We are off. Lachlan & I are in Ensenada, Mexico.
On the 26th of August we made some very sorry adios’s to our buenos amigos and spent 13 hours in the air to LAX.
The flight was quite ok. The entertainment system was good and there was reasonable leg room way back in the last row of the aeroplane. The food was even edible.
I was lucky enough to sit next to Luis, a cool dude from Mexico City who had been living in Melbourne for the past 2 years or so doing his MBA. Thanks to him we now have mas lugares y cosas to see in Mexico.
After the 1-2 hours in Immigration at LAX we managed to navigate the LA pubic transport system to Venice Beach and crashed at a hostel for the night (after a nice 6 pack or two of Fat Tyre beer). The next day we bussed it into Downtown LA, found the Greyhound bus terminal and proceeded to spend 4 hours or so in some heavy traffic on the way down to San Diego. Luckily the bus had free WIFI.
San Diego turned out to be a really nice place. We stayed 2 nights out on Ocean Beach at the hostel there and met some cool peeps from Finland & Canada and on the 2nd night we befriended some locals who took us to their place for some beers and were even kind enough to drive us back to the hostel in the back of their truck.
San Diego is a really easy city to get around and seems a world away from LA. The people are just as friendly but there aren’t nearly as many people trying to out crazy each other. Downtown (Gas Lamp) area seems to be where all the action is. Balboa park was cool, as well as the harbour that is home to some retired warships
From San Diego we took the trolley/train down to San Ysidro and crossed the border to Tijuana. Probably the easiest border crossing I have ever made. No immigration. No stamps. But it looks like we were meant to get some sort of card & stamp so will have to sort that out tomorrow here in Ensenada. This was our first attempt at speaking Español. “Dos boletos a Ensenada por favor”.
Ahh Ensenada. This is our first proper taste of Mexico. We are staying at “The Ensenada Backpacker”, a great little place run by a lovely chica by the name of Gabi. This is our second night here and I must say I am really enjoying Mexico so far. We’ve had some great tacos, met some friendly Mexican folks, washed some underpants and I bought a pair of pantalones.
Tacos so far have been about $12MXN ($1USD) and are muy delicioso! I am really going to enjoy the food here.
It looks like Ensenada has a few things to check out, then from here we might try to somehow make our way to Sierra San Pedro Martir Nation Park but it looks like public transport is going to be a little difficult.
Photos and hopefully the first Planet Kapow Mexico episode 01 video to come soon.
¡Hasta Luego!
31.860405-116.615888
