Puerto Peñasco is a city and municipality located in the northwest of the state of Sonora about 100 km from the Arizona border. It is located on the Sea of Cortez and has grown rapidly as a resort town. The area is part of the Altar Desert, one of the driest and hottest areas in the larger Sonora Desert. Because of the lack of water, this area had no permanent settlements until the 1920s.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the construction of a rail line connecting Baja to the rest of Mexico passed through here and allowed for the development of a permanent town. For most of its history, the area has been associated with fishing, which is still a major source of income. However, since the 1990s, there has been a push to develop the area for tourism, as it is already heavily visited by people from Arizona and California. You will find luxurious hotels and condo resorts lining over 100 km of white sand beaches.
Puerto Peñasco, called “Rocky Point” in English, has been nicknamed “Arizona’s beach” as the cities of Phoenix and Tucson are closer to it than Mexicali or Hermosillo, and many Arizonans spend weekends here.
Puerto Peñasco has fully equipped hospitals such as, Hospital Santa Fe, the Red Cross Hospital, and the Clinic Santa Maria. These hospitals have highly trained medical doctors and nurses that will provide great medical care.
The airport is a joint government- private enterprise project which was inaugurated in 2008 and has a daily capacity of 2,000 passengers. Puerto Peñasco is a popular destination for high school and college students from Arizona and California that flock there for their spring break. |