Like last year, casino chips (for charity) started flowing well before the scheduled opening of the 2nd Annual Sonoran Resorts Las Vegas Night for DIF Charity, and the staff and volunteers were ready for the early arrivals. However, except for the fun and friendly atmosphere, that's about where the similarity to last year's event ended.

This year, attendance continued to mount throughout the early evening until the new location of Las Vegas Night in the second floor convention facility of the Sonoran Sky Resort was filled to standing room only. With more space, more decorations, more black jack tables, more Texas Hold 'em tournament tables and improved layout, by the official opening time, it seemed the veterans from last year had already found their place at a black jack table, after sharing a sample of Puerto Pe�asco's own Tequila Pe�asco of their choice from Charlie Muratore, located at the casino entrance right across from the registration table and whose friendly smile accompanied every shot he poured.

Music, photographers, local leaders and dignitaries, casino chips, libations, laughter, prizes and drawings flowed throughout the evening.  And there were some beautiful prizes this year, which were distributed a bit differently from last. Instead of one long auction period for most of the prizes like last year, there were three separate raffle drawings  with approximately a quarter of the donated prizes given away at each. Then towards the end of the evening, as chips were finding their way into the hands of the big winners, the auction was opened.

With hundreds of people still going strong at the black jack tables, others gathered at the prize  display as volunteer Randy Van Hulle, owner of Ace Casino Rentals, whose professional expertise has been invaluable to the success of both Sonoran Resorts Las Vegas Night events, opened the bidding for the most valuable prizes donated this year. Among those were rounds of golf for four people at Laguna del Mar and the Jack Nicklaus courses at The Mayan Resort; two absolutely stunning shell art creations by internationally acclaimed artist Julio G. Meza Leon; original artwork by other famous painters and, bringing in the largest bid of over $5,000 was a 5.25 ct Amethyst donated by D&J Rare Gems. The golf outings brought the next highest bids along with Julio's shell art creations, all bringing just below $5,000 in chips each.

With nearly a hundred prizes donated by more than 60 different local businesses and individuals, it is impossible to name them all in this blog. However, everyone who attended Las Vegas Night on the 25th of May received a souvenir black carry bag with the Sonoran Resorts logo, inside of which is a welcome letter and a complete list of all the generous donors including the prize(s) they donated. Please refer to that list often and remember to frequent their places of business anytime you might need a product or service they offer.

The DIF charity team is still busy counting chips and tickets (and recuperating from the weeks of work put into assisting Jim Ringquist and the Sonoran Resorts Sales Team leading up to the big night) to determine the total amount of funds raised this year. Judging from the increased attendance this year we hope to maintain our recognized position as one of DIF's biggest fundraisers of the year as well as Puerto Pe�asco's newest and most popular event.

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Brian has been preparing for his first appearance with Roger and P.H. since 1998! You'll have to be at the concert on Saturday night to witness this first and only historic reunion that promises to be a memorable session of jammin', slammin' licks and lyrics you don't wanna miss!

The fun and new activities won't end with Thursday night's free rock and roll concert-in fact it just begins! Friday is a full day of opportunities to meet and chat with Roger Clyne himself, and who knows who else from the bevy of great musicians that make up the eight (count 'em) bands that are entertaining us during this four day collaboration.

Friday afternoon from 2:30 to 3:45 pm Roger will be signing bottles of his Mexican Moonshine purchased at the Tequila Factory. Then  from around 4:00 to 5:00pm he'll be welcoming fans inside the Sonoran Sea at Ramon's restaurant bar.

 

That's the way it works-simple, and fun to watch, in case you're down for that weekend. It's even simpler to participate in the race. Just purchase a Rubber Ducky for $5.00 USD, or 3 of them for just $10.00 USD and root for yours to hit the beach first, or at least while the prizes hold out.  And there are some pretty exciting prizes donated by our generous residents and businesses.

Behind this creative idea to raise money for the center is 13 year Rocky Point resident, Barbara Olszewski, who along with her equally dedicated husband, Mark, founded the non-profit Adopt-a-Classroom organization that collects and distributes school supplies and other much needed items to over 8,000 children in 10 schools in Puerto Pe�asco and one in Port Lobo...

Next week, the week of June 3-9, 2013 is already the greatest week of the year for rock and roll music in Puerto Pe�asco, and thanks to our friends at Rocky Point 360, Sami and Plinio Rivero who work hard bringing culture and the arts together in Rocky Point and Alfonso Maya is part of that genre of musical creativity.

Next Tuesday June 4, at Barra Vieja , one of the oldest bars in Rocky Point and an institution in its own rite in the Mirador, Alfonso and friends will be performing a mini acoustical concert before a small and intimate audience at the Barra Vieja's new location Barra Vieja is one of the oldest bars in Rocky Point.

You're guaranteed a unique experience for only $100 pesos each per ticket. At this price you know the objective is to share their special genre of musical culture. And that's an objective that blends perfectly with those of Sami and Plinio. It's an objective that we would do well to support more of in our little slice of paradise by the sea, for one day we may be judged by the level at which cultural arts have grown with us, and we'll be able to thank Sami and Plinio for good grades in that important area.

Review the poster Sami put together below and email her at [email protected] for tickets and information. You'll be glad you did!

In a case of David vs. Goliath, the Mexican Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that iFone, a small IT company in Mexico City, is the rightful owner of the  iPhone name in that country.

The company registered the name in 2003, four years before Apple rolled out the smartphone it dubbed the iPhone, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The case goes back to 2009, when Apple tried to register the phone brand name in Mexico and the Mexican Industrial Property Institute said it was already taken. Apple tried to take the name by suing, arguing that it had expired for iFone.

Now iFone, which says its names is a combination of the word "Internet" and telephone in Spanish, is free to continue pursuing damages from Apple and three Mexican carriers for using the name.

The company was minding its own business when it suddenly found itself having to defend its brand, which Apple tried to take away, iFone's lawyer Eduardo Gallastegui said, according to BBCMundo.com.

Gallastegui didn't say how much iFone is claiming, but he said the law would allow iFone to go after at least 40% of the iPhone sales in Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Apple has also lost the iPhone name rights in Brazil. There, IGB Eletronica, a Brazilian electronics company, claimed it owned the rights to the name and sold a smartphone named the Iphone Neo One.

Friend and Guest Blogger, Jack Hecker from Green Valley, Arizona shares his bittersweet and indelible memory of his introduction to the delicate lives of those diminutive survivors who call the D.I.F. shelter, "Esperanza para los Ni�os", home and refuge from the dysfunctional atmosphere from which they were rescued.

Take it away, Jack:

About four years ago, while I was perusing one of the Rocky Point forums, I read of a man who had a dire need of a job and Mark  Olszewski's efforts to help him find one.  Mark mentioned the family's little girl and their need for food and play things for her.  Having a thing for kids, I was truly touched by his efforts.

A few days later, the week after Easter, I was in Walmart and saw a big stuffed bunny on sale.  I thought, "I bet there is a little girl in Rocky Point who just might think this is neat."   I managed to contact Mark and told him we would be there in a week.  We agreed to meet at Max's and I gave him the treasure.  It was the beginning of a great friendship.  It was also quite a sight to see Mark striding off to his vehicle with that bunny.  It was a sight the Mexicans enjoyed also.

A year or so later, I learned about the Esperanza Para los Ninos and the things they were doing for kids at the home.  I knew I was going to be down there in a few weeks and managed to scrape up a few bucks to donate.  Better yet, Mark suggested we take a ride out on a Sunday morning when the kids were there, to see the place.  We did and it was one of the most enlightening mornings ever for me.  I'd like to talk about it but something else happened during that visit.  I had a fifty year flash back.

I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.  I did my schooling, got drafted, went to Okinawa, came back, went to work, got married, had  kids and so on.  One year, at Christmas time, I think I was about twenty-six, my neighbor, Lou, came over and had a question.  He asked if I would be interested in taking some kids from a children's home in downtown Cleveland to HIgbee's Department store, give them some money and let them Christmas shop.  I said I  would love to do that and we started an adventure.

Lou worked for his father's car dealership and they really helped us out.  We ended up with a group of twenty guys.  The company provided a bus and each guy got two kids that he sponsored.  We met at the dealership, and went to the home, picked up the kids and headed out to Higbees.  The store bought lunch which was a complete turkey meal for each kid.  We then gave each kid $20.00 and they went to the Twigbee Shop.  First, there wasn't a morsel of food left and their eyes went glassy when we gave them the money.

Fortunately, the Twigbee shop was an enclosed area like a hut in a forest and they had young ladies who took them through the shop and help them pick out presents for their families.  When they were done the ride back to the home was totally noisy with the kid's faces lit up with joy talking about the treasures they had purchased.  It was truly a highlight for their Christmas, ours too.

We did this for a number of years and eventually ended up with two buses.  Unfortunately, like most good things like this, it came to an end.  The last thing we wanted was publicity, but the papers got word of it and with that, the politics entered and we lost control.  Lou and I gave it up and it soon ended.

 Meanwhile, back to that beautiful April morning when Mark took us to visit the kid's home.  I had no idea what I was about to see, but I can assure you, I wasn't disappointed.  It was quite a ride out to the place and I don't think I've ever seen a sunken boat in the middle of the desert, but I guess there's a first for everything.  When we arrived there were kids all over the place in various stages of high energy.

They all greeted us with smiles and Holas.  They were clean, well dressed, for kids, and really appeared to be thriving in the place they were in.  We toured the dorms, meeting rooms, eating areas, computer rooms and best of all the lovely little chapel.  While the chapel was small and was not adorned with the usual stuff of chapels, it was beautiful in its simplicity.  A cross and a couple stained glass windows really sufficed.  It was a quiet, peaceful refuge until a couple young men decided to give us a concert with guitar, drums and vocals..  They were really pretty good and I can only assume they were singing religious songs.

As we were getting ready to leave, some of the kids were tossing a football around and kicking a soccer ball and of course, we had to join in.  I hadn't done that for a number of years and my body told me about it.  I can only smile, look back and say that I would do it again.

Sonora Cave Paintings Discovery

Cave paintings in Mexico, State of Sonora.

Archaeologists in Mexico have found 4,926 well-preserved cave paintings in the north-eastern region of Burgos. The images in red, yellow, black and white depict humans, animals and insects, as well as skyscapes and abstract scenes.

The paintings were found in 11 different sites - but the walls of one cave were covered with 1,550 scenes. The area in which they were found was previously thought not to have been inhabited by ancient cultures. The paintings suggest that at least three groups of hunter-gatherers dwelled in the San Carlos mountain range. Experts have not yet been able to date the paintings, but hope to chemically analyse their paint to find out their approximate age.

"We have not found any ancient objects linked to the context, and because the paintings are on ravine walls and in the rainy season the sediments are washed away, all we have is gravel," said archaeologist Gustavo Ramirez, from the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (Inah).

In one of the caves, the experts found depictions of the atlatl, a pre-Hispanic hunting weapon that had not yet been seen in other paintings in the Tamaulipas state.

The paintings are being considered an important find because they document the presence of pre-Hispanic peoples in a region where "before it was said that nothing was there", Mr Ramirez said. Another archaeologist involved in the Inah study, Martha Garcia Sanchez, said that very little is known about the cultures who dwelled in Tamaulipas. "These groups escaped the Spanish rule for 200 years because they fled to the Sierra de San Carlos where they had water, plants and animals to feed themselves," she said.

The findings were presented during the second meeting of Historic Archaeology, in Mexico's National History Museum.

Mexico's Femsa: from Convenience Stores to Pharmacies

Not long ago, I wrote about how OXXO was taking over the Mom and Pop stores in Puerto Penasco. Now Femsa, who owns OXXO, is opening pharmacies...  

Mexico's revamped retail industry has seen its greatest transformation at the level of mom-and-pop stores: where disorganized, dingy and poorly-supplied grocery stores were once common in metropolitan areas, there are now brightly-lit, well-stocked and strategically located convenience stores.

Now another retail segment faces a similar revolution: pharmacies. And the company likely to lead this turmoil is, again, Fomento Econ�mico Mexicano, or Femsa.

Femsa owns Oxxo, Mexico's leading convenience store chain. It now wants to replicate a business model that has allowed it to open more than 10,500 convenience stores across the country in 30 years and generate nearly $7.1bn in annual revenue, by running and expanding a small-size pharmacy retail chain.

Femsa - which is also the largest publicly-traded Coca-Cola bottling company in the world - recently completed the purchase of Farmacias Yza, one of the leading pharmacy chains in southeastern Mexico. This week, it announced a second acquisition, of Farmacias FM Moderna, based in the state of Sinaloa on the Gulf of Carifornia.

So, less than six months after it entered the business, Femsa owns about 445 pharmacies in two parts of the country. It makes no secret of wanting more. Femsa described the Moderna deal as a step further "in its strategy to establish a relevant position in this attractive small-box retail segment."

No financial terms have been disclosed for either transaction. But it's clear that - rather that building its business one store at a time, as it did with Oxxo - Femsa wants a quick and efficient burst of growth to establish its presence in the pharmacy sector.

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Mexico's Tourism Grew 4 Percent in 2012, Generating $11 Billion

Economic activity associated with tourism grew 4 percent in 2012 compared with the year before, Mexico's INEGI statistics service said this month.

Spending by foreign and domestic tourists increased by 4.7 percent last year.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, tourism activity topped the same period in 2011 by 4 percent, INEGI said.

Mexico welcomed 23 million international tourists last year, had 178 million domestic tourists and generated total revenues of more than $11 billion.

Annual Puerto Pe�asco Tequila Festival Highlights Colorful Mexican Culture

In addition to a sizable crowd of local residents, Bacanora, one of the exhibitors, filled two buses with visitors from Hermosillo and Ciudad Obreg�n and Bob Feinman also brought a Grey Line tour bus with a group from Tucson. "Bus tours from out of town were a Tequila Fest first, and we hope they will become a regular occurrence at the festival", said Mart�n Mart�nez, organizer of the last two events.

Food choices were in traditional Mexican style as well. Reboso's Catering offered tacos con carne among other ingredients, Mayan Resorts, who were a big help to Mart�n in setting up the exhibitor area, offered their signature cuisines to the delight of many. If there were an award for most creative culinary presentation for the evening, it would go to the Technical University of Puerto Pe�asco (UTPP) where the School of Culinary Arts Head Chef (and owner of The Med Restaurant in  Las Palmas), Jos� Juan Rodriguez wowed the group with a huge fiery grill shooting hot flames upward to a rotisserie speared through an entire pig as it was seared to a brilliant bronze while scores of salivating palates looked on.

Back on stage, the Cend� Folkloric Group performed a set of  lively historic Mexican dances and the Mariana Zatar�n ensemble presented a sensitive medley of Tangos and   Rumbas that captured audience attention throughout their performance. Before and after these dance sets, we were treated to the powerful vocals of mariachi singer Rocio Alejandra and the star of the show,  Perla Ross.  Perla is from Puerto Pe�asco and is nationally known for being a finalist on Mexican TV's "La Voz" (Mexico's version of "Voice").

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Jesse Vidal Joins Sonoran Resorts Sales Team

 

Jesse Vidal is a true global voyager. Born in Honolulu, Jesse's lust for life has placed him in some pretty exotic places around the world  in career pursuits that have included trouble shooting major resorts as a hospitality consultant for eight years in Anchorage, Alaska, a career that also took him to the island of Palma de Mallorca  off the east coast of Spain. Those trouble shooting skills served him well as an entrepreneur when he assisted a friend in the opening of a popular restaurant in Kemmerer, Wyoming (birth place of J.C. Penney) and for his own hunting and fishing lodge in Cannon, Montana, 70 miles west of Yellowstone National Park.

Jesse's keen interest in sailing and diving led him to take advantage of a "steal of a deal" on a 51' cutter rigged Nikadou that took him two years to completely refurbish and make ready for his plans to take his passion for adventure to the ultimate level with some serious sailing around the Caribbean and South Pacific for seven years. He called the docks of Boca del Toro, Panama his home port and along with a trusted friend launched a search for deep sea treasures based on research he had conducted.

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Bacon Wrapped Sonoran Hot Dog

 

 

To the words of a drunk, the deaf ear of a jicarero.
Jicarero refers to the seller of pulque, most often in a pulquer�a. Pulque is the traditional Mexican milky-looking alcoholic beverage derived from the maguey.
In other words, this Mexican saying advises us to turn a deaf ear to senseless blabbering.

Quien compra paraguas cuando llueve, en vez de seis paga nueve
Whoever buys an umbrella when it's already raining pays nine instead of six
This is practical advice: forethought will not only spare us discomfort but also, very possibly, save us money.

No hay que buscarle mangas al chaleco
Don�t search the vest for sleeves
This is a direct relative of the saying "No hay que buscarle tres pies al gato"and has the same two meanings: "Don�t look for trouble" and "don�t complicate things unnecessarily".

Nunca falta una bestia muerta para un zopilote hambriento
There�ll always be a dead beast for a hungry vulture
This saying tells us that life doesn�t fail to present us with opportunities.  

Ponte los huaraches antes de meterte en la huizachera
Huarache is a rudimentary leather sandal, very much worn in rural Mexico.
Huizache is a very thorny wild plant which proliferates in Mexico. Huizachera is a field covered by this plant. 

The message: Take the necessary precautions before embarking on a tricky task.  

No porque me vean huaraches, piensen que soy guacalero
In a Mexican market, a guacalero is a man who earns his living carrying boxes of vegetables, fruits and other merchandise.
Don�t think I'm a guacalero just because you see me wearing sandals (well, huaraches).
Take your time to judge. Appearances can be misleading.

Al que ha de ser charro, del cielo le cae el sombrero
Whoever is born to be a charro, has his hat fall on him from the sky.
There�s no walking away from one�s destiny.  

La lengua guarda el pescuezo
The tongue guards the throat
Keep quiet to avoid getting into trouble.

Del plato a la boca se cae la sopa
There�s many a slip between the cup and the lip

Donde no hay humo, no hay lumbre
Where there�s no smoke, there�s no fire
If you can�t see the effect it's probably because the cause is missing.

Solo el que carga el caj�n sabe lo que pesa el muerto
Only he who carries the coffin knows how much the dead man weighs
We cannot really know what other people carry in their souls nor feel the sufferings they bear.