(NB This information is from a trip in January 2014)
(All photos did not survive the transfer from my previous web hosting so will be added)
CONTENTS
Who I am and what I wanted from this trip
Safety and planning your trip
Suggestions for planning where to stay in Ensenada
Some things to consider before leaving the US for Mexico
UK passport holder info and entry into Mexico from the US on foot
Getting from the San Ysidro-Tijuana border to buses for Ensenada
The bus from Tijuana to Ensenada
Arrival in Ensenada
My hotel experience
Things to do in and near Ensenada (based only on what I did)
Public toilets
Shopping
Eating
Drinking
The bus from Ensenada to Tijuana
Suggested lunch in Tijuana
Entry from Mexico into the US on foot
—————————————————
WHO I AM AND WHAT I WANTED FROM THIS TRIP
Date: Monday, 6th January 2014 – Friday, 10th January 2014
PHOTO A selfie at La Bufadora with the whale-filled Pacific beyond
Me: female travelling on my own (have travelled alone before but my last solo trip to a less well-developed country was a long time ago), non-Spanish speaker
Passport/nationality: British
Budget: approximately £300 for five days (not including any souvenirs)
Reason for trip: staying with a friend in San Diego who was working that week so decided the novelty of walking across the US/Mexico border was too great an opportunity to miss. Had also been wanting to go to Mexico (Mexico City and Oaxaca) but had never been to South or Central America (I know Mexico is North America but my thinking was in terms of language, ie Spanish-speaking) and thought an introduction to Mexico would be good, particularly as I found it very refreshing and kind of less of a big deal to only travel there with a small backpack (a rare example of packing light – I did end up buying lots of stuff and buying another bag while I was there though!). In short, I thought Baja California would be Mexico Lite for a first timer travelling to Mexico on their own with no Spanish language skills.
—————————————————
SAFETY AND PLANNING YOUR TRIP
Intro
PHOTO Non-touristy part of Ensenada
I read a lot online and in a Frommer’s guide about Baja California and Mexico. The image that I had of Tijuana in particular was not great and I even had a mini pre-departure panic that I shouldn’t go there on my own. I then spoke to three friends who had been across to Tijuana and all said it was seedy but fine. I then made the mistake of looking on Google street map at a random street in Tijuana. It looked dirty and way out of my comfort zone (which at that point in time was California – but the contrast across the border is what makes travelling so interesting!). I then Googled something like “female travelling alone” and probably named Tijuana and Ensenada, the two places I had finally decided suited my time constraints (I had really wanted to go to Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez to see whales but then my five days would have been spent on buses and tired and arriving in the very early hours of the morning, whichever of two c16-hour buses I caught – assuming my research was correct). I then found a really useful blog in part addressing and alleviating my concerns, which is what prompted me to write this one and to write even more detail than she did. So if you don’t like lengthy/prone to waffle “guides”, this may not be the blog for you.
Safety
PHOTO A Tijuana street, off Av. Revolucion – see how far Tijuana stretches beyond towards the USA
I travelled in the day time to and from Tijuana. Absolutely nothing made me feel uncomfortable or unsafe walking to and from bus stops or on the bus.
In Ensenada, I had assumed I would have dinner near my hotel, hence having chosen a hotel in the tourist centre, so wouldn’t really be walking around at night time. I ended up going out for dinner further afield, eg one restaurant was a c20 minute walk, I walked into the non-touristy parts of town to find a cash point, had a meal in a non-touristy restaurant, walked to and from the cinema, went into a late night cafe/bar at around 10pm and walked c5 minutes “home”. All fine. I felt alert to being out at night but nothing and no one felt threatening, though there was the odd man standing around. However, I did only walk along busy streets and was always on an A to B mission rather than an exploratory amble around alleyways, etc. As far as I’m concerned that would have been stupid anywhere, whether in Ensenada or San Diego or in my home town.
One of the first things I saw when I arrived in Tijuana was a man quite vigorously being arrested. I did find myself thinking, “Oh, here goes”, but I carried on walking, caught my bus and all was fine.
PHOTO A reminder that Tijuana is a poor city
On my return to Tijuana, I caught the “Border” bus but it didn’t quite drop us off where I expected, ie right by the border area where I’d first arrived in Tijuana – though I could tell we were very near to it, just nearer the actual physical border than the actual border crossing point that I’d entered from and headed into town from. I then walked for about an hour, largely in the right direction and a bit in a “long cut” kind of way, to a particular restaurant in Tijuana. That walk was not in touristy areas. There were lots of overpasses to walk up and down, busy roads to find ways across, small car repair shops, etc. Around there, I felt alert and slightly “I shouldn’t be here” but nobody hassled me, I saw nothing I wished I hadn’t seen and it was more my paranoias at play. However, it was enough of a non-touristy walk around Tijuana to make me appreciate the far more comfortable feel of Ensenada’s non-touristy areas and to make me feel glad I hadn’t decided to stay my final night in Mexico in Tijuana rather than Ensenada. But I would have felt ok staying close to Av. Revolucion, though I wouldn’t have expected to sleep well with all the bars and restaurants and inevitable night noise. As for the walk I did, which on a map looks kind of like a big smile from the east of the border crossing to the west of it, towards the top of Av. Revolucion (when I said “largely” in the right direction, I may have exaggerated slightly – but I only had a rubbish guide book map, in my defence), I would not have even contemplated doing that walk at night time.
As for unwanted male attention, there was very little. I have felt a lot more annoyed by it in many other countries, and indeed I can think of only one man who elicited a glower from me and he was far too influenced by tequila and a need to sleep it off to be a proper threat. However, my appearance was a little different to normal in that I only had about three weeks’ worth of hair growth, having recently shaved my head for charity. Virtually all comments I got from men, quite bizarrely, were said in passing and largely along the lines of, “Cool hair style”. However, I expect my previous (not cool) long hair would have generated no passing comments other than suggestive “Hey Lady” type comments that drive me mad and make me feel a bit uncomfortable when I’m travelling. My ideal travel experience would be one where I went along unnoticed.
—————————————————
SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANNING WHERE TO STAY IN ENSENADA
PHOTO The view from my room in El Cid with cruise ship beyond
I recommend, particularly if you’re travelling on your own and it’s your first time in Mexico, you stay close to Av. Lopez Mateos (1st Street), between Av. Macheros and Av. Castillo. I felt safe, it felt safe and, while it is a road full of shops and night life (the less sedentary end is around Av. Macheros and further north, where I am led to believe is, for want of a better expression, the more red-light kind of night life). It’s not a busy main thoroughfare (the parallel Blv. Costero (Blv. Lazaro Cardenas) is a main through road).
PHOTO The beginning of the more seedy end of the tourist area of Ensenada
I stayed at Best Western Hotel El Cid. I spent a long time reading (too many) TripAdvisor reviews and I kept finding bad reviews and ended up thinking there was nowhere decent to stay in Ensenada on my budget. I know hotels are a personal choice and I know that a lot of reviews are written by people with five star expectations but one, two, three star budgets but it is too easy to get distracted. For me, that hotel was perfect (more of that later). It cost c£40 a night (the breakfast is utterly pointless though), which is more than I had hoped and expected to pay, but one reviewer’s comment clinched it for me as she travelled on her own and said she felt safe in the hotel and in the area. I completely concur.
If you want a cheaper hotel, I still recommend the tourist zone. The roads heading east/west are probably a bit busier than the roads away from the sea parallel to Av. Lopez Mateos, so in a way I’d feel more comfortable staying on those streets. The furthest out I walked was to 11ra. (NB Av Lopez Mateos is also 1ra., i.e. 1st, Calle [number], Street [number]), and every road parallel and further from the sea is a consecutive number (some roads use the name predominantly, eg Av Juarez is actually 5ra., usually written in smaller print underneath). Av Juarez appears to be a main shopping street for locals. It is busy with traffic and people. I walked along and across this street a lot. It is totally fine during the day and also into the evening. But it would be busy and noisy to stay along this road.
PHOTO Along from the bus stop opposite La Jolla beach area
If, like me, you look at a map of Ensenada and think you want to stay by the sea, it is NOT a beach and it is not a beach resort. If you want a beach, do some research. The east side of the peninsula that leads to La Bufadora has what look like beach resorts, La Jolla for example. I don’t know what accommodation is available but I would expect it to be fairly basic, not resorty, but I could see that it was beachy even though I didn’t actually go to the beach. So take that information only as a starting point for your own research not as accurate information.
From the bus on the way to Tijuana, ie north of Ensenada, there were some lovely sandy beaches with small resort towns. You would be able to get local buses from Ensenada, I’m fairly sure, but those towns were all small so you’d have to really want a low key beach stay with few amenities to go there. Unless you hire a car or are prepared to get taxis. But this information is based purely on my passing through some sweet-looking towns with lovely swathes of Pacific coast. Do not underestimate how few amenities I suspect there are in these really small resort towns.
PHOTO Looking towards the main Lopez Mateos tourist area
I did a Google Street View look at Av. Lopez Mateos. I saw worn, terracotta type paving on the pavements, which was in contrast to the dusty, rubbley pavements I had seen in my Google Street View search in outer Tijuana. I’m sure it sounds completely snooty but that was the final push I needed to decide that actually the El Cid and Ensenada looked like a good option. Only when I got there and realised I felt safe did I relish the dusty, more gritty streets of Ensenada alongside the slight gentrification of Av Lopez Mateos.
Don’t be put off by all the scaremongering on reviews and websites, etc, particularly of Ensenada, though I don’t think I did anything or went anywhere that should have put me in any danger. I had a very positive, enjoyable and fun five days in Ensenada and I have no hesitation recommending it and I would happily go again. But I do think it was a gentle introduction to Mexico, particularly as so many people there speak English (a lot of them have lived/studied/worked in California (I would say “the US” but everyone I spoke to said various places in California)). I do, however, feel better equipped in terms of expectations for a future trip to other places in Mexico, which I know will be less easy, if only on the language front.
—————————————————
SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE LEAVING THE US FOR MEXICO
Times
If you want to get to Tijuana for a certain time, you don’t need to factor in a delay getting from the US to Mexico unless you happen to be crossing at the same time as lots of people who need tourist visas, ie non-Mexicans and non-Americans.
Things to consider packing that you might not otherwise plan to take with you
Hand sanitiser (particularly for use in no-basin boat toilets and when eating street food if that’s something that’s likely to bother you – my hands were filthy after shopping)
Ear plugs (hotels are likely to be prone to street/people noise and if you’re sensitive to that, I couldn’t find ear plugs in pharmacies or supermarkets in Ensenada – mine were past their prime but useable)
Bottled water to last you on the bus and until you get to your hotel (two bottles of water per day were supplied free in El Cid and it’s easy to get water from shops there)
US dollars and Mexican pesos
Copy of your return flight details to the UK from the US (or whatever your visa/passport situation is)
Shoes you don’t mind getting dusty and dirty and which will be comfortable walking on uneven surfaces
Currency
Pretty much everyone in shops in Ensenada assumed I was American and gave prices first in US dollars. I paid for everything in Mexican pesos until I ran out and realised I could use the dollars I had with me.
It was VERY hard to get Mexican pesos using my UK Visa debit card. Most banks didn’t let me take out money and those that did (Santander being one, I can’t remember the other one but it wasn’t a major-looking bank) charged a fair bit for it, which I believe is standard.
I would very strongly urge you to get Mexican pesos while you are in the US.
There is a currency shop right near the main Horton Plaza entrance, San Diego, right near a tram stop bound for San Ysidro, though it does not open until 10am. I arrived there at 9am.
You need to bank with a particular bank to get currency from a bank, though at around 9.30am, as I was about to give up on San Diego banks, I did find one that exchanged US dollars for Mexican pesos. That bank was on the corner of Broadway and Kettner, right across from a San Ysidro tram stop. I just looked on Google Street View and it appears to be a Bank of America but I had thought it was a different bank, and maybe it now is, but it is that corner.
Also, don’t do what I did and leave all your US Dollars in the US. I would have saved myself a fair bit of banking stress and bank charges had I brought that money with me. For shopping, it didn’t seem that you were losing out by spending in US dollars rather than Mexican pesos and you’re probably better off with excess dollars than excess pesos, particularly if you will be heading back into the US.
—————————————————
UK PASSPORT HOLDER INFO AND ENTRY INTO MEXICO FROM THE US ON FOOT
YOU NEED TO GET A TOURIST VISA on entry into Mexico. If I hadn’t read that on a blog before I went, I wouldn’t have got one and I don’t know how it would have been more difficult getting back into the US but I really didn’t want to find out.
PHOTO San Ysidro sign directing you to Mexico
I was ridiculously giddy about crossing the border from San Ysidro to Tijuana. I got off the The San Ysidro tram stop with McDonald’s and the path to Mexico on the left, probably only 1km to the tram, followed the crowds in front, to the left of the tram terminus (if you look in front and to the right, you will see people coming from Tijuana to San Ysidro) and followed a sign to Mexico. You then walk up an enclosed footpath and in front you see a metal comb revolving set of gates and “Mexico” above. It was obvious, I can see that, but I think I expected more fanfare, but once you push through those comb gates, you’re in Mexico.
There was no queue, just a selection of people walking through. You then walk through a very small, makeshift cabin thing with some uniformed officials. There is a sign, from memory on a piece of tatty paper stuck to a wall, saying something like “Tourist Visa”. You turn right BEFORE you get to the makeshift outdoor steps out of the “building”. There is then a very small office with an Immigration Officer (who looked bored when I was there). You just fill out a tourist visa form, get given part of it back and a stamp goes in your passport. There was only one other person in there. I had just followed the crowd and ended up walking along a pathway lined with Tequila shops on the left. It was at that point I realised that (A) I was in Mexico and (B) that I had somehow missed the passport stamping bit. I went back up the steps, waved my British passport about and got sent to the aforementioned room and was duly stamped and sent back along Tequila way. It is obvious when it says “Tourist Visa” this way that that is where you go. I guess I was expecting everyone to go through Passport Control of some sort so I just followed the crowd. There is no passport checking for US and Mexican citizens to go into Tijuana.
As you walk along Tequila way (my name for it), look to your right at the people walking in the opposite direction. That metal/makeshift wall is what you will become familiar with en route back into the US (or not if you pick a quiet time and there is little or no queue). When I arrived in Tijuana at around 11am, there was no queue outside the US Immigration building. That was not the case when I wanted to get back into the US.
—————————————————
GETTING FROM THE SAN YSIDRO-TIJUANA BORDER TO BUSES FOR ENSENADA
You do not need to go to the bus station. It is a five-minute walk from the border to a small bus station for ABC buses to Ensenada.
PHOTO The golden arches you really can’t miss on the Mexico/US border with the physical border fence visible on the Californian hills beyond
Once across the border, follow the sign to “Downtown”, which is over a long footbridge over the Mexico to US road/traffic jam. At the top of Av. Revolucion is a huge arch, a good sight from which to orientate yourself. Head for both that and McDonald’s (you really can’t miss the “M”). Just before you get to McDonald’s, ie a few metres, you will see through some buildings on your left (this is largely a pedestrianised tourist shopping, street stall area) and be able to make out “ABC” and maybe even an ABC coach just in front. Head for ABC.
There was a bus ready to leave when I got there so it was all ridiculously smooth and easy for me. I believe the buses leave regularly (possibly somewhere between every 15-30 minutes). You go into the small office, buy your Ensenada “redondo”, hand over your money and the bus driver will take your bag into the hold or you just get into the bus.
A return ticket (“redondo”) saves a bit on two singles. You don’t need to try to do what I did, ie explain what day you’re coming back. The ticket lasts “forever” and needs to be exchanged for an actual bus ticket when you do want to return from Ensenada to Tijuana. I believe the “redondo” cost 297 pesos (£14 ish)
—————————————————
THE BUS FROM TIJUANA TO ENSENADA
You might get an allocated seat, you might not. I didn’t sit in my allocated seat on the return journey but it was a bit tense when people got on later and I felt I should have just sat in my allocated seat and had done with it.
If possible, sit on the right, ie not behind the driver, as you will drive alongside the harsh but interesting border fence (metal and barbed wire) out of Tijuana, then alongside the coast. This will also mean you don’t have to see the carcass of a bus that somehow came off the road on the detour via the (low) mountains. There is a lot of litter, the odd dead dog and bits of car strewn by the roadside. Drivers and road etiquette were nowhere near as bad as I expected and there wasn’t the crazy overtaking I have endured in terror in some countries (Bulgaria and Bali were my most challenging driving and passenger experiences).
At the end of December 2013, there was an earthquake in the region. Apparently, the San Andreas fault line pretty much goes along the main highway between Tijuana and Ensenada. As a result, a large section of the main road was then completely out of bounds and its fate unknown (ie re-route, rebuild, etc). I expect it will be off limits for quite some months at the very least. This does mean the journey takes a bit longer but it was still within two hours. The road surface is fine and it’s not a perilous route. However, it is for a while quite windy and fairly steep and my vertigo kicked in (it doesn’t take much for me to get jittery so don’t let that put you off) and I didn’t like seeing signs of vehicles having left the road. I really hope this doesn’t scare you or put you off the journey. It’s scenic and it wasn’t so bad that I even contemplated not wanting to go back that way. Just don’t be surprised if you leave the nice two-lane motorway and head inland on a more scenic route.
A film will be played on the bus. The odds are it will be played at high volume and will be an 18-rated film (though on the way back it was a Sandra Bullock rom com, in stark contrast to the Bruce Willis all-shooting violent film on the way there).
The air conditioning on the bus made it VERY cold.
There is plenty of storage space above the seats. The coaches are not luxury but they are fine and certainly coaches rather than buses. There is a toilet on the coach that a lot of people use just before arrival in Ensenada so time it well. If you need a wee (I pity you if you need more than that), I suggest you go on the coach rather than paying to go in the bus station, especially if you don’t have any peso coins.
ARRIVAL IN ENSENADA
I get the impression the bus stops twice, once in the centre of Ensenada (not the touristy area) and finally at the bus station. On the way back, it also stopped around the area of the inbound bus stopping area hence my conclusion the first stop is a designated, regular stop. As it turns out, the first stop is five or six blocks closer to the tourist area. I would hazard a guess it’s around 6th and Macheros rather than the bus depot at 11th and Riveroll.
I discovered that my phone has GPS (no roaming fee as no internet needed) so while I had free wifi in San Diego, I downloaded Ensenada on my phone’s map. Genius, it turned out. (In August 2019, this is far less revelatory!). The GPS told me where I was and, as there is the consecutive numbering of streets parallel to the sea, 1st being closest to the coast, it is easy to work out which way to go. I had already known the bus station was at 11th and Riveroll so should have trusted my instincts when my GPS told me the bus had stopped where it did (I can’t remember exactly but, as I said before, I think it was around 6th and Macheros), which I knew was closer to my hotel. However, I am glad I went to the bus station as it wasn’t far to walk, I knew I’d want to return via the bus station so would know exactly where it was by being dropped off there and, well, I clearly didn’t trust my instincts.
The bus station is a dusty bus park on Riveroll. It is just like many other bus stations I have been to in less well-developed countries. It is fine. As I said before, there is a toilet (you have to go through a barrier thing once you’ve paid and I wouldn’t want to do it if I had lots of bags), seats and a big departures board and ticket booths. There appear to be regular buses back to Tijuana so I didn’t feel a need to get times while I was there. Also, it transpires the timetable is rather approximate.
PHOTO Walking down Riveroll from the bus station
It’s a dusty and uneven walk anywhere from the bus station, but fine.
The first food stand you will come to is just after the bus station, on the same side, ie the right as you head into town, El Chino (on Riveroll). I stopped there for breakfast on my way out of Ensenada. I befriended a regular there, Johnny, who spent a lot of his life living and working in California, latterly Malibu Lumber. He was lovely and helped me choose breakfast (eggs, ham, corn tortilla and salsa for 40 pesos (c£2)) as the owner, a very friendly lady who is a great cook, didn’t speak English. I don’t know how you’d order if Johnny weren’t there and you too didn’t speak Spanish, but I’m confident you would manage to get something tasty.
PHOTO Non tourist area street
PHOTO Lazaro Cardenas
Being a pedestrian, when you cross roads at intersections there’s kind of a roundabout priority system and it generally seems that everyone gives priority to pedestrians. Most unexpected and it makes crossing busy, wide-ish roads really easy. But don’t faff and assume they’re not waiting for you as I saw what chaos a pair of Japanese tourists caused when they wouldn’t cross the road after everyone had stopped to allow them to cross.
—————————————————
MY HOTEL EXPERIENCE
PHOTO Looking left up Lopez Mateos from El Cid with Cafe Torino in the middle below Fontana Hotel
Best Western El Cid, Lopez Mateos (1st Street) between Alvarado and Blancarte.
From the bus station, just walk all the way down Riveroll towards the sea and from where you’ll have just come in on the bus (around junction with 11th Street), left onto Lopez Mateos (1st Street) and El Cid is in a block and a half on your left with clear signage.
I felt disappointed to be staying at a chain hotel and thought the rooms would just be bland, identikit, you could be anywhere in the world. As it happens, it didn’t feel chainy at all and the room was a lot bigger than I expected and, while not remotely to my taste, was pleasant. There was even a (pointless) kitchenette which had merely a sink and a fridge (useful). The shower was in the bath. There was a balcony. I used the surprisingly effective electric radiator to heat the room at night (it was around 3 degrees at night) rather than the air conditioning unit. There was even some Mexican art work on the wall. TV had the usual international channels in addition to Mexican TV.
There is hot water, tea bags and coffee downstairs in reception – you can help yourself at any time. The swimming pool is small and outdoors and I never used it. There is also visitor parking if you do go by car. The breakfast really isn’t worth it, just very cheap white sliced bread that you can toast, some basic toast toppings, some fruit (I just took a banana back to my room), some yogurt and some basic cereals. There is also sweet orange “juice” and hot water to make tea or coffee.
I was on the top floor (2nd floor, from recollection room 205), which meant I could see over the hotel opposite and sort of out to sea (but I wouldn’t call it a sea view in the sense of getting excited about having a sea view – sea glimpses and a sense that the sea/bay was out there, except when cruise ships were in and you couldn’t see as much). I would want to have a 2nd floor front-facing room if I went again.
The staff were friendly and helpful and the room and bed were clean.
I booked via (sorry, I can’t remember for sure) a website like booking.com. However, I thought I had paid when I booked it as I put my card details in, but it was just held so I had to pay when I arrived. I checked and, no, I didn’t end up paying twice. I get the impression that is normal for hotels in Mexico.
I met an expat Brit in Cafe Torino pretty much opposite the hotel. He confirmed that it’s a safe place to be but to be sensible about not leaving valuables lying around in your room and not to wear or flaunt valuables. That seemed common sense and I hadn’t brought any such things with me anyway. He also said that tourists aren’t really a target, more the rich Mexicans.
I think the El Cid suited my needs perfectly.
THINGS TO DO IN AND NEAR ENSENADA (based only on what I did)
Whale and dolphin watching/boat trips
PHOTO Out on the boat off Ensenada
There is a boat hire shop along the sea front, Sergio’s. That was my first port of call for a whale watching trip. $400 (c£19). I’m glad I didn’t just book for the next day as the touts at the top of the jetties are much cheaper, prices ranging between $300 and $400, and not apparent to me what advantages there would be to paying more, particularly as the boats looked fairly similar in terms of age and seaworthiness, i.e. all fine, but maybe you’d want to be told which boat you’d be on before you agreed to pay and go on that boat. I paid $300 (c£14). All boats seem to set off at the same time, midday, and take approximately four hours.
I was on the Don Jesus (which wasn’t next to the “kiosk” where I made the reservation – I think they act as agents). You need cash.
Bearing in mind I took this trip in winter, ie when the whales are migrating so when you’re most likely to also take this trip, it gets chilly out at sea and if there are clouds and when it starts getting darker (our boat left c12.40, ie late, so returned c4.40, ie getting darker and distinctly cooler), it will be colder than you might be expecting. I didn’t have socks and was wearing sort of sandals and my feet got cold. My head also got cold (but, as aforementioned, I had recently shaved all my hair off so my head was a lot more sensitive to sun and cold).
There is a toilet on the boat. It is fairly foul and, once you’ve been, you will find yourself giving fellow passengers a pitying look when you see them heading for the loo. On our boat, you had to position yourself in a most unflattering and uncomfortable position (not that anyone could have seen me) to ensure accurate direction. There was no wash basin but I had hand gel with me, thankfully. I very strongly recommend you take a sanitising gel with you on this trip. There was toilet paper but perhaps a pack of tissues stashed in your pocket would be a good idea.
Any food or drink needs to be bought on land. Bring plenty of water and a nice lunch, I would suggest.
Going by the huge number of whales and dolphins we saw, I would probably go as far as to say that you are guaranteed to see whales and dolphins in the migratory season. However, I don’t get the impression you will see them properly close up from this part of their migration. I had visions of being a matter of metres away from the whales. They were close and it was amazing but the Sea of Cortez is the place to go to see them close up.
However, we had a magical dolphin escort on the way back, we heard (that is in some ways the most magical part of the whale experience because you hear the blow, then silence as these majestic creatures then show a bit of back and a perfect tail wave) and saw whales from ten metres and beyond and it was lovely to be out at sea.
On my boat, there was just a group of three and one other girl and the two crew members who had nothing to do with us at all.
It was a fairly small boat and there was a bit more breeze than most days but you’d have to be super, super prone to seasickness to have any issues on that journey. By the time you’re out of the cove area of Ensenada, there are fins (dolphins not sharks), birds and sprays of water all over the place pretty much. At that point, all five of us were leaning on the front of the boat, cameras fairly pointlessly at the ready.
PHOTO One of many “bit of whale” photos
A few words on photographing whales and dolphins. You will end up with lots of sea photos, bits of whale/dolphin above water pictures and, well, it’s pretty much not worth it. The experience is far better at the time, hearing and seeing these wondrous creatures. Looking through tens of distant “bit of whale” shots isn’t rewarding or reflective of how lovely it is being on the boat and seeing them.
But the dolphin escort was so, so cool. Dolphins can only ever make me smile.
I suggest you take with you: warm shoes and/or socks, layers, a jacket as a blanket and to wear when the sun starts going down, a hat, sun cream, sunglasses, bottled water, lunch, a camera or camera phone, hand sanitiser, pack of tissues and you might want headphones or a book particularly once you’re all whaled out on the way back, which takes a good hour (when you don’t see whales anymore anyway, though possibly a few dolphins and definitely some seals/sea lions and pelicans).
PHOTO The peninsula, the other side of the end of which is La Bufadora
PHOTO If you are planning to go to La Bufadora, the blow hole, you can’t see it from the boat but it’s on the end of the peninsula on the left as you leave Ensenada port for the open water.
I do recommend taking the boat trip but it will take up a full afternoon and it depends how much time you have.
Bear in mind that the cruise ships usually arrive on Wednesdays and Saturdays and everything is much busier then. I don’t know whether cruise ship passengers would feel the need to go on a boat trip so if you want to avoid the crowds in town, maybe a Wednesday or Saturday would be a good day to take a boat.
Fish market
It is a small market that sells fresh fish and has lots of seafood and fish restaurants/stalls around it. I happened to walk along it and I’m glad I did because otherwise I might have thought I was missing out. It is not worth going out of your way for but, being as the port, the fish market and the tourist area are all within a small area of Ensenada, the odds are you too will walk past or through it. It’s not exciting but it’s nice to see what kind of fish are caught. As for the food places, I had fish tacos from one and they were the most disappointing fish tacos I had. They were fresh but just not as good as others I had so I would choose your fish restaurant/stand carefully (I chose one that was busy with locals) or go elsewhere. I wouldn’t eat there if I went again, not that it was a bad experience; I just had better food at roadside stands.
Harbour area
Early evening walk along the harbour frontIt looks like a lot has been done to make the harbour area into a tourist destination. It’s not remarkable but it’s pleasant. There are a few very touristy stalls, a fair few whale-watching boat touts and you can hear the seals and sea lions barking off the coast.
Wine tasting
One evening, on an intentional long cut home from the cinema, I walked past 101 Vino, a small wine shop on Blv. Costero near the corner with Av. Blancarte, ie one block away from El CId. I was drawn inside. It’s a wine shop but also a wine bar and is very small and cosy. The member of staff who spoke to me the whole time I was there was lovely and spoke excellent English from having studied in California. All wines are Mexican. I entered the shop having decided to sample a glass of wine but then opted for a six-glass taster. I can’t remember how much it cost but I have a vague recollection that a glass was £6 or £7 and the six tasters totalled £9. It definitely wasn’t more than that and it wasn’t much, if any, less than that. With the taster, you also got bread, olive oil and olives from a local producer – the olive oil was wonderful.
Wine is not cheap in Mexico, in fact the man at the bar told me it’s about the same price to buy it in California without the Mexican taxes (eg Whole Foods, University, San Diego, $15-45) as the taxes on alcohol in Mexico are staggeringly high, the price of a bottle of wine in Mexico consisting of 46% tax! For example, admittedly quite an expensive wine, the first wine I tasted and liked most was 356 pesos (£17) for the bottle to take home.
You can take 1.5 litres of wine out of Mexico.
The wines were chosen based on what I said I liked. I was in the mood for red and said that I usually like Cabernet Sauvignon. I also wanted to try a white and a rose. I wrote down what I tasted. I haven’t a clue about wines, I just know if I like something:
1. Chardonnay (I usually don’t like Chardonnay, particularly when it’s oaky) – 13 months oak – Momento (my favourite of the six!).
2. Merlot Rosado (rose), Dubacano (didn’t care for it though I loved that it tasted of strawberry).
3. Nebbiolo Cabernet Sauvignon, Lienzo (ok but wouldn’t order it).
4. Cabernet Sauvignon Syrah, Solar Fortun (quite nice).
5. Carignan, JC Bravo (very nice, would order it).
6. Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, Rincon de Guadelupe (very nice, would order it).
There weren’t many other people in the bar/wine shop and I expect I was lucky to have the bar man/wine seller attending me all the time. But it was a lovely place and I learned a lot about wine and life in Ensenada. I would go there again and it’s a welcoming place to spend time on your own.
Riviera Club/Hotel Riviera del Pacifico/Cultural Centre and Museum
As I had originally planned to spend my last night in Tijuana, I had nothing planned for my last full day in Baja California so, when I booked another night in El Cid, I decided to have a relaxing day on the Thursday so I walked to the Riviera Club with a view to writing some postcards in the gardens. Maybe it was just the mood I was in that day, a good mood, but I found the gardens lovely and peaceful and I ended up spending two chunks of my day in the sun in the gardens writing postcards and soaking up the sun.
PHOTO Riviera Club garden water feature
I also went into the very small museum and had a wander around the building. The museum is ok but not a must-see. I would have liked to see more pictures of the Riviera Club in its heyday. I gather it was quite the place to go in the American prohibition years. Where there is now a main road out front, there then was a sandy beach. Y ou get an idea of its glory days, indeed what’s left of the building is in lovely condition, as are the well-tended gardens.
PHOTO From the gardens of the Riviera Club
I found it a really relaxing place to spend time and the building, the tiles, the garden are all lovely. To wander around, including going into the museum, would probably take an hour maximum. But I recommend it as somewhere to sit quietly and, for example, write postcards. There are also concerts and theatre shows there, which I would imagine to be well worth going to see, particular as there is a lovely outdoor, partly covered venue.
The Riviera Club lays claim to inventing the Margarita. Some Google searches suggest that’s probably not accurate, but it makes for a good excuse to drink Margarita somewhere in Ensenada.
Cinema
The Cinepolis cinema is close to McDonald’s in the tourist centre (about five minutes’ walk from El Cid), Macroplaza del Mar, just off the main through-road on the water side of the main road. Those are poor directions but anyone can point you in the right direction and if you wander around the fish market area you’ll probably see the cinema anyway.
There are quite a few screens, regular showing times and MOST English-speaking films have subtitles rather than being dubbed. I recall the Spanish for “subtitles” and “dubbed” seemed quite obvious. Animation, for example, is dubbed. Cinema tickets vary in price and I believe Wednesdays are cheaper but the price is around £2 for a non-3D film.
The two screens I went in were both comfortable and quality as you’d hope and expect from a cinema. As for being on my own, I like going to cinemas on my own and I wasn’t the only person on their own, even on the busy Wednesday evening showing I went to.
I would recommend going, even just for the different cultural norms in Mexican cinemas compared to UK cinemas. The audience is quite interactive (I found it amusing but I guess some people might find it annoying) and in both films I saw, there was at least one baby that started crying at some point.
(informal) tequila tasting
Opposite El Cid, on Lopez Mateos, there is an off licence. I chatted to a male and a female member of staff in there, both of whom spoke excellent English and were friendly and helpful. The girl, I think Maria, had asked if I wanted any help as I stared in wonder at the vast expanse of tequilas for sale. I explained that I wanted to buy a bottle of tequila but had absolutely no idea how to choose. She offered a tasting so I tried four different kinds of tequila. I had never appreciated how different tequilas could taste.
One was a throat burner, another tasted watered down and bland, another was merely ok but one, a reposada, “a sipper”, was actually quite nice. I bought a bottle, despite the fact I hated the bottle and the label (red bottle like a wine bottle with a wrestler mask on the front, which I find creepy). But I was expecting it to be cheaper. vI recall it being about £14, though I now know that’s largely Mexican tax rather than tourist rates. You can spend a lot more and a fair bit less on tequilas but if you want to buy some, either try to sample some, do some research or maybe you know your tequilas anyway.
As for lager beer, I was told by the man in the off licence that Triple X was a good choice. Indeed, it was very nice and I’m glad I didn’t just have a Sol or Corona.
Beaches
PHOTO Pelicans at Ensenada harbour eager for food from passing tourists
I reiterate that Ensenada is not on the beach. It is by the sea, there is no beach.
I did not go to a beach but were I to go to Ensenada again and want to go by the beach, I would probably go to La Jolla (a campsite, I think) as I could tell there was a length of beach along that peninsula leading to La Bufadora (the blow hole). There is also a spit off there with houses on it. I don’t know if the sand along there is private to the houses, but that looked nice too. I can also see on a map that there is Estero Beach, six or so miles south of Ensenada, near the air field and it gets good write-ups on TripAdvisor. However, I expect there is a limit to what you can do beyond going to the beach and what few restaurants I expect there would be. But that is purely a guess. Likewise, there were some lovely beaches on the road north of Ensenada, around San Miguel Bay. If you have a car and want a beach stay near a town, maybe try there.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
PHOTO Catholic church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Av. Floresta and 6th Street
I saw the church from afar and thought it looked really pretty so headed there. It is a well maintained and pretty Catholic Church. I am not religious but I did enjoy sitting inside the church and also wandering around the area. It is on Av. Floresta and 6th Street.
La Bufadora – blowhole
PHOTO La Bufadora in action
From reading about Ensenada, seeing this natural marine geyser, one of the largest in the world, is a must. I can’t decide the extent to which I would recommend it.
First and foremost, check tide times. It is not worth going if it’s not around high tide. I checked tide times for Ensenada on the day I wanted to go.
Apparently there is a tourist bus (for tourist prices) that takes people to La Bufadora on cruise days, usually only Wednesdays and Saturdays. I went in to the Tourist Information office near the harbour and got public bus information (the Tourist Information booth kind of opposite McDonald’s on the water side of the main road is, I believe, where the tourist bus goes from but you’d need to ask in that tourist booth for details). That enabled me to go without a big group of tourists, at a time that would coincide with high tide and I felt a bus trip (two buses each way, as it happens) would be an adventure.
For me, the buses and the scenery, particularly along the peninsula, made the trip worthwhile. The blowhole is a wonder of nature but I waited quite a while for the wow factor before realising it was not a wow sight for me. I had spoken to a few locals about visiting it and their reaction probably summed it up, namely that it’s somewhere everyone goes and they’re glad they’ve been but there’s no need to go again solely to see it again, rather to go on a date.
PHOTO The (shop-filled) road to La Bufadora – be thankful you are not in a blindfolded group
There are lots of write-ups about the shops on the one main path/pedestrian road that leads to the viewing area of the blowhole. There are a lot of shops and a lot of them are clearly owned and run by people who make the goods they sell (I bought a lovely woven bag from a man who I’m fairly confident made at least some of the bags in that shop). However, I ended up partly going to La Bufadora to do a bit of shopping. Yes, there is a long concentration of crafty shops and you could easily buy your souvenirs there. But I felt more touted and (mildly) hassled there than I ever did in Ensenada. A few people said that the shops there were cheaper. If they were, I didn’t notice, plus I felt a lot more like a tourist shopping there than I ever did in Ensenada.
So for me, I wouldn’t go there for the shops, though there really are loads. There are more in Ensenada but they’re just more spaced out, it being a town rather than 100m of side-to-side shops on either side of the only path to La Bufadora, with a few holiday-feel bars and eateries in between.
The blowhole would be better seen from the sea, you can’t actually see the start of it from the viewpoint. Yes, there are incredibly powerful eruptions of sea water, yes the sound is ten times (a random figure) louder than hearing a whale’s blowhole but, sorry, it’s “just” a mighty marine geysir. I have seen maybe more geysirs than a lot of people (the best being in New Zealand and Iceland – though not blowhole/marine geysirs beyond a small one in Grand Cayman) but I don’t think my lack of enthusiasm led me to think “been there, done that” because I don’t recall ever finding them that impressive and certainly not after the first big eruption you see.
PHOTO Across from La Bufadora during a rare cloud moment
Would I go again? No. But I would like to stand atop the end of the peninsula near La Bufadora and look out to sea and admire the view and the distant whale blowhole eruptions (December to March, I believe) – yes, you can see whales off the coast around there but they are far enough away that it doesn’t really count as an “I saw whales” experience. Also, the coast on the Ensenada side of the peninsula looked really peaceful and pretty. I also enjoyed the bus rides. So despite the fact I wouldn’t go again without good reason, I am glad I went and I would suggest you go IF you have time but don’t expect it to be a wow experience.
PHOTO What I have called “spring break type bars” at the blow hole end of La Bufadora shopping street
I mentioned bars along the shopping street, I didn’t like them. Two of them had very young WILD cats as “cool factor” tourist draws. While it was amazing to see a baby lion (yes, it really was a young lion and, no, it wasn’t another animal painted to look like a lion, as with the zebra donkeys of Tijuana) and a wild cat of the spotted variety lounging on sofas (I’m not kidding), I found it cruel and distasteful and I was surprised how many groups of American tourists (mainly spring break type groups) were paying to have a cuddle with a WILD cat. I had quite fancied a cocktail overlooking the sea but there was no way I was going to go into one of those places. I mention that as it may not also be your kind of tourist visit and that might put you off planning to eat or drink while you’re in that area. The bars and restaurants struck me as being very much American spring break type establishments and if that’s not your thing, now you know you might not want to factor in a food or drink stop in the tourist area of La Bufadora (there might be more local eateries in the small town area below the tourist part).
PHOTO The average Ensenada (mini) bus
Getting to La Bufadora by public buses is easier than you might think and for me was part of the reason I felt the trip was worth making.
Stand on the corner of Blv. Costero and Av. Macheros right in front of the tourist information booth, diagonally opposite McDonald’s. There is no bus stop. You just flag the minibus down.
Look for “Zorrillo” on the front of the bus. You pay $11 (c50p) to the driver and either say or write down “Maneadero – Calimax for La Bufadora”. The bus will take about 35 minutes to get to the Calimax, which is a minor bus hub.
In front of Calimax you will see an E and an S sign. Stand around there. At some point one of the buses parked pretty much opposite will set off and stop at the Calimax where you’re standing. This bus will say “La Bufadora” and La Bufadora is the terminus at the tip of the peninsula. I paid $15 (c70p) for this part of the journey. However, it might be possible to get a transfer ticket for the two journeys or maybe even a return. I can’t remember how long this part of the journey took, maybe 25 minutes, but the journey ends in a very obvious place, i.e. a small, dusty bus depot at the start of La Bufadora shopping street, right by a rather good churro stand.
PHOTO Freshly cooked churros from the stand by the La Bufadora bus terminal
To return, wait at the La Bufadora bus terminal and stay on the bus until its terminus across the road from Calimax. You’ve then crossed the very busy road and are on the correct side of the main road to catch any one of many buses back to Ensenada.
I get the impression that pretty much all buses go back to the centre of Ensenada. There are no real bus stops so you just tell the driver when you want to get off or, as I was dithering about not knowing where to say I wanted to get off, I just got off in an area I recognised that other people got off at. But if in doubt, just get up and walk with purpose to the front of the bus and make universally recognisable hand gestures to indicate you want the bus to stop.
Along the way, you pass a few shopping areas (a lot of American chains, e.g. Radio Shack, and some banks within the shopping centres).
The minibuses are very old and I truly believe they enhance your Mexican experience.
—————————————————
PUBLIC TOILETS
You often need change to pay for entrance to public toilets. I didn’t notice many around, hence my inclusion of toilet information, not that I have much to offer on that issue.
In Ensenada, I ended up mainly going to my hotel but there are also free public toilets in Calimax supermarkets and there are Calimax stores in Ensenada (as far as I discovered, there’s one on, roughly, the corner of Castillo and Benito Juarez/5th Street and the other VERY roughly around Ruiz and 2nd Street). Calimax have a fairly tall sign which from memory is backlit white with a red shopping trolley.
—————————————————
SHOPPING
Food
Calimax is decent-sized supermarket and is exactly what you would expect of a supermarket.
I had wanted to take home a selection of dried chillies. On Benito Juarez (5th Street), roughly between Castillo and Blancarte, diagonally opposite Calimax, there is a great chilli shop where chillies and other spices are weighed out. I bought five different bags of chillies, admittedly only a few chillies in each, and two bags of 100g of ground chillies for just under £1. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience as the lovely man who helped me and I had no common language skills so we ended up going on a scale based around “mucho picante” with “mucho, mucho, mucho picante” being the common understanding for “ouch hot”.
PHOTO The side of the tortilleria
Renteria Tortilleria. I had never been to a tortilleria before, nor even knew what to expect from one. I went into two, this one being my favourite and worth a visit. You can see the tortilla being made, which I found unexpectedly fascinating, and there is a small shop within the tortilleria selling some plain pottery (I bought a plate and a small bowl), relish, some intriguing home-made “things to eat” and lots of different kinds of tortilla, flours, etc. You could also buy fresh tortilla, though with emphasis on bulk buying. The building is also lovely vibrant colours. From memory, it closes around 2pm. It’s on 2nd Street between Gastelum and Miramar.
Post office
If you want to send postcards, for example, postage is purchased and already date stamped so you can’t buy stamps in advance of your posting date.
I believe the post office is open between, roughly, 8am and 4pm Monday to Thursday, possibly closed Fridays and definitely closed Sundays, and open on Saturday 8am to midday.
The post office is kind of behind Riviera Club on the corner of Lopez Mateos and Av. Floresta. It is a largely white building with pink and green trim, ie it is not immediately apparent that it is a post office. The entrance is on Av. Floresta.
Souvenirs
Lopez Mateos (street) has most souvenir shops. You can haggle and staff in shops are really friendly and most speak at least a little English. Prices are often in US$ rather than Mexican pesos (also indicated as $).
PHOTO Lovely glass studio on Lopez Mateos
Glass work (chunky stained glass type effect), pottery, leather, Day of the Dead skeleton pictures, etc, Frida Kahlo pictures and silver are perhaps the most prolific kinds of souvenirs. There is also quite a lot of painted metal, bark, pottery and wood from Oaxaca (Wahaca).
If you have time, I strongly recommend window shopping before making purchases. There is a bit of a difference in prices and not all shops sell exactly the same stuff.
PHOTO Beautiful metal work display in the shop
I bought some lovely metal work that casts shadows on the wall and that was from a memorable workshop type of shop.
I also bought a black pottery candle holder (from Oaxaca), some pictures on bark paper, a small casserole dish painted with bold coloured patterns, a silver necklace and a few smaller painted tiles and ornaments. I didn’t think things were really cheap but they were good value.
I also bought what I thought was a genius lime squeezer of the kind that the taco stalls used. It snapped on my second usage back in the UK. But if used less vigorously, that was US$3.50 well spent as it’s a great device. You can buy similar ones in the UK but I did read a few reviews and it seems that they are prone to snapping.
There are a few antique/junk shops in the tourist area. There are some interesting things but, again, not obvious bargains, though usually cheaper than you’d expect to pay at home.
PHOTO Very specific gun holsters
There is nice leather shop on the corner of Lopez Mateos and Alvarado. They make most of the leather goods there and you can have a few things made to order within a few hours (belt) or days (jacket) in the size and colour you want. I bought a light tan belt and a bag as a gift and also a really useful coin purse that I then used a lot in Mexico as I could tip the coins out and people could take the right money, e.g. on buses. But then, I’m a sucker for purses for every occasion.
—————————————————
EATING
Ah, what a joy. I’m not a fan of Mexican food. I don’t really like refried beans, I’m not a massive fan of tomatoes and I can’t tolerate a huge amount of chilli. But somehow it all tasted wonderful in Ensenada.
Street food
You would be missing out if you didn’t try some, though I have no idea what you’d eat if you are vegetarian. The best food I had was priced between 50p and 75p and was a ceviche mix piled on to a tostada. Nothing prepared me for how delicious it tasted: fresh; zingy; exciting and thoroughly more-ish.
PHOTO Castillo, my favourite fish taco stand
If like me you had never had, let alone thought you’d be interested in having, a fish taco, brace yourself because they’re wonderful. The fish is usually quickly fried in a lovely, light batter (fish fingers for grown ups) and served with a choice of salsas, cabbage or lettuce and a lovely creamy sauce. Sublime. I had a fish taco from opposite Calimax on Castillo and Juarez as my first street food lunch, Tacos Castillo. I ordered one for $13 (c60p) and I actually emitted a groan of taste joy. That was actually the best fish taco I had there. I found it a bit daunting as I had no idea what to ask for and felt conscious of my inability to speak Spanish, but I ordered a “fish taco” and all was good. However, I did ladle on the “guacamole”, which turned out to be guacachilli, which isn’t mild. The white sauce that accompanies it is really good. You add your own chilli sauces and salsas, which is a feature of Mexican food that I really like and means you can spice it up as much or little as your tastes require, though it’s an unknown if you spoon on unidentifiable salsas.
PHOTO A demonstration of the popularity of La Guerrerense, home of the delicious sea snail tostada
There is a very famous street food stall, La Guerrerense, that arrives late morning and disappears at some point in the late afternoon, usually when most of their fish has sold out. They have won all kinds of street food awards and lay claim to being a favourite eatery of Anthony Bourdain. There are always a lot of people waiting to eat there, they do sell out of the crowd pleasers, e.g. prawn, quite quickly but the food (I am fairly sure they only serve fish) is delicious. Their ceviche is c75p for a thickly piled tostada. However, for around £3.50 I thoroughly recommend their tostada that has won them a lot of their awards. There is a picture of it on the back poster or ask the friendly non-serving staff what they recommend (that’s how I ended up with it). Distressingly, it’s raw sea snail, something I would usually avoid at all costs as I hate anything snaily or that could be rubbery. It’s thinly sliced and you’d never know it was a sea snail and by the time you taste it you won’t care either. There are a lot of different salsas and sauces to choose from. I was helped with my selection but the one that goes best with the sea snail tostada is one that has what I think are peanuts in it. Not particularly hot and utterly delicious.
PHOTO Possibly the best tostada possible – sea snail ceviche PHOTO La Guerrerense at a rare quiet moment
Bear in mind that etiquette seems to be that you eat first, then pay. You don’t pay the people who make the food, there will usually be someone standing at the back who takes your money. Also bear in mind tostadas and tacos, etc, are messy to eat and you will be using your fingers. That is one reason why I have recommended you carry a bottle of hand sanitiser with you.
PHOTO With my back to the sea, looking at Marisco’s El Guero, amazing ceviche tostada
PHOTO My favourite ceviche at Marisco’s
However, in terms of just a bog standard ceviche tostada, one stall was even better than the award winning one, to my taste, and that was a mobile stall on the corner of Blv. Costero and Av. Alvarado, Marisco’s El Guero. As I recall, that one cost $12 (c55p) but I’m fairly sure no more than $14.
PHOTO tasty pork taco from Ramirez
I also tried a pork taco from Carnitas HNS. Ramirez on Av. Riveroll and 2nd Street. The meat was freshly cut, slow cooked pulled pork and the taco assembled to order. There is an informal outdoor seating area here and it was very busy with locals. I really enjoyed it, again in the region of $14.
Mexican non-touristy restaurants
The odds are that no English will be spoken. I chose one that looked busy, and on going inside was indeed full of Mexican families and groups. Having largely had street food, I just wanted to see what you’d get in a sit-down restaurant.
Tacos Maru, on the corner of Blancarte and 4th, only about three blocks from El Cid. There is nothing spectacular about this restaurant but it was exactly the kind of place I wanted to try. It’s good if you know what some dishes are (I had written a few down from the back of my guidebook) as the menu is all in Spanish and no real pictorial help. I decided that I wanted to eat the kind of Mexican food I’d had in the UK to see how different it would taste.
PHOTO Tacos Maru – combo meal
I ordered a combo meal of burrito, quesidilla, tortilla and chips (don’t dismiss Mexican chips as being just an American affectation, they’re good and a bit different to your average chips and burger type chips) and a limonada with mineral water. That limonada drink was recommended in a guide book and I would certainly pass on the recommendation, though it is “just” a fresh squeezed lemony sugary drink. The restaurant did not appear to serve alcohol.
It wasn’t as cheap as I’d expected but it was a good sized meal, the restaurant was clean and the food tasted fresh. My bill came to $165 (c£7.50). I was also given a free Maru Tacos classic car calendar.
PHOTO The Restaurant Chabe kitchen and dining area
Restaurant Chabe, a gem of a place, between Riveroll, Lopez Mateos (1st Street), Alvarado and 2nd Street is in a very quiet (i.e. largely vacant shops) shopping plaza of sorts. About half way between 1st and 2nd on Riveroll (or Alvarado) is a pedestrian road into the centre of the “shopping” area, the centre being a bandstand. There is also and “A” board pointing to Restaurant Chabe. The restaurant is like a large kitchen diner in a house and is on a corner right opposite the bandstand, though you can’t miss it really as it’s a small area. I found it on a morning quest for an egg-based breakfast and was drawn in by the smell of home cooking. Two women were working away in the kitchen and I asked if they were open, to which one lady, whose English was excellent, said yes and asked what I would like. I asked what she was cooking, which was more lunch food, but the slow cooked tomato sauce was part of a potential breakfast. We settled on scrambled eggs, nachos with cheese and the gorgeous tomato sauce she was heating and some refried beans, served with a black coffee. It was perfect, freshly cooked in front of me and, with the sun beaming into the little restaurant, I was in breakfast bliss. That too wasn’t as cheap as I’d expected from Mexico but I certainly don’t think I was ever charged inflated tourist prices and nor, really, is £3.20 extortionate. That delightful breakfast came to $70 (c£3.20)
PHOTO The outside of El Chino
El Chino, much more low key and smaller than Chabe with low stools at a basic counter, behind which the food is prepared and cooked, is pretty much next to the bus depot on Riveroll (around 11th). This was also a breakfast stop for me and again I wanted an egg-based breakfast. The lovely lady who runs this small, narrow eatery doesn’t speak English but I would have managed fine even if I’d not met a regular local there, Johnny, a fluent English speaker who helped me order a plate of eggs, ham, corn tortilla and salsa, which came to $40 (£1.90) and was delicious and, as with all food I had, fresh and cooked to order. For me, this is a perfect place to start or end your trip to Ensenada if you’re going by bus, it being right next to the bus depot, cheap, tasty and non-touristy.
Tourist/posh restaurant
Restaurante Manzanilla, my one foray into Mexican fine dining.
It is not easy to find, or at least you’ll probably set off on the correct road, get so far and convince yourself it can’t possibly be down that road. The address is Teniente Azueta #139. That road does not look at all like the kind of road where a posh restaurant will be. NB it is not the busy main road, it is the road sort of next to/parallel to it and it is not the nice pedestrianised road leading to restaurants by the end of the touristy part of the port. The road has a central concrete island, looks like a road to nowhere (indeed, it ends with the sea) and the only buildings are marine equipment and other similar outlets. As you walk along the road, convinced you’re on a wild goose chase, you will see a port entrance blocking the road ahead. Trust me, keep walking. You almost get as far as that and there, on the right, is Manzanilla. It’s set back slightly and is only visible once you’re alongside it.
I was seated in the dining area by the bar. There was one other diner, a woman also on her own. It was a comfortable place to sit and eat on your own. I didn’t see the other restaurant rooms but I could hear people talking through a doorway.
I opted for a six-course taster menu. I would recommend it, though that’s easy for me to say as I eat pretty much anything. The emphasis was on fish and seafood. The waiter told me they select the most popular courses for the taster menu.
I had a fabulous Margarita and a Mojito, both of which I realised as I walked back to the hotel in an unexpectedly wobbly line probably had more alcohol in them than I expected.
I loved the food but I found it hard to understand the spoken descriptions of what I was eating. The oysters cooked four ways were amazing, the quail (I think I remembered that right, it could have been another small bird) was memorable … it was all good.
Yes, it was expensive, particularly for Mexico, but I would go again very happily.
—————————————————
DRINKING
PHOTO My favourite juice bar, possibly around Av Floresta and 5th Street
Juice stalls are dotted around town and I highly recommend them. There is usually a juice menu that you can guess at least most of the juices. They are freshly made, thirst quenching and delicious. There is one on Av. Riveroll at 3rd Street, for example.
There are a lot of bars around but I didn’t go to any. The helpful man in the wine shop told me that the Mermaid is good for beer and snacks. He also suggested craft beer places, one of which is, I believe, on Blv. Costero somewhere between Av Blancarte and the Av. Miramar end of town.
I tried a few cafes and the lovely-looking tea shop, Camilia, on Av. Lopez Mateos, near Av. Castillo on the block between Av Blancarte and Av. Castillo. I am a tea and coffee snob. The cafe opposite El Cid, Cafe Torino, was nice but the coffee wasn’t destination coffee, though was the best of all other places I tried, except for Cuppa Coffee Roasters, detailed below, and it is open early to late. The tea at the aforementioned tea shop was unforgivably awful as it was basically a teappuccino. I should have ordered black tea with milk on the side.
PHOTO Cuppa Coffee Roastery, Av Riveroll
However, there is one place that serves really good coffee that I found, Cuppa Coffee Roasters, just off Lopez Mateos on Av. Riveroll. If you need a really good coffee fix, especially if you like black coffee or straightforward black coffee with milk, it’s well worth going there.
Also, there is a bohemian kind of bar/cafe on the first floor, a block or so along from El Cid, near Av Riveroll but before Av Alvarado on Lopez Mateos. I had a decent evening decaf coffee there and it’s a nice laid back kind of place, good for sitting around both for friends and people on their own. I recall it opens around 11am and closes at pub time.
(I reiterate that this was all from a 2014 trip, I am fairly sure there will be more and better cafes now, the third wave coffee revolution seemingly ubiquitous)
—————————————————
THE BUS FROM ENSENADA TO TIJUANA
Assuming you go to the bus station on Riveroll, around 11th Street, take your “redondo” ticket to a booth and it will be exchanged for a ticket for the next bus. You need to specify where in Tijuana you want to go. Although I was heading to Av. Revolucion and Caesar’s, I asked for a border bus, “La linea” being what people referred to it as in Spanish, as that was my area of familiarity. The ticket you are given is for a specific bus. Mine was due to leave about ten minutes later and I was allocated a seat.
Bear in mind the bus is likely to set off late and will stop at a busier stop shortly afterwards. I didn’t take my allocated seat as the bus wasn’t that busy at the bus station but a lot of people got on at the next stop and I felt lucky not to have to leave my window seat.
There are a lot of buses that go to Tijuana from the bus station. The odds are that the first bus you see with “Tijuana” written on it won’t be yours. Show one of the many bus officials your ticket and you will be pointed in the right direction. Don’t worry, it’s not as stressful or chaotic as I may be making it sound.
My bus dropped us off a little to the east (ish) of the border crossing. It wasn’t as bustly as where I started my trip into Tijuana but it’s close and obvious which way to go, not least because the barren Californian hills were just above the metal border fence by where the bus stopped.
—————————————————
SUGGESTED LUNCH IN TIJUANA
PHOTO Caesar’s Hotel and Restaurant on Av. Revolucion, Tijuana
I had wanted to stay one night in Tijuana as my Frommer’s guide book listed lots of restaurants that sounded worth visiting. The guide book is fine but the image it gave me of Tijuana and Ensenada did not match my impression when I got there. However, I’m glad I did stay my final night in Ensenada but glad I did at least have lunch in Tijuana at Caesar’s.
Who knew that Caesar Salad was created in Tijuana, Mexico, at none other than Caesar’s (a restaurant below Caesar’s Hotel, which is a hotel I would consider staying if I ever had to or felt a need to stay in Tijuana, despite being on a noisy and busy road, the main tourist road, Av. Revolucion).
I arrived at around midday and was worried I might not get in to Caesar’s, thinking it would be packed to the rafters with tourists like me there for the Caesar Salad. It turns out that it’s a massive, fancy saloon type restaurant/bar and I was the only person there until one gentleman came in and sat at the bar. It is a really smart restaurant with a real Prohibition era feel to it. I loved it and would go again, if only for a drink.
It turns out that Caesar Salad is four leaves of Cos (or Romaine but I was told Cos) lettuce, a slice of toasted (baked or fried?) baguette and dressing. I was, to put it mildly, hugely appreciative of the accompanying bread basket. The salad cost 90 pesos (c£4.20). However, every ingredient was fresh and delicious and the dressing (including raw egg) was whisked up in a bowl on a fancy trolley in front of the table. It was an experience and a joy but the hungry part of me kept picturing slices of chicken, bacon bits, a littering of croutons … I know, I know. It was lovely and I am glad I had it and I have become a total Caesar snob and have announced on many occasions that “that’s not how a Caesar Salad should be”. The dressing was lovely. The rest of the menu also looked really nice but it’s not a cheap restaurant.
If you’re likely to need a more substantial lunch, treat the Caesar Salad as a starter.
PHOTO Zebra donkeys on Av Revolucion, Tijuana
There are plenty of other places to eat along Av. Revolucion, though tourist places and tourist prices from what I could gather.
It’s worth walking along this road, if only to see the zebra-painted donkeys (poor blighters).
—————————————————
ENTRY FROM MEXICO INTO THE US ON FOOT
PHOTO A Tijuana sign to the USA
(NB This was 2014, now that Donald Trump is the American President, I suspect the border crossing times are significantly longer)
Discussing times to get across the border is a common conversation and one which I had with maybe four different people I chatted to in Ensenada. I heard of waiting times (on foot) of between five minutes and four hours. I expect weekends, particular Sunday nights, to be busy. I joined the queue at 1.50 pm on a Friday. I thought it was an exceptionally long queue (and I had heard touts, touting for what I wasn’t sure, saying it was a long line. I had allowed for a two-hour queue and those comments and seeing how far back the queue was had me worried) as it went beyond the enclosed walkway area of the line divides. Indeed, it went back along the pavement about 20 people further back from the bottom of the “To Downtown” steps I had just walked down.
There are shops along the queue, mainly selling Tequila (you’re back on Tequila way) and catering for snack-hungry queuers. However, being on my own, I had neither need nor desire to risk losing my place in the queue to get snacks or drinks (I’m sure someone in front or behind me would have kept my place though, the queue wasn’t exactly fast moving).
I strongly urge you to make sure you have a lot of bottled water (there are toilets along Tequila way but you have to pay and I would suggest they be used in emergency situations only), snacks or whatever food you might want if you allow for the four-hour-queue scenario, sun screen, a hat, sunglasses and any standing-up activities to keep you occupied (I was envisaging people trying to run across the border, police action … a Hollywood action thriller set in Tijuana. There was nothing remotely interesting or exciting about that queue). Most of the queueing takes place outside and there is little or no protection from the sun. Do not underestimate how hot it is, even in January/winter, when you’re standing under the full afternoon sun. Likewise, if you queue when it’s late in the day or early in the morning, in winter it will be cold.
PHOTO Cars in Tijuana waiting to cross into the USA
As for my experience, it “only” took one hour and 20 minutes, which felt like about four hours. I was expecting the queue but I forgot how tedious and tiring it is largely standing still. The car queue is to your left and I’m sure they moved far quicker.
When you get to the border crossing area, there are three separate lines for entry. Unless you commute every day and have a special pass, don’t waste time fretting that the queue you’re in, “General Public”, is the wrong queue. That is purely wishful thinking. You don’t even need to read the queue names, just get behind everyone else in the only long queue there is.
Every c10 minutes, the queue moves forward. This is because people are let into the US Immigration building in big groups. That is the only time the queue moves. It gets quite exciting when there are c30 seconds spent walking forward.
There will be maimed and distressingly poor beggars walking along the queue trying to get you to buy sweets or give them money. They are not threatening and it’s not scary, it’s just hard to see. There may also be a dreadful (or you might get lucky and have someone wonderful) “musician”. There is no escape from that sound and you will rejoice when the queue moves out-of-wind of the noise. Headphones and your own music, but it would be inappropriate to flaunt expensive gadgets.
PHOTO The border between Mexico and the US
Of my one hour and 20 minutes, it took 50 minutes to get to the Mexico/US line and through the gates and into the building. There’s still a fair bit to go but you are then inside a very depressing, horrible government building.
It was at this point some people overtook slower walkers. That annoyed me enormously as it was tantamount to pushing in. Be warned and stand your ground.
It took a further 25-30 minutes to queue to passport control. There are sniffer dogs and US Officials all over the place. It is in stark contrast to your entry into Mexico a few metres away in a glorified porta-office.
US Immigration Officials always make me nervous. Unexpectedly, I was asked lots of questions, eg why I had gone to Mexico, when I was leaving San Diego, why I was in the US, what I’d bought in Mexico, etc, etc. (My friend had suggested I have a copy of my flight details with me. I didn’t need it but was asked so many questions about my departure from the US that I did offer to show it to him, at which point he said it wasn’t necessary and I was let through – no further US stamp; my initial one into the US remained).
You then join a fairly short queue with officials and dogs all over the place and all bags go through X-ray machines.
Assuming all is ok with your bags, you are then back at the San Ysidro tram terminus, feeling like you’ve just overcome a big adventure (it didn’t feel like that exciting while queueing) and have now entered another world.