Baja California

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Baja California - Mexico
It was time to leave mainland Mexico so after having chicken and chips for breakfast we headed to the ferry port at Mazatlan to see if there was going to be a ferry that day. Thankfully there was one due to leave at 5pm, the journey being 12 hours long. We didn't board the ferry until 4.30pm so we knew we were going to be behind schedule. The boat eventually left the harbour at 7pm and headed off into the amazingly red sunset over the Sea of Cortez. We had only purchased salon class seats and not a comfy cabin but we managed to smuggle aboard some brandy to help us sleep. We finally were allowed to disembark at 10am and after a standing in a long queue for a baggage check (ie man asked to look in your rucksack, undoes the top, realises it's packed so tightly that checking the contents would involve taking everything out so gives it a token squeeze and sends you on your way), we caught the bus into La Paz, found a cheap hotel. This hotel also had concrete beds and occasionally running water! As we couldn't get a desired / required shower we went into town for some lunch and a walk along the sea front where all the locals came to to enjoy the evening breeze coming from the sea.

We spent a day on the beach at the southern tip of the Baja peninsula before continuing our journey north which would eventually take us back to the US border. We had a week to do this so on the way we stopped for two nights at the small coastal town of Loreto. While there we managed to get a cheap snorkeling trip to a nearby island just for enduring a presentation on a new timeshare development that was being built nearby. The only good thing about it was the free breakfast but it was worth it for the boat trip where we saw sea lions and lots of puffer fish. Although the fish tacos in Loreto were excellent, we had to carry on north towards the USA so took another overnight bus to Ensenada about two hours away from the border. The otherwise comfortable journey was regularly interupted by military checkpoints which involved the usual half hearted bag checks. It was obvious we were close to the border as all the prices here were in dollars instead of pesos and the people were more inclined to try and rip you off. Our taxi to the hotel was much more expensive than it should have been and we didn't even get dropped off near the hotel! We spent our last full day in Mexico mingling with the hoards of tourists by the harbour and in the evening went out for our last margaritas at a cantina famous for being the oldest in Baja. We had a good night listening to the mariachi band and talking with some Mexicans who were sharing our table.

We had heard that the border crossing at Tijuana was supposed to be one of the busiest and that it could take a couple of hours to get through and so we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find very short queues and a quick and simple border crossing. On the other side we caught a tram into San Diego where we had booked a hostel for a few nights. It was liberating to be able to check in without having to use our very poor Spanish and to be able to converse effectively with people again.

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Photos

Familiar statue
Where have we seen this before... Answers on a postcard.

Snorkel trip
We.ve been in Mexico too long, Steph is groing a moustache!

Comments

[Blaed]

Affa bonny sunset
Cool photie o the sunset from the boat. Bit o a sucker for them masel.....