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Published: March 14th 2010
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Today was our first official day on our Wild Western Contiki tour. We departed our hotel about 7:30 am and drove south towards San Diego.
Our first optional excursion took place in the morning around 10:00 am. It was $14 US and it was a harbour cruise. It was nothing too exciting but it was nice to see it from the water and I don't think there would have been too much else to do it you didn't go on the cruise. We mingled a little and met some new people when on the cruise. The harbour is a navy port so there was lots of boats, sub marines and choppers so it was actually quite interesting in that regard. We saw some seals too so that's a nice little bonus. It went for about an hour all up.
After that we had a little bit of a bus tour through the city and parks and got taken to a big mall where we were given some time to shop.
The tours used to go into Mexico (Tijuana) which I had really been looking forward too but Contiki canceled the part of the itinerary heading down there as
it was no longer safe. Apparently the place has always been big with drugs but reports now are that the police are corrupt and all the drug lords were fighting and having shoot outs in the street. Just over 200 people had been killed this year. Tourists were not a target but there was always the danger of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and because tourism had dropped so much then locals started to target and mug tourists who ventured down there. So unfortunately no Tijuana for me 😞
I guess a bonus n this though was we got to see more of San Diego.
We got taken to Old Town San Diego which was nice. It has quite a Mexican influence so we at least got a bit of a taste of that. There was cactus, tequila and shopping. It was awesome.
I bought some jewelery at the Mexican Markets and we saw a Mexican band playing. There's also comical stuff around. Apparently there was a guy with Sombreros but we never found him. We had a picture taken in a coffin, on a wagon, with a sheriff and with cactus so
we humored ourselves. Cat and I then found a bar and hit up some Margaritas. Very nice, very strong and nice and big.
That night we were taken into town for our included dinner at Dicks Last Resort. The atmosphere there was pretty funny. It has one of the 'rude' themes where waitstaff are inappropriate. It is also home to napkin fights. People are encouraged to throw napkins. Napkins are rolled in balls and thrown around our table and also napkin fights happen between tables with random patrons. The staff then put funny offensive hats on people. Saying things like " the more you drink the hotter i get" etc.
After Dinner we went out to some club in town. I don't remember the name. Had a bit too drink but not too hectic a night. Went home to bed.
Woke up at 4:30 am from an "unwelcome' guests snoring. Was not happy with our random addition to the room for the night.
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