Dolphins and Barracuda

Buenos Dias, Tardes and Noches
It’s been a while since our last update, so we need to do some catching up.

The weather here is very predictable.  Everyday/every hour is between 18 and 22 degrees celcius.  I hardly ever rains.  It rained once a few weeks ago for a few minutes in the morning and we guess it rained last night or early this morning cause there was some evidence (not much).  Our bike seats were wet and there were a few wet spots on the docks.

It is overcast (more foggy than cloudy) at the moment, just like every morning.  It usually clears up by nine, but in June, the fog bank sticks around a bit longer and it sometimes doesn’t go away until one pm or so.  They call it “June Gloom”.  Next month, it will clear up and get a bit hotter.

We continue to make lots of friends here at the marina as well as through the cruiser’s net.  We recently attended a party held by some cruisers who just moved into a house here in Ensenada.  The house is awesome, its got 3 bedrooms, but the master has a sitting room bigger than our bedrooms back home.  The backyard is all ceramic tiles, no mowing necessary.  They rent it furnished (nicely to boot) for about $760/month.  Not bad.  It really is a lot cheaper to live here than in the US.

We’ve made a few Mexican friends, including our new sometimes-captain, Jesus.

Here is a video of our first outing.  We’re still honing our video-taking skill, so sorry for the amateurishness of it.  We’ve just ordered a new camera, which should be a lot better.  We keep losing our videos on this one, it thinks it’s out of memory.  Oh well, it was cheap. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpBbTVUtPdk

We went fishing for the first time yesterday.  The fish weren’t biting much, but just before we returned to the marina, we caught one.  A nice 5 pound, or so, barracuda.  Here is a picture of the fish.  We had it for dinner last night.  Yummy.

While we were out, we saw dolphins.  This time, we caught them on video.  Sorry for the quality, but it really is impossible to see what the camera is recording at the time…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPhfXxa0Vvs

We’ve been working on the boat, getting little things fixed or tuned up.  We blew one of our fenders, so will be looking for a replacement.  Everyone here tells us we need a second anchor, so we’ll be looking for one of those too.  Our friend Jesus is helping us learn the lay of the land, so to speak.  He showed us where we can get second hand anything.  He says it would be good to shop there for anchors and fenders and fishing lures.  We’re planning on going there this afternoon with our friends from our dock.

Tomorrow we’re heading back into to San Diego to get some groceries and some books for us to read on weather, or the Baha and to get some planning guides and cruising books, etc.  We’re also going to stock up on $2 wine.  Jesus tells us we can trade a bottle for 4-5 lobsters farther south.  He’s letting us know what is good for trading.  So far we know to bring used clothing, filet knives, sharpening stones and any toys or candies for the bambinos.

Got to go now, so we can load the videos up and get this posted before we get busy again…

Adios Amigos.

The Latest From Ensenada

The Latest From Ensenada

Today is Thursday.  Normally, on Thursdays, we attend the so-called “yacht club” meeting.  It is really just a collection of cruisers from our marina and the other one in town, “Cruise Port”.  We meet at a restaurant that does not have a liquor license, so we bring our own, usually wine.  It costs us 20 pesos each (around $1.70) for what we believe is to pay for the owner’s license for the night.  Not sure about that, but who cares, its cheap.  Most of us will order dinner there, so its all good for the owner, who just happens to be American.  The food is decent, American food, except for the pizza.  We’ve never seen pizza like that before.  We think its just pizza toppings on a giant tostada.  There is a little guy who always comes along while we’re eating selling DVDs.  We usually buy a few from him.  Only 20 pesos each.  Again, cheap.  Today, we’re going to skip the yacht club.

We returned to San Diego on Tuesday.  Getting into the US was difficult again, probably because we drove (and the customs officer thought we were carrying over $10000, even though we told him “NO”).  We got pulled over again.  It was an hour and a half delay we could have done without, but we got through.  Every customs officer tells us to make sure we carry all our papers with us.  We have a big blue folder with all the papers they could possibly want in it.  We purchased some new lines and some fishing equipment, as well as some groceries.  The Mexican border is a joke and getting through is a breeze.  You drive through it and when they point at you to pull over, you still keep driving.

We also purchased our Mexican fishing licenses.  So, everyone, that means if you come to visit, you will need a fishing license if we go out, whether you want to fish or not.  That is the rule here in Mexico.  Everyone on the boat must have a license.  A license isn’t expensive.  Its around $5 for a day, $20 for a week, or $45 for a year.

The Baha 500 came and went.  There was quite a lot of excitement around the whole thing.  It was something to see with the trucks jumping off ramps and skidding in the dirt close to hitting viewers. We got some video for you. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTYGE5AAHtc

There was also a mushroom festival in town a few days ago.  That was fun too.  It was similar to other type festivals where we purchased a set of tickets, which we traded for food and wine, etc. samples.

There is supposed to be a Paella festival coming up, but we heard its been sold out.

Yesterday, we lost Sharon’s bike.  Early in the morning, we discovered a flat, but maybe, because of the flat, the bike was unstable and fell into the water.  Or, maybe someone took it.  We reported it to the marina office, who called security and they checked all around the marina as well as looked at the video from the cameras.  They said they’d have their divers check around the boat in the morning, in case it did fall in.

Well guess what?  It did fall in the water, the divers found it, and brought it back up for us.   We were advised to hose it off right away, so Sharon got the hose going, and promptly made the bike fall back into the water.  Yep, the flat tire did make it unstable.  We got the divers to bring it up again (for a nice tip) and the bike is now at the shop, being repaired (the flat) and cleaned up.

Stay tuned for better quality video as we ordered a better camera with 45x zoom capability