A Brief Introduction

In my random travels, I often carry a 6" plastic action figure and take pictures of him. Bongo, as I call him, is a gorrilla with a green backpack and a spring-propelled grapnel launched from his left wrist. He is one of the Rescue Heroes made by Fischer Price. The name on the box said Swinger, but I call him Bongo nonetheless.

Perhaps his full name is Bongo Swinger.

Swinger is not featured on the Fischer Price Rescue Heroes website.
Perhaps he has been discontinued.

In any case, he is durable, pose able, portable and much more reliable than the lawn gnome of urban legend. Unlike the lawn gnome, he is not stolen or borrowed. I purchased him, many years ago, for my son, who has outgrown such toys. So now I play with him.

I post the pictures here, along with whatever background information I feel appropriate.

This is the second version of this blog. The original was based on an e-mail that no longer exists, and I can no longer edit it.

I have linked to it here - and on the link list

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Bongo en Peurto Penasca



In early August the family took Bongo to Puerto Penasco, Mexico for a week on the beach. And I mean "on the beach" - at high tide, the surf was 50' from the patio of our rented townhouse.
At low tide, it could go out as much as 150 yards, past the rocks, past the sandbar, almost to the reef. Rocky Point tides are somewhat infamous for this.

The body of water is the Sea of Cortez, which empties into the Pacific Ocean.

Rocky Point is 45 minutes from the AZ border in the state of Sonora, Mexico. It is well-inside the free-trade zone, meaning you do NOT need a passport to get in or out of the country from the US (you do need a valid driver's license). We heard conflicting voices on this, so I thought I'd clarify.

















Before tourism, Rocky Point was primarily afishing village. And while shrimp and related industry still thrive in these waters, the true engine of the economy is condos. Thousands of condos are going up along the beach for miles in either direction. That may be a monetary boon for the locals, as the units fill up with gringos in all manner of insane time-share arrangements, but the city is already rationing water.
Peurto Penasco, as it turns out, has one of the lowest rates of precipitation in North America. A quirk of geography twists clouds away from the city itself, so 100' from the beach you find deadly-dry Sonoran badlands.
And condos.
Good luck with that.

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