BIENVENIDOS A LA ENSENADA!

View from the hotel pool.

We left San Diego Sunday, Oct. 25th under sunny and clear skies. The 10 hour cruise was wonderful, the seas calm and water glassy. The Hotel Coral in Ensenada is a five star hotel with a nice marina, pool, exercise room and hot tub. We got the boat settled in and took a cab into town to go to a restaurant that Wally frequented many times when he was a delivery captain out of California. The food was "muy bien"....three of us had camerones (shrimp) and one had fish tacos.

Customs Office

Our plan was to check into immigration/customs on Monday and leave Tues. a.m. We spent the morning checking in. We were taken to immigration by an officer of the marina and stood in 3 different lines to get visas and an import permit for our boat. It took about an hour and was quite painless. From there we walked around looking at shops and of course found another restaurant where we enjoyed fish tacos. Not only is the food delicious and inexpensive, but the decorations and bright colors on the tables make it a truly fine dining experience.

A Change of Plans......We have learned that as cruisers, our plans change constantly. Instead of being able to leave Tuesday a.m., the weather forecasts (we usually use four different ones) showed a front coming south that would produce 30 knot winds and 19 foot swells. This was the same storm that we saw affected the Golden Gate Bridge by snapping a cable. So, we opted to stay for a couple of days. We went to check out so we could leave Thurs. a.m. but were told that the Port Captain closed the Port and no one was allowed to leave! So we took advantage of "being stuck" in Ensenada and visited "La Bufadora", which is the 2nd largest of three major marine geysers in the world. After a 40 minute taxi ride, we arrived and strolled our way through MANY vendors shouting "give you good deal", "almost free", "made for you" and various other "come-ons". Especially "Farmacia".. trying to sell prescription drugs. Quite an experience. After getting through that we were at the blow-hole and stayed for a while watching the water burst upward and watched everyone getting wet. After that, Linda and I had our picture taken with an Aztec Indian (or what looked like one, anyway. We finished our tour off with fish tacos (again). Fun day.

Wally and Linda enjoying themselves in the hot tub.

It's Thursday afternoon and we have been cleared by the Port Caption. We leave Fri. a.m. and head south for Punta Colnett, about 60 miles south of Ensenada. Hasta Luego!