as Arizona's beach? It's a destination by many names. That's Michael Salerno, the consumer travel reporter for the Republic. He writes about Rocky Point quite a bit. It is very much true that Puerto Puyazco is Arizona's Beach. That is its nickname, Arizona's Beach. So many Arizonans have condos in Rocky Point. They make trips there every so often. There are people in Arizona that own businesses in Rocky Point. It's a big deal, and it kind of feels like an extension of Arizona. Jonathan Bodo, who lives in Tempe, is one of the people who owns a condo there. Like a lot of people, it didn't take him long to hear about the place. I think when I moved out here to go to grad school at Arizona State in the mid-90s, I heard tell of it from folks who had grown up here, gone to high school here, had their first beers down there. I think that was probably when I first heard about it. He remembers his first visit. Oh, yeah, it's clear as day. In around 2003, my kids were toddlers at the time and we had a group of friends through work, all with kids the same ages and we're all looking for a way to get out and let them run around together. And someone in the group suggested, let's all get a big house down on Rocky Point. And that same friend group went together to Rocky Point from 2003 to today. They liked it, apparently.

We loved it. The kids grew up together down there. I don't know if I remember exactly what I expected, but it sure was peaceful. I mean, the place we rented with that first group was in the lost conscious area. Christine Beach, walk right up to it, and it was just so peaceful down there. At least for those of us that were looking for peaceful. There's plenty of activity, but at that point, we were all in our 20s and 30s with young kids, and we weren't looking for a lot of action. So it was just so nice down there. There's always action in Rocky Point if you're looking for it. This is coming from the standpoint of being part of a family that loves to travel for relaxation, especially going to beach getaways. A lot of people that enjoy going to the beach are going to relax and unwind. You'll have a few people that want to adventure. You'll have a few people that want to party, but a lot of people just want to Lay in the sand and tan or coal off in the water. That desire for relaxation is universal. Of course, the answer to why it's Arizona's beaches, as the realtors say when you're looking for a house, location, location, location. It is 213 miles from the Phoenix City Center, and it is much closer to get to than Los Angeles or San Diego to go to the beach in California. I recently was at Imperial Beach south of San Diego, and that is 364 miles from Phoenix. So you're talking a very considerable distance. Yeah, it's an hour and a half closer than San Diego. For me, it's about three and a half hours from Tempe to the beach. Three and a half hours straight shot with no stops, but I've been making that drive for 20-some years now, and it's so familiar. You go to Helobin. You stop, you get gas, you get something at McDonald's. You go another 40 miles you're in Ajo. You gotta slow down for the speed trap there. You go another 10 miles. You have to explain what the city of Y is and why it's named why when you get through Y and you may stop at the why not. And then you get to the border. And depending on when you go, you gotta wait an hour to get across the border. They wave you in. You have to speak a little bit of Spanish or at least to understand when they're telling you to get out of the car and why they look for contraband in your car. wave you right on through and it's another 70 minutes to the beach. A lot has changed about the border since 2024. It depends on how they're doing it that week or that day, to be quite honest. I think at the peak of the trade wars and the tariff wars between the two administrations, the Mexican federal government put in a inspection of all cars going north. You had to get out of your car. They looked through your car. You got back in, and then you went and talked to the American authorities at the border stop where, you know, it's the usual passport.

where you're coming from, how long you've been down there. Sometimes they'll ask if you have fruit in the car and whether you're bringing any fruit across, and then you're straight on through. which is a change. There was no inspection by the Mexican federal government before 2024. At that point, the only inspection was the Americans asking folks coming north the questions in for passport that they normally do. The weight of the border over the last few years, that's unchanged. Sunday afternoon when people were coming back before a work week, you know, you can be in the line an hour and a half coming north. But the inspections are inconsistent. There is a way to expedite the process coming back, because global entry will work for coming back, not so much getting there. One thing that a lot of people do ask when it comes to going to Rocky Point is simple. Is it safe? There's a lot of concerns about traveling to Mexico. There were concerns back in February after there was cartel violence that broke out in Puerto Vallarta. Fortunately, Rocky Point was spared from that violence. I had talked to a few people in Rocky Point, and they had said that it was like a day like any other day. It's relatively safe compared to other parts of the country. Now, the State Department has a level three advisory for the state of Sonora, which is where Rocky Point is located. It's been under a level three for some time. because of the threat of violent crime. But that advisory is for the entire state, not necessarily Rocky Point. Again, we've started going down there since our kids were toddlers and never felt unsafe. Part of it is just the nature of what we do. We go down, we're at the beach, we're with friends, we're not going into town, but even when I go into town for lunch or for dinner, and that never felt unsafe. What was it that drove Jonathan to buy condo there? After the pandemic, I remember going down with one of my sons for a weekend. I was in the condo building where we actually ended up buying the apartment. We rented an Airbnb two-bedroom place for 48 hours and came back home. I think I'm ready to have a place down there full-time. That we could Airbnb it out. I learned a little bit about that from the people that did it down there. And we can have it to enjoy it as frequent as we want. Can work from there. Can come back easily midweek weekend. It's not remarkably different from owning a place anywhere else, it sounds like. Yeah, I mean, the main differences, I think, are in getting everything set up at the start. Getting a bank account, understanding the tax laws, finding an accountant to help you with all that, figuring out how Airbnb is going to work. A lot of that was certainly more complicated than I anticipated. Jonathan's not alone. Some estimates say Arizona's account for 80% of the tourists visiting Rocky Point. Can that be true? That is a number that's come from tourism officials in Rocky Point. It's been cited in a couple of publications. Whether that's true or not, it is fair to say that Arizona is a significant factor in tourism in Mexico. Which is another reason why Rocky Point is Arizona's beach. And that's a wrap on Valley 101. Did you enjoy this episode? Then go ahead. Give us five stars.

This episode is brought to you through the support of Vitalist Health Foundation. Remember, submit your questions about Phoenix and Arizona to Valley 101.AZCentral.com. Your question might be in our next episode. Follow us on X and Instagram at Azee Central. This episode is written by me, Bill Goodykins, and edited and produced by Tori Bari Weiss with assistance from Amanda Liberto. Kara Edgerson provided episode oversight. Music for our show comes from Universal Production Music. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.