Ensenada is a costal town and the third largest city in Baja California. It is very popular as a cruise line stop. Luckily we took our tour on a day when there were no ships in town or it would have been quite crowded. Most of our group were signed up for the tour and so we had two large buses. Our bus had a great tour guide, Sofia and her bus driver and husband Gabriel. She gave us lots of good information, including history of the city as well as places to go.
We started our tour at the Riveria del Pacifico, the social, civic and cultural center. It is a former casino built in 1930. It was closed and fell into disrepair but was restored by the federal and then state of Baja government in the late 70's. It is a well used building, for weddings, conventions and parties, and various classed. There is a library and museum. They also have a small bar, which some of us took advantage of with some delicious margaritas. It's all about the margarita in Mexico :). The gardens are beautiful with geraniums and bougainvilleas.
I loved the inside with its inlaid tiles, murals, chandeliers and painted ceilings.
The stained glass doors leading to the Bar Andaluz were beautiful as was the bar and another mural above the bar.
We drove through more of the town23to the Plaza Civica or Three Heads Park. It is called Three Heads because there are golden busts of three of Mexic's most famous and revered heros, Miquel Hidalgo, Benito Juarez and Venustiano Carranza.
We walked from the Park to the Market Place and Fish Market. The market had rows of produce, cheeses, and even an ice cream stand. We got some wine honey, recommended by Sofia, several cheeses and some mangoes, limes and cilantro which I will later use to make a mango salsa i which I ended up adding some of the tequila we bought in one of the liquor stores near Estero Beach.
The Fish Market, or Mercado de Mariscos, is the largest fish market in Ensenada and has more varieties of fish than you can image. By the market there are many open air restaurants where there are vocal salesperson vying for your business. We stopped at one for some fish tacos and cervezas, joining Alan and Ellie, friends from our last two trips with the group. We then went to the fish market and bought a bunch of shrimp, swordfish that they cut in thick slices of the whole fish, and some smoked tuna. We stepped out of the market onto the Malecon, which is a boardwalk by the water with lots of stalls selling all types of items.
Did you note the lovely blue skies. What a nice day for walking around and seeing the sights. The views from the bus were nice as well.
We headed back to the resort, where we took it easy until our 4 o'clock happy hour.
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