Ensenada is about a 2 hour drive from San Diego, and we were fools for not visiting there long before we got Kosmos. Ensenada is safe, easy, and friendly. It is a nice get-a-way with very reasonable prices compared with the USA.

We spent most of our time aboard Kosmos either underway or working on various boat projects, but we were able to venture out a few times and see things. Here are some pictures:

Here are views of the city. For perspective notice the flag in the last picture. We have featured it in a previous blog post.

Here are a couple monuments near the harbor, and a church down the street.

Open or closed? This relates to something else we saw. While we never took a picture of it, there is a stretch of road just outside of town. On one side it has the speed limit as 40 kph. Directly across the street was another sign that said 40 mph! Like the rest of traffic we went about 60 mph.

We stayed at Cruiseport Marina and it was great. The other recommended choice is Coral. Here is our take on the pros and cons between the two:

• Cruiseport
  • Pros: No surge. Walking distance to town for food, shopping, and other tourist activities.
  • Cons: Cruise ship and port proximity deposits soot. No pool. Sometimes there are red tides that do not smell too good.
• Coral
  • Pros: Full self contained hotel resort (pool, restaurant, bar, exercise room, massages, etc.). Easier check-in to Mexico.
  • Cons: Surge at various times is strain on lines and fenders, double lines and fenders suggested. Driving distance to town.

Security appears to be very good at both places. Cruiseport has an entry gate guarded 24 hours a day. Also there are several live aboard people that keep an eye on the boats. Ensenada is a safe place for a boat.

We have a few restaurants to recommend. Our favorite place was Los Veleros at the Corona Hotel. It has good food, is reasonably priced and is a short walk from the marina. Los Valeros has a nice breakfast. The eggs benedict was distinctly Mexican with green sauce and was great. Also they have a series of flaming deserts which are wonderful, and well as very nice entrees. Casa Del Rey Sol is a French/Mexican place that is yummy. They have an outstanding breakfast egg dish with cactus in it. It is also walking distance from the marina, but a little bit pricier than Los Veleros. On to places we had to drive to: Hotel Coral’s food was also good. Two more restaurants we liked are located side by side on the water just as you enter the outskirts of Ensenada coming from the US. One is a “fusion” restaurant called El Olivo. We don’t know the name of the other restaurant we liked, but it is inside a swanky resort 100 yards away from El Olivo. Both have good food and great views (although it is amazing the difference in exterior ambiance 100 yards can make), and both are pricier than the first three we mentioned. We discovered ordering shrimp was always a good bet. Try not to fill up on chips and salsa at any place you go, and generally the salsa is spicier than in the USA.

And here we are enjoying some food with Rosanna at Los Veleros, and then another time at Hotel Coral.

And finally we went on a pinata hunt one day for an upcoming birthday for one of Christi’s co-workers and found this fellow. We were proud we were able to talk to local people in our broken Spanish to find the pinata store. We walked pretty far inland to find the store and everyone was friendly and helpful. As we walked back to the boat with our new little friend, all the children would stare at the pinata with huge eyes and start to follow us until their mother’s pulled them back. A surprising number of adults asked us when and where the party was, invariably disappointed that the party was going to be in the States. The pinata now lives as a mascot in Christi’s office. The birthday boy liked him so much he could not bring himself to smash him open with a baseball bat.