Mexico
You should know the routine by now. Up at 6.30, pick up at 7.50 and change bus at the harbour.
We had quite a wait for the bus to arrive that was taking us to Mexico so I took a few more photo's around the harbour. The USS Midway, a commissioned carrier from WWII until Desert Storm is now a permanent fixture in the harbour and has been turned into a museum. It still has the planes and choppers on deck.
Our driver is Mexican born but has lived in San Diego since he was 6 yrs old. The guy was definitely in his 60s but spoke like he'd only arrived in SD yesterday. Sometimes he was very hard to understand, and as he was giving us the commentary his voice lowered quite a lot which made it even harder, even with a microphone one guy at the back asked a couple of times if he could turn the volume up or put the mic closer to his mouth. I was sitting directly behind the driver so I could understand those at the back having trouble.
Before we left the harbour he gave us the run down on what to expect of the day out. As we are heading across the border, it was interesting to see the difference in the traffic going into Mexico and the traffic returning to the states. You'll see it in the photo's. Our first stop in Mexico was Tijuana, where those alighting the bus would have from 9.30 to 3.30 to wander the shops. Those not alighting the bus were going on to Ensanada, further south, down the coast, where lunch was included at a restaurant and an approx 2 hours to wander the shops. If any of us that had only booked for Tijuana wanted to stay on and see more we could at a small cost of $34.00 which would include our lunch fee.
Now I'm thinking I've got 2 options here, what would you say if I asked you which I should do?
1 - Get off in Tijuana and wander the shops for about 6 hours.
2 - Stay on the bus, see more of Mexico, have a nice lunch and wander the shops for about 2 hours.
I heard every single one of you yell "2, TAKE 2", and under your breaths "keep her away from the shops."
Of course I heeded your advice and took option 2 and I am so glad I did. It was an interesting drive through the towns and down the coast. It was very obvious where the poor and the not so poor lived. Mexico is starting to clean up some areas bit by bit and are building low rent apartments, not that that will help those that have no money at all, but at least it's a start.
We passed through 3 toll gates, the money from which is used for the improvements of the roads. They say that way they are only taxing the people that are using the roads. It was also interesting to see a military check point on the way, not that they seemed to be doing much but apparently it's like a random breathalizer, they are looking for arms being brought into Mexico.
There was a bathroom and leg stretch stop at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, and time to wander out the back down to the beach Rosarito where we were told the beach was beautiful, white sand etc. You be the judge when you the photo's of my feet standing on it. The driver also stopped at a lookout for us to see the view of the ocean. You will notice some rings in the water, they are fish farms, breeding blue tail tuna. The small boats (they looked small from 1,000ft above sea level) are out there feeding the tuna.
After Rosarito we carried on down to Ensanada where lunch really was good. I tried the driver's recommendation of fish and mango. It was pretty darn good.
After we left Ensanada we stopped back in Tijuana to pick up another group of people that had done a half day trip there, before heading back to the border and having to go through screening with the US border security. The driver had warned us that we might have a long wait getting through, as you will see by the photo's there is a lot of traffic crossing, and a good guess would be a 7pm return to the harbour for our bus back to the hotel. We followed all his instructions and were across the border by 5.45. He congratulated us all on being prepared and making it easy for him to get us through. I don't know if you will be able to see in any of the photo's, but there are street vendors that wander between the cars selling anything from flowers to huge rugs. I guess they figure you can't run away from them stuck in that traffic jam.
Oh, and on the way back from Ensanada it was interesting to see the council workers seem to be the same the world over, complete with broom to lean on. There was one stretch of road that was being resurfaced. We also passed Fox studios where Aladdin and Titanic were filmed, amongst others most probably, but they were the two the driver mentioned.
On the way back to the hotel we went down Mile of Cars Way - an interesting name for a road, but I figure it must be full of car yards considering we could see one as we crossed the intersection, but the road did bend so I don't know if there were more car yards after that one or not.
As we were passing Sea World it was nice to see the tower lit up finally. I don't know if that means it is now open for business or as the driver said, it was for a private function.
We had quite a wait for the bus to arrive that was taking us to Mexico so I took a few more photo's around the harbour. The USS Midway, a commissioned carrier from WWII until Desert Storm is now a permanent fixture in the harbour and has been turned into a museum. It still has the planes and choppers on deck.
Our driver is Mexican born but has lived in San Diego since he was 6 yrs old. The guy was definitely in his 60s but spoke like he'd only arrived in SD yesterday. Sometimes he was very hard to understand, and as he was giving us the commentary his voice lowered quite a lot which made it even harder, even with a microphone one guy at the back asked a couple of times if he could turn the volume up or put the mic closer to his mouth. I was sitting directly behind the driver so I could understand those at the back having trouble.
Before we left the harbour he gave us the run down on what to expect of the day out. As we are heading across the border, it was interesting to see the difference in the traffic going into Mexico and the traffic returning to the states. You'll see it in the photo's. Our first stop in Mexico was Tijuana, where those alighting the bus would have from 9.30 to 3.30 to wander the shops. Those not alighting the bus were going on to Ensanada, further south, down the coast, where lunch was included at a restaurant and an approx 2 hours to wander the shops. If any of us that had only booked for Tijuana wanted to stay on and see more we could at a small cost of $34.00 which would include our lunch fee.
Now I'm thinking I've got 2 options here, what would you say if I asked you which I should do?
1 - Get off in Tijuana and wander the shops for about 6 hours.
2 - Stay on the bus, see more of Mexico, have a nice lunch and wander the shops for about 2 hours.
I heard every single one of you yell "2, TAKE 2", and under your breaths "keep her away from the shops."
Of course I heeded your advice and took option 2 and I am so glad I did. It was an interesting drive through the towns and down the coast. It was very obvious where the poor and the not so poor lived. Mexico is starting to clean up some areas bit by bit and are building low rent apartments, not that that will help those that have no money at all, but at least it's a start.
We passed through 3 toll gates, the money from which is used for the improvements of the roads. They say that way they are only taxing the people that are using the roads. It was also interesting to see a military check point on the way, not that they seemed to be doing much but apparently it's like a random breathalizer, they are looking for arms being brought into Mexico.
There was a bathroom and leg stretch stop at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, and time to wander out the back down to the beach Rosarito where we were told the beach was beautiful, white sand etc. You be the judge when you the photo's of my feet standing on it. The driver also stopped at a lookout for us to see the view of the ocean. You will notice some rings in the water, they are fish farms, breeding blue tail tuna. The small boats (they looked small from 1,000ft above sea level) are out there feeding the tuna.
After Rosarito we carried on down to Ensanada where lunch really was good. I tried the driver's recommendation of fish and mango. It was pretty darn good.
After we left Ensanada we stopped back in Tijuana to pick up another group of people that had done a half day trip there, before heading back to the border and having to go through screening with the US border security. The driver had warned us that we might have a long wait getting through, as you will see by the photo's there is a lot of traffic crossing, and a good guess would be a 7pm return to the harbour for our bus back to the hotel. We followed all his instructions and were across the border by 5.45. He congratulated us all on being prepared and making it easy for him to get us through. I don't know if you will be able to see in any of the photo's, but there are street vendors that wander between the cars selling anything from flowers to huge rugs. I guess they figure you can't run away from them stuck in that traffic jam.
Oh, and on the way back from Ensanada it was interesting to see the council workers seem to be the same the world over, complete with broom to lean on. There was one stretch of road that was being resurfaced. We also passed Fox studios where Aladdin and Titanic were filmed, amongst others most probably, but they were the two the driver mentioned.
On the way back to the hotel we went down Mile of Cars Way - an interesting name for a road, but I figure it must be full of car yards considering we could see one as we crossed the intersection, but the road did bend so I don't know if there were more car yards after that one or not.
As we were passing Sea World it was nice to see the tower lit up finally. I don't know if that means it is now open for business or as the driver said, it was for a private function.
After dropping a few people off at their hotels I was in my room by 7.20, with just a small bag of souvenirs.
I apologize for the reflection in some of the photo's but that's the price for taking photo's out of a moving bus window.
I apologize for the reflection in some of the photo's but that's the price for taking photo's out of a moving bus window.
