Ensenada, Mexico

---

Geo: 31.8667, -116.617

Today we finally had a port day and an activity planned!! Whoo Hoo!! I can't even tell you how excited I was to get off the ship and/or to just DO SOMETHING!! Our next cruise is going to be port intensive or else sea day, port day, sea day, port day… I'm a little bit bored on this small ship.

So.. we come into Ensenada and several noisy, in a cute way, seals greet us! It is a decent-looking port. Today we were scheduled for a "City & Shopping Tour" of Ensenada through Carnival. We left the ship a little after 9:15 am and met our group to wait in line for about 15 minutes before boarding our bus.

We made three stops. Our first stop was at Riviera Del Pacifico, a glamorous resort and casino during the roaring 20s renowned for its Mexican architecture and famous clientele (Al Capone, etc). We listened to an interesting, short lecture about the history of Mexico and California. Did you know there is a city in California called Mexicali and a city in Mexico called CaliMexi? This is true. The resort was built at a cost of 2.5 million dollars in the 1920s. The ceiling was hand-painted and the chandeliers were brought in from Monaco. The casino area of the hotel, where we were taken next, is the only area that still holds one of the original chandeliers… which has 365 lights, one for each day of the year. The old casino is now owned by the City of Ensenada and is maintained with the funds from weddings, parties, and annual events held in the ballroom.

Our next stop was the oldest winery in all of North America, started by the missions in the 1700s, Bodegas de Santo Tomas. The winery is currently ran by a female winemaker, a first for Mexico. Since she took over in 2005, they have won lots of medals. We tasted four wines. I was not impressed by any of them however, I did not find any of them undrinkable. Only five or six people purchased wines before we left.

The bus then stopped downtown for an hour while we walked around and shopped. We found a local supermarket just a short block away and got some Mexican candy for my co-workers and I had to get a Coke Zero. The exchange rate was nearly 14 pesos to 1 dollar which was fantastic at the local supermarcado. There were pharmacias and perfumerias everywhere. Hubby bought some Calvin Klein Escape for Men for ten U.S. dollars. It was in the original bottle and it smelled fantastic so we'll see. He's probably spraying himself with half sewer water. Who knows. Hubby also bought two leather belts – one black and one brown. The buckles seem okay and I checked the stitching and got him to switch me to an upgrade. They started at ten U.S. dollars each and I got them down to fifteen U.S. dollars for two. I'm sure I could have done better but I don't like the haggling you are expected to do here.

Hubby spotted a margarita place and away we went. I ordered a big margarita which was advertised as "so strong it will make you think you're single again" – whatever that means. It was tart… as in… strong but goooood.

We went back to the ship and hung-out on our balcony for a while enjoying the view. We finally crashed and took a nap and when it came time to rise n' shine for dinner, hubby was a little hesitant to crawl out of the comfy beds but we hadn't ate since 1:30pm (nearly a miracle for on this cruise) so we slowly headed to dinner to see who our new tablemates would be. Tonight's food was on the new Carnival menus. Hubby tried the sushi and didn't like it. I tried the French onion soup and thought it okay. We both had the flat iron steak for dinner… which we both really liked. Dessert was hubby's first ever warm chocolate melting cake and I had the fig, date, & cinnamon cake with rum raisin ice cream. We were both pleased. Our new tablemates were interesting folks also. There were only three people at a table for nine. One widowed man from California traveling alone and an older couple from San Diego. The older couple had interesting stories as the last Carnival cruise they had been on was the Carnival Splendor that had literally “died” i.e. lost all power in these very same waters we are cruising now. They had nothing but good things to say about how Carnival and the entire staff had handled their cruise mishap. They also had some pretty good tales of things that happened on that stranded ship! It was an entertaining evening.

We walked the ship after dinner and finally called it a night.

---