Precious Memories: Ensenada, Mexico

Ensenada, Mexico--Carnival Inspiration Day 3, January 22, 2014

We discussed about what we should do in Ensenada and we agreed that walking around town and enjoy a relaxing day would be the best for us. We just wanted to 'feel' the city and take in whatever comes around for the day. The port area is very nice, comparing to what I remember 20 years ago. They did provide shuttle services to town for $2pp each way but we decided to walk. It was a beautiful morning and the walk didn't seem that dreadful. I was stopped by some officials with a sniffing dog to check my bag as we were walking towards the port exit, probably thinking that I have food brought off the ship. Sorry, nothing! I guess my Disney World bag was too big and eye-catching for them to pass up.

The walk was well designed and marked, all we had to do was to follow the path.

Kept looking back at the ship.

Made a left turn here on the big highway. It is better to cross the street and walk on the other side.

Some women and kids were trying to sell their wares as we walked towards the street.

The city is actually quite pretty and clean.

We walked around a bit and went in some stores to check out their stuff, but nothing was of interest to us.

It was still early so the town was not busy.

There were two food stands that we wanted to check out, one was a stand that sells seafood cocktail and was on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show. The other one was La Guerrerense that was on Anthony Bourdain's. We did not have a specific location for the seafood cocktail place, and thought this stand could be it. The name resembled what was shown on TV. We are still not sure up to this day if we have found the right place.

The seafood cocktail place that we found.

This seafood cocktail was great, with lots of seafood (shrimp, oyster, clams, etc.) in a delicious juice mixture. Not cheap. A regular cup is $8 and this large cup was $14. It was very refreshing, but after we finished the cocktail then we started worrying if we should be eating street food like that. Fortunately, we were OK.

After the seafood cocktail, we went to look for La Guerrerense, which is a seafood tostada stand. This time we just had to look for the streets where it is located. We did not know how it works and just watched how they operated for a little bit. People just ordered their tostada, ate, and then pay. So we joined in and ordered what we wanted.

Uni sounded like a good choice, so we ordered the uni tostadas. It turned out that it didn't taste anything like the usual uni (sea urchin) that we are familiar with. All I tasted was a very spicy mash. I put some mango sauce on it trying to tone it down with no avail. Then we tried a seafood one and a fish one and they were excellent! I believe they were like $1.75 a piece. You can ask the guy to put some avocado pieces on top and that would make it even better with no extra charge.

Then we saw some people ordering the clam thing and we also ordered one for each of us. They opened the fresh clam, took out and chopped the meat, then mixed the meat with a salsa type of mixture. Very delicious!

The owner

Final product of the clam thing. Yummy! Sorry, don't know the official name. It was $2.15 well spent.

(I could be a little off on the prices, but shouldn't be too far off.)

After enjoying the food, then you go and pay. Don't know how they keep track but they did!

A popular food stand.

Christian found out that they have been around the world.

This is where they could be found.

We were going to get back on the ship after this food adventure.

As we were walking back to the ship, this building caught our attention and we decided to check it out. It is a museum, right across the street from the port entrance. It only cost $2pp to visit this place but we found that the whole time we were there it was just the three of us. I asked the lady if they have done any publicity with the port agency and she said they were working on it. It is a shame that with so many people coming through the port that this place is still unknown. This is really an interesting place with a lot of information about the history of Baja California.

Looking down from the museum to the casino downstairs.

Beautiful wood-carved ceiling of the casino.

After visiting the museum, we went outside and around to the entrance of the 'casino'.

This is like the ballroom.

The bar area of the casino.

This used to be a casino. Unlike the one in Catalina, this one was for gambling.

Some portraits painted on the ceiling.

Another angle of the ballroom.

Such a beautiful place!

There is also a small outdoor market/shopping area in the back of this building where they have stalls selling the usual souvenirs to tourists. Our tablemates said their tour took them there to shop but they did not get to see the museum.

After our visit to the museum, we decided to go back to the ship. We had a good day in Ensenada. Unless a person has mobility issues, I found that it was very pleasant just walking from port to town.