Puerto Penasco to El Golfo road now open.

Well there's another way to get to the hotels of Puerto Penasco, especially if you're coming from California. The new highway, SON 003, is now open connecting El Golfo de Santa Clara with Rocky Point.

According to an article on Rocky Point Weekly, it's 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Puerto Penasco to El Golfo, and provides scenic vistas of both the Sea of Cortez and the Gran Desierto de Altar. So now you can cross the border in Yuma and buy a condo in Puerto Penasco the same day.

I have mixed feelings about this road, which is part of a grander project to complete a coastal highway to Guaymas. On one hand, it's going to bring in more travelers from California to help boost the tourist economy of Rocky Point and other locations along the mainland coast.

On the other hand, it's going to bring in more travelers from California.

Not that there's anything wrong with travelers from California. Some of my best friends are Californians who have traveled. But I do fear for the inevitable changes that go along with increased accessibility.

After all, those who know Rocky Point have watched expensive condos and homes explode from the sands and replace quaint beachfront RV parks and open camping areas. Dirt roads are now paved and, maybe it's just me, but prices seem higher.

Then there's the sprawling desert north of the new highway, part of the El Pinacate/Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Preserve, one of the last great wilderness areas in Mexico. It's illegal to go off-road in the preserve, but this vast area is hard to patrol. How many yahoos are now going to be tempted to drive their ATVs into the huge dune fields?

And what about the miles and miles of undeveloped beach, one of the greatest attractions for me in this area? We will probably see more condos, gated housing communities, restaurants and bars filling up the sea view.

Of course, SON 003 also means that more Arizonans may go to El Golfo, forever changing that small community.

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I think Julie and I need to pop down there and check it out. Simply for research purposes, of course.

From MEX 008, the typical way to Rocky Point, the turnoff to SON 003 is at the Laguna Del Mar exit a few miles north of Puerto Penasco.

Hurricane Norbert, can I ask you a favor?

There's a lot of wind and a few clouds showing up here in Tucson today and it makes me think of Hurricane Norbert (although I doubt they are related.) Right now, Norbert is heading for southern Baja and the National Hurricane Center has issued a Hurricane Warning for the west coast of southern Baja. The storm is then projected to cross over the peninsula and hit mainland Mexico as a tropical storm somewhere between Topolobampo and Guaymas.

Now I certainly hope Mexico is spared devastation from Norbert and I'm really asking Norbert to please, please spare Guaymas. Not just because I'm concerned for the residents, including my new blogging friends Brenda and Roy. I also don't know if I could live with the guilt.

You see, my family and I have a "hurricane attraction" track record. Several places we have traveled to, have been subsequently nailed by devastating hurricanes. To wit:

1988. Category 5 Hurricane Gilbert causes massive destruction as it slams into Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula, 14 months after Julie and I rambled around there during our honeymoon. From what we hear, one of the places we stayed at in Playa del Carmen is destroyed.

2002. Category 4 Hurricane Kenna damages or destroys 95 percent of the buildings in San Blas, Nayarit, 13 months after Julie, Ginger and I left the village. The Hotel Garza Canela, where we stayed, apparently survived.

2004. Hurricane Frances hits the Bahamas as a Category 3, 13 months after our trip through Exuma and Nassau.

2005. One month after we had yielded to desire (okay, played the role as jazz-loving, cocktail-sipping tourists) in the French Quarter, Hurricane Katrina blasts New Orleans as a Category 3.

2005. Two months after we had spent the night socializing with locals in Holly Beach, Louisiana, Hurricane Rita scored a bulls-eye on the little vacation village. The town was completely obliterated. Gone.

2006. Hurricane John hits southern Baja as a Category 2. Two weeks earlier, Julie and I had been about 300 miles north of where it made landfall. (I know that's pretty far away but hey, when you've got a pattern going it's hard to let go).

2007. We went fishing in the White Mountains of Arizona.

However, and this is point, we were in Guaymas at the end of December, 2007. I really shouldn't be admitting this.