Continued from yesterday… after we toured the chocolate museum and tasted the free samples, we stocked up on chocolate (chocolate is an important passage food, especially in rough seas).
We headed south to the Our Lady of Guadelupe Parish, which was a block inland. It was built in the 1930s, and probably the most unique thing about this church is that there is a crown on top of the middle tower instead of a cross. However, there are crosses on the smaller two towers that flank it on each side.
Since we had some time to kill before La Iguana opened for dinner, we decided to check out the new Naval Museum on the malecon. The admission fee was $3.00 for adults and $2.50 for students.
We started the day off with morning chores. Eric was convinced that there was still kelp or a line caught in the propellor, but none of us were particularly eager to get in the water to look.
Eric attached an underwater video camera on a boat hook and stuck it in the water. Eric was vindicated when the footage showed that there was something tangled in the propellor!
Sunrise on Thursday, December 12 (taken from aboard Kosmos):
Eric changed the engine oil first thing in the morning, before it got hot. He also tightened a hose connection for the engine’s oil drain, where a slight oil leak had developed. Then we took Kosmos over to the fuel dock to top off the fuel tanks.
After returning to our slip, we decided to get lunch at the Iguana’s Garden Sanctuary, as the name piqued our interest. It was located near the port captain’s office. Much to our disappointment, when we arrived at the address, we saw it was a condo complex with no sign of any kind of garden or restaurant.
The closest restaurant was on the waterfront at the north end of the boardwalk that surrounded the protected basin, so we ate there.
Monday, December 2, 2024 — There were two main reasons why we usually went to Marina Coral instead of Maina Cruiseport whenever we were in Ensenada. The first was that Coral has a fuel dock, and they used to offer a discount on fuel if you stayed in their marina. However, Coral no longer offers this perk. In fact, it is currently cheaper to buy fuel in San Diego than in Ensenada!
The other reason is that Coral will help you with your Mexican check-in paperwork for a nominal fee. This service has paid off in spades for us in the past, especially when we needed help getting a new Temporary Import Permit (TIP) after our first one had expired (note to cruisers: Always make sure to renew your TIP prior to expiring. Getting another new one issued on the same boat can be a nightmare).
Nowadays, Cruiseport offers a check-in service, too. Between the lack of fuel discount and the fact that we can get check-in services at Cruiseport, we may choose to go to Cruiseport in the future. While Coral is very nice, it’s also pricey, has serious surge issues, and is on the outskirts of town. Of course, Cruiseport has issues, too, particularly with soot from the cruise ships, noise and touts. You have to pick your poison.
Yesterday, the marina had told us to be at the marina office at 0930 to do the check-in. After they packaged up all of our paperwork for the authorities, they shuttled us into town, where all three offices (customs, immigration and port captain) are conveniently housed in one building.
This was the busiest we’d ever seen it. We had to wait over an hour for our turn, but once we were served, the paperwork took the typical 45-minutes to process.
Once we were done with that part of the paperwork process, we celebrated by having lunch at our beloved El Rey Sol. As always, the food was wonderful.
Wednesday, July 26 — Eric and Keith were both pretty tired from yesterday’s hike, so we decided to rent bikes and spend the day leisurely riding around Yosemite Valley with Greg and Heath. Greg and Heath had brought their own bikes with them on this trip; they rode their bikes over to the Ahwanee hotel and we agreed to meet them there.
On the day that we’d arrived in Yosemite, we found out that bikes can only be rented for the day. The rental place opened at 0800 and the bikes must be returned within 8-hours. We walked over to Curry Village and arrived at the bike rental place 2-minutes after they opened. We were dismayed to see it was a long line.
At 0815, the first party was done with their waivers/paying. We realized that at this pace, we’d been in line for well over an hour. We gave up on bikes and caught the shuttle bus to Yosemite Village, then walked the approximately 1/2 mile to the Ahwanee Hotel. Along the way, we passed a bike rental shop in Yosemite Village with no line.
