Saturday Dec 31, 2022 - Tijuana to Ensenada

 

A good sleep last night after all of the walking on Friday. Today we drive down the coast to Ensenada. Jake and Nath live in the section of Tijuana called Playa de Tijuana (Beach of Tijuana) which is 2 blocks from the beach (of course) and about 6 blocks from the border wall. They have coffee shops, restaurants, a really nice grocery store and a Walmart within walking distance and far anough away from downtown Tijuana where it is not crazy busy. Their side street is quiet as is most of the neighborhood. They have a 2 month rental and have already looked at a whole house rental for the same price. They are halfway through the two months so stay tuned.

We drove south on the “40 peso highway” which is a nice smooth road that goes all the way to La Paz (24 hours away). The first 20 minutes of the road is rough until the first 40 peso ($2) toll both. We only needed to go 1.5 hours to get to Ensenada. The first half of the trip was lots of seaside housing being built from single homes to high rise towers. We saw signs for homes/units starting at $269K.

Ensenada is clean and relaxed compared to Tijuana. They have a cruise ship dock and marina, and the city is set up for tourism. Lots of tchachkas for sale and lots of coffee and food for sale. We had breakfast/lunch at a Venezuelan restaurant which was great. I can’t tell you what we ordered but it was good.

Jake and Nath took us the long way home which took us inland a bit on a wiggly 2 laner through pastures and horses and windy mountain roads. Then back on the 40 peso highway after leaving the mountain. We stopped in Puerto Nuevo closer to Tijuana, which was kind of gross tourism, with the street full of barkers trying to get you to park in front of their overpriced restaurants. Kind of creepy. Then we stopped in another little town and wiggled down some back streets to the beach. We climbed down the dirt path to the beach and did a short walk until we realized the tide was coming in and the beach was disappearing. So back in the car and back home. We walked to the beach and then north to the border wall where there is an international peace park with Mexican families doing an evening stroll. 

Then on to the Calimex grocery store to get some food to celebrate New Year’s Eve. We were impressed with the really nice modern store with lots of shoppers and shelves full of all kinds of Mexican brands. We picked up a bunch of stuff and walked back to the AirB&B. Eric, the rental units’ handyman, stopped by and got the water heater working so we had the chance to get cleaned up. We laid out some goodies, drank something bubbly, and enjoyed our last catch up before we go back across the border in the morning.