Notes from Our Vacation - Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

The last official day of our cruise was Wednesday, March 8th, and the Star Princess put into the port of Ensenada, Mexico for a brief visit to satisfy US legal requirements before returning to Los Angeles. There really isn't a lot to say about Ensenada, which came across to me as just another tourist-trap Mexican port.

The approach to the harbor ...

No shortage of pleasure and working boats ...

The Star Princess shared the port with another cruise ship ...

We'd originally planned to just spend the day on the ship, because we've had our fill of visits to Mexican tourist ports where we were besieged by armies of hyperaggressive street vendors, but we changed our minds when our on-board waiter recommended a good restaurant.

We hopped the $3 shuttle bus ($1 to town, $2 to return to the ship) and went into town, where we were immediately reintroduced to every junk-hawking street vendor in Baja Mexico. In desperation, we hopped on a bus tour to the tourist center at La Bufadora, although this did not free us from the local "entertainment" ... a fellow climbed into the bus to bang on his guitar and loudly and ineptly serenade us until the seats were all filled. We had the misfortune of sitting in the first row of seats, so he was blaring away at full volume right next to us as the bus slowly filled. I gave him a dollar in the hopes that it would shut him up, but it didn't work. He did, however, by standing right at the top of the steps in the doorway, keep the rest of the vendors from getting on the bus, so I guess it was sort of worth it.

The drive to La Bufadora took about 45 minutes and passed through the sort of scenery we've grown accustomed to in Mexico: alternating between the beautiful and modern and the seedy and run-down. Lots of agriculture, including endless fields of asparagus, and lots of discount pharmacies (about which more later). There was nothing worth taking pictures of until we reached our destination, which had some glorious views of the surf crashing on the rocky shoreline ...

The La Bufadora marketplace was a long, winding stretch of restaurants, bars, and shops selling leather, silver, jewelry, t-shirts, and all sorts of other touristy junk. In order to get to the actual scenic overlooks, we had to run the gauntlet of shop owners calling out to "Mr Rockefeller" and "pretty lady" (you can guess which of us was which), and trying to drag us into their lairs. I ended up buying only one thing: a carved dragon as a birthday gift for my granddaughter who loves dragons ...

La Bufadora ("the blowhole") itself is said to be one of the largest marine geysers in the world ("you will get wet!", according to the ship's tour information office). In the picture below, you can see a group of slicker-clad kayakers waiting to get doused by the mighty blast ... but they rowed away disappointed. We were halfway to La Bufadora on the bus when our guide told us that because we would be there at low tide and there was very little wind, we would be unlikely to see the geyser in its full glory. Sadly, he was right ... we saw a few anemic pffffts of spray, but none of the glorious blast we'd been ready to see. Oh, well ...

Somehow, I'm not surprised that signs like these are needed ...

We did the usual swapping of cameras with a pair of Japanese tourists to get our touristy happy-snaps over the glorious blue sea ...

When Congress gets done mucking up health care, these "discount pharmacies" which require "no prescription" (of which there were at least three in the La Bufadora marketplace alone) may be the last places you'll be able to afford your meds ...

Back at the ship, we spent some time watching the show provided by hundreds of sea lions that swam, sunned, squabbled, and barked loudly along the pier.

And not just along the pier ... Agnes spotted these four sea lions snuggled up on a floating buoy we passed as the Star Princess cruised majestically out of the harbor ...

And with that, we left Ensenada and the sea lions behind and sailed off into the sunset, headed for Los Angeles and the end of our cruise ...

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo