We started the day by driving the last 4 hours to Tecate. Before we got out of the states, Brett wanted to have In & Out Burger so we headed there for lunch. Afterwards, it was time to make a left turn toward the border. We had never crossed the border in Tecate before but our friends told us it was the best place and we should try it. Talk about easy. There was absolutely zero wait. No cars in front of us and we did get the red light at the inspection so we pulled off and had about a 30 second inspection and then the border agent advised we could drive around the corner and park in the agent parking area while we went to Immigration and got our paperwork completed. Walked into Immigration and again no wait at all. Got our papers, walked across to the bank to pay the fee, back to Immigration to have papers stamped and then walked to the corner to exchange dollars for pesos and back to the car. All this took about 15 minutes. I almost don't want to blog about how easy it was as we don't want the word to get out:-)
At the border!
While at Immigration a couple from Canada heard that our destination was Cabo and said they were headed there too. They drove from Alberta, Canada and had never driven through either the US or Mexico. We offered to have them follow us to Ensenada, but in the end they decided to stay in Tecate since they hadn't eaten yet and we didn't want to wait as we wanted to get to Ensenada and set up camp before dusk. They'll be in San Jose del Cabo until Dec 23rd so we gave them our contact info if they wanted to get together when we're all in Cabo. Who knows we may also see each other again on the way down.
We drove Hwy 3 from Tecate to Ensenada and this road takes you through the wine region of the Baja. You can't even compare it to crossing in San Ysidro and driving through Tijuana. Not only did we feel safe, it was a beautiful drive. I think on the way back, we may stop and spend a day in that area and check out some of the wineries.
Welcome to Ensenada. This is the port where all the cruise ships come in,
Hwy 3 intersects with Hwy 1 just north of Ensenada. We got on Hwy 1 and headed south and stopped at the Tourist Information Center to ask about campgrounds. At first he recommended Estero Beach but we have stayed there before and wanted to try someplace new so we ended up heading to La Joya on the road to the Bufadora (blow hole). We paid the 150 pesos ($12 US) and drove out to the camping area and were amazed that we were the only ones here. As I write this, I'm sitting in our tent listening only to the ocean waves. Life is so good!!
There are a few tamale stands just outside the entrance to the campground so we headed out for tamales after setting up camp. The tamales were out of this world yummy. We ended up having one of each flavor she made and split them between us. Chicken, Beef, Cheese, Sweet Corn and Pineapple. I had never heard of Pineapple tamales but they were the bomb. You could eat them for dessert. There was another couple there and we sat at the table with them. The spoke about as much English as we speak Spanish, which meant there was a lot of charades going on, but we had so much fun. We learned where they were from, how many kids they had, that he's about to retire from the Mexican Army as a helicopter pilot where he has served for 32 years, etc. It's amazing how much fun you can have meeting new people even if you don't speak the same language. Laughter doesn't have a language barrier. I asked if we could take pictures with them and then we laughed some more when
she said that I had to put them on facebook and friend her! Some things are definitely multicultural!
Our bill for dinner was a whopping 60 pesos ($4.80 US) so we gave her 100 pesos for the food and entertainment and headed back to camp.
Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
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