Friday, July 14 — Ensenada
Get insurance at Baja Bound, get gas, cross border, drive toll roat to Ensenada. Check-in to Best Western, El Cid, room 505.
Walk to ATM. Then walk to Tacos Fenix. Have three fish tacos. Walk along malecon, to park with vendors an water fountain. Walk to view point overlooking the marina.
In the evening, we grab a mezcal at Las Kawas bar, with a table overlooking the street, with great people watching, and people watching us. We then walk to Quiscal, and have another drink. In a back street we find a DJ playing latin music at La Carreta so we enter, buy a Tecate, and dance. We find Sr. Poblano Taqueria at grab cabeza and asada tacos. We then head to Cantina Hudssong’s and enjoy an ice-cold Tecate Lite. (This is the way to drink it... at 35°. Takon Machine is now playing thier rock-infused cumbia at Quiscal, so we pay the $50, and enjoy their wonderful, dancy music. I am an insta-fan. Walk back to hotel and an awesome funk band playing; we can hear it from our room, from our bed. Great!
Saturday, July 15 — Valle de Guadalupe
Other notes:
Decantos Vinicola (end here for epic views; open unitl 7p, order food before 6p, great pizza. No res needed.)
Try and visit these other wineries too: Casa de Piedra (sparkling wine; need to reserve, Bruma (great desgin; need to reserve), Magoni (simpler space but a nice environment), JC Bravo (rustic and wonderful wines), Viñas de Garza (beautiful spot and solid wines), Las Nubes (same), Vinesterra (Oldie but goodie), El Cielo (hotel area), Vinos cruz (small winery but may have bubbly, referred by Piedra, becuase they were full), Wine Factory (also has sparkling wine; bigger; makes wine for others), Vena Cava (“The hippest winery in Mexico"), Adobe Guadalupe (Beautiful Vineyard, Hacienda-style Inn, and Azteca horse breeding)
Vinos Pijoan - they have a guesthouse; Vinos Martlot - Italian. Guesthouse for ~250/night, 1bd; ~350/night, 2 bd;
Other hotel recs: Hotel Coral Y Marina (Ensenada, 4.7) El Cielo (4.6), Boutique Hotel (4.1), Hotel Andana (4.9),
Evening chill time, then back to Cantina Hudssong’s, where I try their margarita. History says the margarita wsa invented in this bar, and even if that’s a stretch, it is commonly accepted this is one of the earliest recipes known. The drink is simply, just fresh lime juice, well tequila, and a local Cointreau version called Naranja Orange Liqueur, all on ice. Yum. On the way home, for some reason I stop at Ojos Negros Taqueria and grab another cerveza.
Sunday, July 16 — Ensenada
Check out. Walk to La Cevicheria and order 7 mares soup, De La casa ceviche, Chipotle camarón taco, 2 fish tacos, and mango mezcal and mango margarita.
Drive to El Trailero and take a cabeza, asada taco. We wait around for the fish guy to open, and each have a meiko fish taco.
Saturday, July 22 — Tijuana
We take the Blue Line down to the USA/Mexico border, and pass through Pedestrian East and into Mexico. We walk over the Tijuana River, and through the Mercado Artesania/Jorge Ramirez where lots of neat souvenirs are on sale. We then stumble upon Tacos Varios El Tigre Toño, and I have a chili relleno tacos (with beans, rice) as well as a pastor taco. Zara arders the chicken mole taco which is out of this world. She also gets a jamaica agua fresca. We make our way over to Hotel Caesar’s on Av. Revolución, drop $107, and check into room 31, on the second floor. Zara chills for a bit, so I wander over to the Zona Norte, and check out the scene. There are shellfish vendors, selling clams, oysters and other seafood that seems to have been sitting out in the heat and sun all day. I also notice several very sketchy facial tatoo dudes wandering around; they look the part for a TV show. And in between all the stuff are the many girls, idly standing around, waiting for their next trick. I walk be the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club, loop around Primer Callejón Coahuila, and then head back to the hotel, happy I was not abducted.