As a 22 year old Zoni, it’s unusual for me to say that “I’ve been to Western Europe, but never to Mexico.” In some cases, the beach in Mexico is actually closer than the beach in California. But it’s true, I had never been to Mexico… well, besides spring break 2k14 I took a cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, but that doesn’t count. I had never experienced real Mexico. I had never seen the border. Until last week.

The beginning

As soon as we crossed the border, we stopped for the obvious: adult beverages *ahem Corona ahem* and limes. The limes were each about the size of a golf ball, so naturally we got 48 of them…because we had 48 beers. We assumed it was going to cost a pretty penny and were shocked when we realized how much we paid for them… take a guess. Have your guess in mind? Okay here goes:

50 cents.

48 limes for 50 cents! Where are we again??

Private beachin’

Having never really been to Mexico, I didn’t know what to expect. I quickly learned that they accepted US Dollars and spoke some English, which was nice. The first day we had very little interaction with the outside world though because we had something amazing. We had a private beach. We opened up the garage at the house we were staying at, and unveiled a whole shop of beach fun! There were kayaks, paddle boards, scuba gear, the whole 9. I (and the 4 other friends I went with) decided to spend the day kayaking, paddle boarding, taking “majestic” photos and drinking on the private beach. We may or may not have drank over 72 beers in that first day…

Showering with roaches

As it turns out, Mexico is very similar to Arizona. This includes the infamous creepy crawly cockroaches. On the first day there, we noticed an upside down cockroach in the shower. He was still moving (so presumably alive), but we just left him there. He lasted the entire trip in that shower… but on the last day he somehow disappeared. I wouldn’t be surprised to find him in my duffel bag when I finally get the motivation to unpack.

Tekila with a “k”

Tequila. Pronunciation: to-kill-ya. A Spanish word meaning “I don’t remember doing that…”

The second day we decided to go to the popular “Sandy beach” part of town to visit street shops, eat tacos and bar hop. We started out with the coolest bar I’ve ever been to. Wait for it…the Tekila Bar. It was situated above the water and had a beachy tiki feel to it. Oh and they had wifi. So that was nice 😛

Pina coladas inside pineapples

After the Tekila Bar, we ordered pina coladas from a street vendor, and watched as he hollowed out the pineapples right in front of us. It was something I had seen on TV, but never in real life. Did someone say “yes please??” It was definitely vacation on a weekday.

The end of it all

By the end of the last night there, we finally made it to the bar I had been excited about all night. But by the time we got there I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open. While the others played corn hole and drank some more, I laid down on a bench and fell asleep. Inside the bar! Anyone who knows me, knows about my addiction to sleep..

Moral of the story: I think I may be borderline narcoleptic.

Do you have any fun stories from Puerto Penasco? Share them in the comments below!

Photo cred to Kaitlin Ray for her GoPro water pics. Thanks Kaitlin!