Tacos, tacos, tacos!

We entered Mexico at some point in the middle of the night, during a 15 hour, overnight-sail from San Diego to Ensenada. Nothing of note happened. In fact, it was our usual, boring, motor-all-the-way sort of sail, but it didn’t matter to me – we were in Mexico!

The morning was spent dealing with all the customs paperwork, none of which we personally dealt with. We just stood around while our escort from the marina did all the paperwork, shuffled us from window to window in some random building a few miles down the road, and prompted us to whip out the credit card when appropriate. He took care of everything – literally everything, which was a blessing considering how tired we both were after yet another overnight sail.

Back in San Diego another Baba 35 anchored beside us early in our stay. We made sure to pop over to say hi, and invited the couple over for an evening of drinks and socializing. They were great people and we hit it off enough that we buddy boated into Ensenada. Unfortunately, there were staying in a marina on the other side of town, but we still got together for a few nights before they flew off to fulfill another adventure in life. I bring these folks up for one reason; it has become our norm. Kerri and I meet up with another person or a couple every few weeks. We get to know them, have a great time, build a friendship, and sooner rather then later- part ways. A few – not many – we will see again, but the friendships usually continue for years, online at least. It is just the life of a nomad – whirlwind friendships with the honeymoon phase only. And during our almost three week stay in Ensenada, we would meet and befriend another couple too, who we are currently loosely buddy boating with.

The length of time – three weeks – spent in Ensenada was due mostly to waiting on some final packages being shipped in. Some that didn’t make it to us in time in San Diego were being forwarded here. The customs clearance process added at least a week to each package. Another we ordered and shipped only once we arrived here was our new Star Link satellite internet, Yes! We would finally have internet in every anchorage we chose. No longer would we need to pace our travels based on cellular connectivity, just point the dish and poof, fast internet.

Quickly, life here became fairly mundane. Kerri was thick into her daily work routine and I was busy running all the errands and preparing the boat for future sails. We didn’t bother to do any grocery shopping until our final days in port, as eating out was less expensive – as long as we got a few blocks from the tourist trap area – and we fully indulged. Of course, Kerri’s choices in risky tacos did end up biting her as she got food poisoning once (so far, I will keep track), which only reaffirms my choice to never eat seafood.

The only variable in our day was whether there was one or two cruise ships in port – literally, right beside us. Not only do they bring thousands of passengers flooding into the streets around the marina, they – the ships – are loud. From all the announcements the ship crew make, to the scheduled dance-party and on-deck-movies, it was rare to have a peaceful day in Ensenada. Nevertheless, we were both happy to be here.