“Is it happy daytime yet?”
Those are the first words out of Ouest’s mouth every morning. Sweetness.
We left San Felipe and made haste for the west side of Baja—Ensenada to be exact. The drive across was really nice, with gorgeous views, smoothish roads, and no other cars. We had a couple of checkpoints along the way. The kid/officer asks politely to come on in, says hello to Ali, opens the pantry doors, presses the ceiling panels, and bids us good day. Back in our VW days I used to joke that if we were smuggling any contraband all we would have to do is not hide it in our pillows—they always squeezed our pillows. With this bus it seems that so long as we don’t pack it in front of the Doritos we should be okay.
We pulled into an Ensenada campground that looked as if it had been hit by a hurricane—it had not. We spent a really unremarkable night there, then woke in the morning to find both kids had flat tires on their bikes. The campground was full of nasty thorns, and both of them had managed to ride right through them. We drove off, found a bike repair place right downtown, and paid twelve bucks to have two tubes replaced and buy two spares.
We found another place to stay, got a little work done around the house, had a beach day, and prepared to move on. The weather this far north is nice and warm during the day, but nights are getting cold, and the water is almost unbearable. We need to get south.
15 Comments on “Ensenada”
Wow, those are some alien looking plants! The succulents with the black rose looking things would be right at home in any sci-fy movie.
Oh, and I can really start to see the quality difference in your photos with the upgraded camera. They possess a creamy resolution with the perfect blend of sharpness, clarity and smoothness. Good investment from where I sit. Literally, from where I sit.
Love the picture of the black roses. Do you know what they are?
I believe that the “black rose” is a succulent that is native to Mexico.
Love the photo’s!
Do they sell Green Stuff in Mexico? If so, it works great on kid’s bike tires too but even Green Stuff can’t beat four tubes + labor for twelve bucks!!!
Hey! So it’s REALLY FUNNY to me that when I first started following your blog, we were in Baja and you were in Mazatlan. And now you are in Baja and while we aren’t quite in Mazatlan, we’re getting there (slowly).
God, but I love life. Isn’t it just awesome?!
And – you are shooting some amazeballs. First rate photos. Love ’em.
What would be EVEN FUNNIER is if you were to cross paths on different ferries: http://www.bajaferries.com.mx/ 🙂 🙂 🙂
I absolutely love the photos in this post! Great shots!
You discussed getting the bus into Mexico, but you didn’t say anything about insurance requirements.
John,
Looks like the Bums are on the road to their next stop. However, we are currently RVing in Mexico so I can answer your question. You are legally required to have liability insurance while driving in Mexico. And it must be from a Mexican Insurance Company. Easy to get as there are numerous places to buy it on the US side of every border town although you’ll likely get a better deal by purchasing on-line.
-Steve (currently in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico)
Here is Pat’s best post (so far) on the subject: https://www.bumfuzzle.com/blog/2009/06/30/borders/
Pat,
Just wanted to let you know I’ve been following your travels for a long time now. My wife and I have a dream to sail (longer term) one day (and have for years…but we live in Indiana for now!). Anyway, I read your “Live on the Margin” book back in January (like 5 times) and loved it! It took me a while to get the concepts, but since then I’ve been trading options with a small account ($5k) just to learn. I’m now mostly selling vertical call spreads and strangles (selling volatility, basically…probability based trades) and so far so good. 🙂 Thank you for that book, though. It inspired me to begin learning something new that would have totally overwhelmed and intimidated me otherwise. And the idea of “living on the margin” actually seems POSSIBLE to us now in a way it wasn’t before! (I’ll leave a review on Amazon for you asap where it might be more beneficial…sorry for the off topic post here, just wanted to let you know you’ve basically changed my life…ha!).
Awesome. I love hearing that. The book really is about getting your feet wet, learning some new terminology, and doing it in a way that non-professionals can actually understand. From there people can go a million different directions with options trading. I’m glad you’ve found something that is working for you. That’s great. Good luck moving forward on your dream. Oh, and sorry about the whole living in Indiana thing. 🙂
I made it! I got attached to your blog while looking for advice on visiting Baja California. I became so encaptured by your blog, that I started reading at the beginning (of the second boat trip). Thank you for sharing your experiences with me.