Nosotros Llegamos en Ensenada

Islands of Los Coronados

Marina Coral - Ensenada

We departed Alta (upper) California and arrived in Ensenada on Sunday, October 21st, an eight hour cruise from San Diego.  We had calm 1-2 foot seas with a light 7 knot wind from astern and passed the lovely islands of Los Coronados just south of the U.S./Mexican border.  Heading toward a blue sky, we continued south 4-5 miles off shore along the Baja (lower) California coastline and arrived in Ensenada around 4:30pm.  We stopped at the fuel dock upon arrival to top off the tanks with 320 gallons of diesel fuel.  The gas prices here are much more reasonable than in the States.  We paid $3.12 per gallon for diesel in Ensenada instead of the going rate of $5 per gallon in San Diego – a big difference when you have a fuel capacity of 700 gallons!  After fueling up, we checked-in at Marina Coral and paid for our moorage slip and provided the requisite proof of insurance, including the Mexican liability insurance which we had purchased on-line earlier.  In the morning we took the marina shuttle into town to clear customs and paid an agent to help us through the process, definitely worth the modest $25 fee for his assistance.  Clearing customs for boaters in Mexico involves obtaining not only a Tourist Card (VISA) for each individual but also clearance papers for the boat, of course all written in Spanish, including the Temporary Import Permit and multiple copies of the Crew List – the process took approximately two hours to complete.  We were then shuttled back to the marina where we relaxed over lunch.  That afternoon, we took a taxi ride back into town to purchase a TelCel Banda Ancha (USB modem), which is a small device the size of a memory stick that plugs into the computer for internet access in Mexico.  An account is created for the modem with a prepaid amount of gigabytes for internet access; additional gigabytes can be purchased on-line as needed.  The Banda Ancha modem operates through the TelCel cell phone towers; these cell towers are located in the larger towns of Mexico.  Bottom line, it was a successful day with two important "must do” items checked off the list.  Java accomplished her tasks the following day.  She went for a walk to meet some other perros (dogs) and had no problem with the universal dog language of sniff and bark and is happy to report that she successfully marked her territory in Mexico as well as in Canada and Alaska on previous trips.

Downtown Ensenada

Java Claiming her Territory

Java's Friends - Neighboring Boat