07.31.08
Viva Mexico
After going jet skiing at Mission Bay again yesterday, I had a fun time driving an ATV around on the beach today. “But in San Diego that’s not allowed, is it?” you ask. True, but let me start at the beginning. A friend and I took a bus trip to Mexico today. We went down the west coast of Baja California on the scenic highway 1 and stopped in three towns just south of San Diego, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tijuana (where I had been before maybe about a year ago).
Our first stop was Rosarito, a small touristy town just south of Tijuana. It’s really only famous for the Rosarito Beach Hotel there and apart from a nice pier there’s not much to see.
Another maybe 45 minutes further south we arrived at Ensenada, a port town where some cruise ships from San Diego stop over sometimes.
Ensenada kind of reminded me of Tijuana in some ways. It had a main shopping street bustling with activity and people trying to get you to buy their stuff or eat at their restaurant. A few blocks away from that street you can find a much quieter atmosphere where the “normal” people live.
Here are some of the more interesting things I found on the shopping street, such as horse shit. Also available are the new flavors donkey shit or bull shit or real shit. In case you were wondering, those are packs of cigarettes 😉
Or how about you buy some superviagra? It’s only 5 dollars. I’m not kidding. Just like in TJ, there are a lot of pharmacies in Ensenada that sell prescription drugs for a lot, and I mean a lot, less than in the US. Of course, they only sell generic drugs, but in the end it’s the same stuff.
In the center of Ensenada they have this huge Mexican flag. According to our bus driver it’s the largest of its kind in all of Mexico with a width of 50 meters. Pretty impressive.
The funnest part of the trip was definitely our hour out on the beach with ATVs or quad bikes. After getting used to the vehicle, we started doing jumps, swerves, circles, or we just tried to go as fast as we could on the beach. It was good fun and the beach they have there is perfect for ATVs. There’s a race track behind the beach, then some sand dunes with some premade tracks for ATVs with lots of bumps, and the pretty flat beach itself where you can really rev up the engine. The best part was the price. It was only $30 for an hour.
Our final stop on the way back was Tijuana. Just like the last time I had been here, I didn’t really like it that much. It’s a noisy and dirty place where they paint donkeys with the colors of zebras, put them in front of a stupid looking backdrop, make tourists wear a sombrero and charge them for the picture they take together with donkey, backdrop and stupid tourist. The only interesting thing they had this time was a beer festival at the beginning of Avenida Revolucion, the main shopping street of Tijuana.
All in all, an awesome day in Mexico. I’ll have to check how expensive the ATVs are over here in the states and maybe rent one for going out into the desert some time 🙂
