The San Carlos, Sonora Margarita Rating Project

Although there are so many things to do in San Carlos that we can not conceive of ever being bored, we have found that choosing drinking establishments is a sport here and everyone we have met has interesting opinions about where we should go for meals and sunset drinks. So purely in the interest of helping those that follow, we have taken on the unenviable task of ranking as many places as possible for their margaritas. This is hard, serious work, but we take it on with enthusiasm and vigorous scientific objectiveness. Well, not so much the last thing.
The rating system employed here is entirely subjective and may be influenced by the daily fluctuations in the fortunes of the participants, wind direction, clouds, the people met along the way, temperature, music, moon phase, the Peso exchange rate and just about any other variable in the universe. We tried to be fair but sort of apologize if we have offended anyone.
A good margarita should not be too sweet (no corn syrup, please), or too sour, contain decent tequila and be reasonably priced in Pesos. A great margarita is, well, great. You will know it when you find it.
The capacity of the participants to consistently consume margaritas at a known rate is suspect; therefore the results may be subject to revision from time to time for no particular reason. Do not underestimate the benefit of locale and weather upon the rating applied to the refreshments. As always, beware the gringo that does not partake of the local flavor.

THE SYSTEM

One Smiley Face is to be generally avoided unless dying of thirst. Gasoline is an option.
Two Smiley Face is tolerable, but water may be preferable. Yuck!
Three Smiley Face is passable, not too sweet and you may take friends there.
Four Smiley Face is good to decent made with better tequila. Take friends but don’t gloat.
Five Smiley Face may be the unattainable nirvana of tequiladom. If found, please email me.

One Half Smiley Face is used to distinguish subtle differences between moon phases. (Two Half Smiley Faces do not necessarily equal a whole Smiley Face.)

THE PLACES

Soggy Peso
The Palapa Restaraunt
Picalos
Arbolitos
Jax (have only had cerveza so far) ******
Marina Terra
Charley’s Rock
Formerly Howard Johnsons
Fiesta Hotel Restaurant
Conquistador (New!) ******
Pancho Villas (Guaymas) ******

Notes: There are so many more sample points yet to be sampled. This is just a partial list and one that we will update periodically. The places without current ratings (******) are on our to-do list.