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Updates and Info about Rocky Point.
Speaker: Hi, welcome to
Rocky Point by the Numbers.
Today we're with Mary Snyder.
Mary Snyder is an icon in
the Porto Penasco community.
She's had a fantastic reputation since
she bought her first place here in 1990.
And then , she made a splash in
the community as being a prominent
businesswoman and a community leader.
Today we're going to talk to
her about the six misconceptions
people have about Porto Penasco.
Hey Mary, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hi Steve, thanks for having me.
Speaker: So Mary, in 1994, Puerto
Pinosco had to be a completely
different place than it is today.
What made you decide to move down here?
Speaker 2: Actually, I was living
since 1988 in the Phoenix area.
And I used to just come down on the
weekends like everybody else with some
friends and I, I was actually shocked
I was here for camping on the beach
with about 12 friends and looking
around and said, why is nobody here?
And then three days later, it was
surrounded by college kids, 350
college kids camping on the beach.
And so it was kind of funny because
nothing was on Sandy Beach at all.
There was the Playa Bonita
Hotel, small at the time.
But I kept saying, why is nothing here?
And then I saw these college kids
come and I said, next time I'm
going to come and rent a condo.
And so there were some over by Manny's.
So we, the next time we came down,
we, we said, okay, I like roughing
it, but I'd rather sleep in a bed.
So that was my first discovery.
Speaker: Mary, what made you
decide to actually move here?
You came down, you loved it.
You found a place at Manny's to stay, and
then there must've been an opportunity
or something that really brought you here
and gave you the opportunity to live here
full time and end up loving on the place.
And being quite honestly,
a community leader.
Speaker 2: Well, what I did was
my husband at the time, we bought
a place in Las Conchas, and then
we actually bought a second one
as a rental, and that was in 1990.
And then at the time, it's now
called Pinasco del Sol, but
it was the Plaza Las Glorias.
They were going to start coming
out of the ground and doing
a hotel and condo project.
And so my husband and I at the time
went in and we talked to the guy
that was the director of sales.
He was the first American that was working
for the company and the company was Grupo
Citor and they were one of the largest
timeshare resort properties in Mexico, but
they were finally doing a project here.
So that project had
actually the first elevator.
So we were working for them.
And there were three of us, like
I said before, came down on the
weekends and now we said, okay, is
this something that we want to do?
And he came down first.
Then after a couple months, it
was like, okay, yeah, we could
both make a living at this.
And so then I came down.
So from 1994, we lived here full time.
And it was pretty ironic to watch them.
There wasn't even a.
cement mixer.
They were mixing the concrete by
hand in a wheelbarrow and then had
a bucket and they would hand rope
it up the floors and watching them
hand trowel a section at a time.
And so it was really interesting,
but we loved the beach and at
least we just needed to find
a way to make a living at it.
You know, what were you going to
do, clean houses or, you know,
there was nothing to do that way.
So that was the first
project and that was in 1994.
So it was 36 villas and 90 condos
and then they were also doing
a commercial area and a marina.
So it was the first kind of big project.
So that's why we came down
and lived here full time.
Speaker: When we always talk about our
own original story, because we know it
doesn't seem like that big of a deal,
but to hear other people's original
story of how they ended up in Penasco
is always so fascinating and fun.
And it was those moments that have
shaped a lot of this community.
Those first discoveries.
We're going to talk a little about
first discoveries today and the
six misconceptions that people
have when coming to Port Agnoscio.
So these aren't any particular order of
importance, but for number one, whether.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was funny because
living in Phoenix and thinking that
coming down here, because in Phoenix
it gets hot already in March, people
are turning on air conditioners
and things like that in March.
But when we used to just come down on the
weekends and we just discovered, wow, I
mean, you really could come down here.
We literally, for most of every
year, we pretty much don't turn on
our air conditioner until July 1st.
And so June is actually one of
my favorite months, also October.
But the worst time is the summer, which
is obviously the humidity that we have.
The difference of Arizona is we're hot
like Arizona, but we have the humidity.
But it's really only for
two months of the year.
So the rest of the year, you
know, with that ocean breeze, you
sit there and have the doors and
windows open literally until July.
So I think people think it's hot.
They see the temperatures on
the weather up in the states.
And so they don't think it's hot.
I think it's something that they want
to come down to, but the water's ideal.
It does get actually in August, you almost
don't want to be in the ocean in August
because it's like bath water, it's like
the jacuzzi, so it's not refreshing.
And then I think we're
also warmer in the winter.
You can have a little slight jacket on
and maybe you're not, you're not going to
get in the water, but there's still things
to do and there's still, you know, you
could be walking the beaches and stuff.
And so it's nice at that
time of the year as well.
So I think that's probably the
one that why they avoid it.
Except for thinking April, May, June,
or October, and they don't realize
that really 10 months of the year.
It's a great place.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, Mary, one
of my favorite social posts I do
every year is the in early summer.
I'll post the weather in Porto Penasco
and the weather in Phoenix side by side.
And we always get a boost
in reservations out of that.
There's never been a time when I
haven't posted that on social media
for the company, and we haven't
seen reservations come from that.
And that really speaks to
it being a misconception of.
People thinking that Port Penasco weather
is directly tied to Phoenix weather.
Speaker 2: Correct.
And what happens is a lot of
people, especially with Maricopa
County being one of the fastest
growing counties in the country.
So new people are moving in
and so then they don't know.
So when you talk to so many people, they
think, I'm not going to go to Penasco.
What's Penasco?
Where's Penasco?
They just don't even know.
But that weather is what pulls them
away because they don't realize it's and
that's why we call it Arizona's beach.
Speaker: Right.
Yeah.
So the number two misconception
that there's no golf.
Speaker 2: So there are
three golf courses here.
There's two of them that
were Jack Nicklaus courses.
The very first one was what used
to be called Laguna Del Mar, but
then it's now named Islas Del Mar.
That was the first one.
Way back, I met Jack Nicklaus
years ago when they were
first doing that golf course.
And then there's also Las Palomas,
which is right here on Sandy Beach.
And then there's Mayan Palace
Vedante, which is out at Mayan Palace.
And that's the other Jack Nicklaus course.
And eight or nine of those holes
on that course are on the water.
So you've got that ocean view.
It's a beautiful course.
It's a challenging course for people
that are good diehard golfers.
It's a long course.
And then the East List Del
Mar course is a nine hole.
And it's all of those holes
are pretty much on the water.
It's a beautiful course.
And then the course at Las
Palomas, it's a links course.
So there's a good variety.
And I had a friend that was just
here the other day and was blown
away who usually plays golf four
or five times a week and couldn't
believe that he could play for 50.
And, you know, you could almost play
the whole again and play a Mulligan
because there's nobody pushing
behind you and in front of you.
So I think we need to.
tap into that market of those golfers
that could come down and really enjoy
it while the weather is good in that.
And of course, all the rest of the months.
But my point of that is that time
of the winter months when it's
seasonally slow here, that's a great
open market for that group to try
to come down and understand it.
Speaker: Fantastic.
Yeah.
So number three, the misconception
about the beaches here in Port Agnosco.
Speaker 2: We actually have either the
second or third largest tide in the world.
And the tide goes out up to 24 feet.
When the tide goes out, you walk on
this beautiful sandy beach and we have
miles and miles and miles of beaches.
And so it makes great for whether
you're looking for shells, whether
you're looking for sand dollars.
We also have oyster farms and
clams and things like that.
So there's a lot of places to go and
just sit on the beach, order some crab
tostadas, a half a dozen fresh oysters
that come right out of the oyster farm.
So you go to California, for
example, and what are the beaches?
They're crowded.
And they're cold.
They're cold all year
because of that Pacific.
With us being in the northern tip
of the Sea of Cortez, the water's
great, the beaches are beautiful, and
they just don't realize what it is.
And all they used to do was camp
on Sandy Beach, and that was it.
It was the campers.
Now it's those people that camped, like
me, 30 years ago, that now have grown
up, that are the baby boomers, that want
to sleep in a Condo or something and not
sleep on the beach, but the beaches are
beautiful and there's RV parks as well.
Speaker: You know, I get a lot of
feedback in my dealings here in Port
Agnosco about how clean the beaches
are here in Rocky Point and I think
people are really surprised by that.
Maybe they have a misconception
about how clean they are,
but we're a blue flag, right?
Speaker 2: It's the certification.
They've certified a lot of the areas
as the clean beach certification and
you have to maintain it to a certain
degree and they come and check it.
And so almost all of Sandy
Beach is in that category.
And I believe even the area
over at Manny's, they also
have it out in Playa Encanto.
There's just not a.
Rock out there and that
beach is incredible.
Speaker: Yeah.
Yeah.
And they're always surprised by
the diversity of life, all the
amazing shells and sea life that's
just out there is pretty insane.
Mary for number four, we had
accommodations as the next misconception.
Tell me a little bit about the
misconceptions around accommodations and.
What the reality is for them.
Speaker 2: Like I said, when I
came in 1990 and camped on the
beach, that's all there really was.
There were accommodations.
There were people's houses.
There really was only one hotel,
which was Playa Bonita on the beach.
And there were a few RV parks,
but that's really all there was.
There wasn't the high
rise type condos in 1998.
It was one of the first high
rise condo projects that I was
involved with is in sales, which
was called Princesa de Pinasco.
And I remember when people
then said, it'll never happen.
It's too far out.
It was a dirt road to get there right now.
There's a paved road behind it and
you could get there in three minutes,
but there's a long Sandy beach.
There's probably 10 different projects of
high rise and they all have restaurants.
They have.
Tennis courts, swimming pools, you know,
so there's a lot more things to do.
There still is camping.
There still is RV parks.
But for the people that kind of want
their idea of roughing it as slow
room service, you know, there's the
high rise condos that are going on.
So sandy beaches, I refer to as
Oahu and Kanto is more like Maui.
So it's still things to do, still
beautiful beaches, but it's not
right where it's a little rowdier.
And when you get to Easter, for
example, Memorial weekend, Sandy
beach is just busier and there's just
a lot of activity and things on it.
So for the person that's just looking
to have a place for their kids to
run around and, and things like that,
it's been out more in Playa Encanto.
Speaker: Yeah.
You know, Sandy beach has really become
the center of gravity since I moved here.
It used to be down by
the Plaza Las Glorias.
That area was the center of gravity
and a quick story to your point.
When I was brand new getting to going
in, in Cindy's Beach Hormonals, I had
a gentleman pull up at night with his
girlfriend in a Porsche and said, Hey,
do you have any, anything for rent?
That's really nice.
And I said, you know, I just
got my first unit at Princesa.
It was E207.
So the only thing between you
and the beach is a swimming pool.
I'd be happy to rent it to you.
I literally just got in the rental pool.
It'll take me a minute.
I don't have directions for it.
Paid me in cash.
I gave him the key and I
jumped in my pickup truck.
I was like, why don't you
just follow me to Princessa?
Well, we get halfway down the dirt
road with the big rocks and everything.
And the guy just stops and it's dark.
And all of a sudden I noticed that
the lights aren't following me more.
So I turned back around, follow him back.
He goes, I don't know where you're
taking me out in the middle of nowhere
on this dirt road, but there's no way
I'm going out in the middle of nowhere.
I need my money back.
And so we turned around and
went back to the office.
It's in these two terminals.
Opened up the door and the staff had the
key to the safe that I put the money in.
I had to figure out how to get his money
back that night, but you know, it's
such an interesting shift that Princesa
was considered so far away from the
town and the roads were so bad to it.
That, uh, I had a hard time
getting tourists to go out to it.
Number five safety
Speaker 2: people then,
and I really watched it.
And I, like I said, I've
been here now 30 years.
I used to get the Arizona Republic
and the Arizona daily star down here.
Every single time the word
Mexico was mentioned, I would
cut it out of the article.
And so I saw a pattern.
And what really truly was happening
and this is probably I actually i'm
going to move it to of all of the
Misconceptions the biggest number one
misconception if I had to put them
in order That people really believed
it was unsafe to come down here.
I'm divorced.
I've been down here all these
years I drive the road myself.
I don't feel one bit of insecurity at all.
And I think what was happening is A lot of
people were believing that it was unsafe.
And I really believe that the media was
intentionally attacking here and wanted
the tourism dollars to stay in Arizona.
And I watched it and I had proof
of it of every single time.
It was always right before Memorial
weekend, right before spring break,
right before they would talk about
one incident of something, or
somebody was robbed or something.
That would be one little isolated
thing and they would blow it up into
something and they are desensitized
to what happens in Arizona.
I'm not picking on Arizona anywhere
that you will have, whether it's crime
or issues, they could have a murder
down their street in Phoenix and they
won't then say, Oh, I need to be feeling
insecure in my neighborhood in Phoenix.
I'm from Chicago, so I don't
feel the slightest bit.
Uneasy about here, and I think that they
were blowing it up during that recession
time of 2008 and 9 and 10 And we really
worked our way through that back then
then people started coming down and
we were growing In big numbers, people
were buying condos in big numbers.
I have a client that bought 20 condos
for me using them as rentals down here.
And so they would then come
down and bring their friends
that would bring their friends.
And what we say down here is we just
need once just to get them here once.
If they come here once, They might
have expected it to be a Cabo
or something, which we're not.
It's a little small town.
So if somebody was expecting that,
then maybe they would be disappointed.
But otherwise, after that one time,
that person that came were hooked.
They loved it.
Just like I loved it.
Why I came down, why you came down
and why all these different business
owners and people would come here.
And that's all we needed.
And that's all people need to do.
And that's all I challenge any of
your viewers to do is to come once.
So that's where people have
learned to love it, and then
have moved here just like I did.
Speaker: Yeah, I think Puerto Penasco
is the Pringles of beach towns.
You can't just come once.
You've either never had it, or once you
come once You come back over and over.
I agree with you.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker: So number six, that there's
nothing to do in Port Penasco.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Well, that was maybe years ago when
we all we did was camp and there
really weren't a lot of things to do.
But right now we actually
have parasailing.
We have jet skis, ATV rentals.
Tons of restaurants and with and the
shrimp here is out of this world.
I mean our shrimp.
It's weird It works that they do catch
fresh shrimp every month that doesn't
have the letter r in it So it's only
not may june and july, but otherwise the
shrimp you get the big ones and they're
about eight to a pound I mean, they're
like mini little lobsters and you could
do everything from dollar tacos to Nice
higher end restaurants the most beautiful
sunsets and sunset cruises and fishing.
The fishing here is we
don't get the sailfish.
We get the bottom fish, but people are
catching 200 pound grouper, sea bass.
Speaker: I've never seen sea
bass as big as they are here.
It's incredible.
Speaker 2: You do have to go a little
further out, but otherwise, if you want
to take your kid just for something
good to catch, you can go and do a three
hour, half day little trip and they
could catch trigger fish, rock bass,
and it's just a fun experience for them.
So yeah, no, there's tons
of things to do here now.
Speaker: And talk a little bit about
the whale watching, because I feel like
the whale watching industry in Puerto
Penasco kind of came out of nowhere
for me, it was completely off my radar.
And then just a few years ago.
Suddenly whales have become a big
thing here to watch in the season.
Speaker 2: Again, being down here all
these years, you didn't really see that
many, but what's happened is when they
were working on a cruise ship dock here,
and it's not done, but they, you know,
and they're not even working on it, but
at one time they were the small fish
bring the bigger fish that bring the
bigger fish that bring the bigger fish.
So we've seen a lot of whale, whale
are very prominent here and are.
Season for whale, again, is that January,
you know, we're dealing with January,
February, March, so they go out and do
whale watching on a regular basis and
you see them, you see humpback, you see
fin whales, we don't see the blue whales,
you know, or whatever here, but you have
that, and the other one that changed, uh,
Just really since probably 2012 is when
we finally started seeing sea turtles.
We never saw the turtles and they come up
and they're laying the eggs on the beach.
And then what's interesting
about turtles is wherever
they're born, they come back to.
So now over these last years, there's been
more and more and more of the sea turtles.
So we see the birds.
We see the osprey.
We see the natural, the
wildlife here is amazing.
Absolutely amazing.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm not sure what changed,
but I will say this, that when I first
moved here, I was doing a little bit of
sales for Johnny Francis and I met a lady
who had a trailer that was beachfront
and was conscious and I ended up selling
it for her and she had turtle shells.
I'm like, where'd you get those from?
She's like, well, they used to
come up on the beach and this is
one that passed away and died.
Wow.
And so she gave me the turtle
shell, this big Tortuga shell.
I still have it.
I just saw it this morning.
Interestingly enough, I hadn't seen
a turtle here in 15 years, and then
suddenly they started coming back,
and we started seeing these turtles
coming and laying eggs, and yeah, and
then the mosquito taking away because
it's so hot to keep them from baking
in the sun and then re releasing them.
It's really fascinating,
and it's so fun to watch.
Mary, I really appreciate
you taking the time to talk
about the five misconceptions.
Any final thoughts as we
begin the podcast today?
Speaker 2: You know what?
I just appreciate the time and
the just getting the word out
about these misconceptions.
I mean, they really are important
because if they were wrong about
all of those things, it doesn't
look like a desirable place to come.
But when you've got a place and people
are busy in Arizona and where can you go?
And when you could just drive
three and a half hours and be down
here, so those misconceptions to
really understand the reality.
Make it a wonderful weekend destination
and people can just still live their
life and enjoy busy people But still
be able to enjoy their life more when
they can come here And they don't have
to get on an airplane now and all the
hours you have to go for that So that
they have a close neighbor place and
that's why like I said I I say it over
and over about arizona's beach We always
do and that it is right here and they
have arizona has embraced pinyasco.
So with every Other states
starts learning about it.
We've done all this business
with Strictly Arizona.
So it's been a good, wonderful place.
And I just encourage
them to come and try it.
Speaker: Well, thanks so
much, Mary, for coming on.
Really appreciate it.
If you're interested in coming to
Puerto Penasco and discovering it
for yourself, make sure to go to www.
cosigo.
com or www.
encantami.
com.
That's an newest resort
here in Port of Penasco.
I represent it personally and we would
love to see you there and help you
discover Port of Pinco for yourself
life.