Leaving Tijuana
On March 5th, 2021, I woke up in Tijuana last time to head further south in Baja California. It was a Black Sea Storm release date of a song called “Ayrıldım Ben,” one of the singles I recorded in Hermosillo with Kacho Olivares before coming to Baja California.
Looking at the calendar, I suddenly realized that I had left San Diego for good on March 8th, 2011. Here I was 10 years later, almost day for day in Tijuana, digitally releasing a single album about leaving a place. I had come to Tijuana intending to have a farewell with San Diego, but the way dates ended up lining up was pure coincidence. Perhaps this was a message sent from the universe? If it is, I don’t know how to interpret it.
I smoothly transited from the beach area of Tijuana to a small bus terminal downtown. Having access to WIFI at the rental place allowed me to call an UBER. My goal was to explore Baja California. During my time spent in San Diego, I would hear people talk about Ensenada. It sounded like a perfect spot for San Diegans to go spend the weekend or national holidays there. Although I lived over a decade in San Diego, the opportunity never presented itself for me to visit Ensenada. Hearing the name of Ensenada over and over again created a positive image of the place in my head. Now it was time for me to see if reality will live up to the hype.
Ensenada
It was a relatively short ride from downtown Tijuana to Ensenada compared to my previous bus ride from Guaymas Sonora to TJ. Usually, in Mexico, when I travel intercity, the bus drops me at a legitimate terminal. It allows me to feel the surroundings and logistics before diving into the city I am visiting.
On this occasion, the bus dropped me in the middle of downtown Ensenada on a super busy sidewalk. Since I did not have a cellphone plan, this wasn’t an ideal situation for me. I had no chance to find free WIFI, and there was no cab waiting for potential customers. As I started walking with all my belongings on the streets of Ensenada, an old man came up to me asking if I needed a ride. I first thought he was perhaps a homeless person. He didn’t seem to have his act 100% together. I decided to follow him to see if he really owned a vehicle.
After walking half a block, we’ve made it to his car. He was indeed a cab driver with a car. The actual vehicle was falling apart, but at least it was an official taxi. I gave the address of the room I was renting to the driver, but he did not know where it was. We both did not have phone plans. We ended up finding the house where I was going to stay the old school way by stopping pedestrians on the streets and asking them for directions. We had to ask three different groups of people to eventually gather the correct information to make it to the house.
The place I was renting was located outside of the tourist zone. A young couple had transformed their garage into an Airbnb. There was almost no daylight entering the room since the garage was only a few inches away from the main building with the exception of a small skylight roof window made out of glossy plastic. Although outside the building looked like a garage, the interior was tastefully decorated with cute touches that some Airbnbs have. I was impressed how the young couple could transform the place and generate income from their garage.
Ensenada, First Impressions
I was staying for about 20 minutes walking distance from the touristy area of Ensenada. There wasn’t much right where I lived, but some taco stands and restaurants near the main road. It wasn’t too far from the Ocean, but I did not have access to water from the neighborhood I was staying. Industrial warehouses and maritime businesses were occupying the shores. I had to walk more towards the tourist zone to get close to the water.
Ensenada did surprise me quite a bit. I was kind of expecting an authentic fisherman town. Instead, here I was feeling like being in Los Angeles. To my ear, people talked like the Latinos in LA; there were a good number of overweight people wearing US sport’s team shirts and jerseys. I would see people eating junk food all around me. The last thing I wanted to do is judge this place too early, but Ensenada did almost not feel like a Mexican city to me. The reason could simply be that I was walking around the tourist area.
As a second reference to LA, I had a similar disappointment when I visited Sunset Boulevard for the first time after arriving in the US in 1999. Everything looked cheap and low quality compared to the image I had in my head before visiting Los Angeles for the first time. It was the day I truly understood the power of media and marketing.
My first conclusion was that maybe Ensenada was a retirement place for Mexican Americans. After working their asses off for decades in the US, saving some money, and gaining some weight, they moved to Ensenada to retire. For the positive preconceived image I had of Ensenada, I could not blame the media. It resulted from me hearing about it for an extended period without doing my own research on the place.
Perhaps I had already seen many of Mexico, to be impressed by Ensenada due to its lack of authenticity. No matter what, I was going to make the most out of it. This is one of the reasons I love the lifestyle I’ve been embracing for the past three and half years. Not all the places I am visiting are great, but no matter what, they create a reference point that often helps me put things in perspective, learn about life in general, and appreciate other locations even more.
The Seafood Black Market and The Port
The main attraction in Ensenada seemed to be the port and the seafood black market. There were many restrictions and measures in the port area. I was asked to put the worst type of hydro-alcoholic gel on my hands to enter the port. The chemical product looked like a green fluorescent detergent. It was irritating. I don’t see the logic behind putting this product on my hands to enter a fully open space such as a maritime port. Also, the businesses will close relatively early in this area, but not in the rest of town. A waiter working in one of the seafood restaurants at the black market told me that the port was under federal law. It is why they had stricter rules. That made me think, if the port is under federal control, under whose authority is the rest of town? Because as far as I could see, all the clubs, restaurants, massage parlors were open until late in the rest of the city.
Ensenada has the worst roads I’ve seen in Mexico.
I have to admit that the freeways in Mexico are ultra-modern and very well maintained for the most part. Now I’ve been pretty much all around the country and never had any problem with the actual freeways. When it comes to the roads inside the cities, it’s a different story, but they’ll do the job for the most part. In Ensenada, for some reason, there were huge holes randomly spread across the roads downtown. To the point where a UBER driver told me that he does not work when it rains because it gets too dangerous. I couldn’t situate Ensenada economically. It was a tourist destination with nice houses on the hills, but at the same time, the infrastructure wasn’t all that great. I had to keep in mind that it was my first time going south in Baja, California. It could just be that the region had its own socio-economic dynamics I had not experienced in other parts of the country.
Hit by Sudden Fatigue
I was initially planning on staying in Ensenada only a couple of nights and head further south in Baja California. When I got closer to the day I was supposed to leave, I started to feel even more tired than when I first arrived in town. As if all the traveling I had been doing and the two months of an intense recording session in Hermosillo got me exhausted.
Mentally a part of me is still a teenager, and I feel the same as I did when I started playing in bands, playing shows and touring. Although I think this way, there are times when reality catches up with me. The whole fasting practice was a rebirth for me, giving me plenty of confidence that I am not limited by my age. All that said, on this occasion, I did not feel like riding a bus for 22 hours to make it to La Paz right away. I decided to extend my stay one more night in Ensenada. Although I wasn’t blown away by the location, it had everything I needed. I had the most comfortable bed where I stayed, which was the most critical factor in my decision-making.
My first impressions did not change much.
During the entire time I stayed in Ensenada, I explored the port and the downtown area. It did not change my first impressions much. The highlight of my stay was the delicious seafood dishes I was able to experience in the black market area.
After recharging my batteries for an extra day, on March 8th, 2021, I was ready to ride the bus until La Paz. I’ve made it OK from the garage Airbnb to a small bus terminal downtown avoiding all the holes on the road during the ride. I was excited to leave Ensenada and discover the rest of Baja California.
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