BajaNomad - Mexicali-Ensenada Trip Report Blog Post

Mexicali-Ensenada Trip Report Blog Post

estone888 - 5-23-2011 at 09:42 AM

I'm new to this forum so I'm not sure how to post something big with pictures here. (Thanks to Gypsy Jan for having posted a Chowhound posting of mine about what I ate on the trip on this forum.) However, I have recently posted a blog about my trip, with photos, to my regular blog / website. If interested, you can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/3bullfh

Hi estone888

Gypsy Jan - 5-23-2011 at 12:19 PM

Welcome to Nomad!

Use the search feature or the FAQ feature for instructions on posting pictures. Mostly, you have to size them down.

Also, there is a very informative thread started by DavidK that, if I remember correctly, is titled "How to Post Pictures on Nomad"

Please post them here; many members post beautiful photo essays.

Cheers, GJ

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 01:16 PM

here 'tis:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=24603

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 02:26 PM

From Erics blog:

"I'm not crazy about Ensenada. It is a town that exists almost entirely to service tourists, especially the cruise ship tourists who show up in droves."
----------------------------

I guess that's the impression one could get if he never left Hussong's and the Garbage Triangle.
Ensenada is a big city with, by my loose figures, around a million inhabitants. Can't imagine what so many people would do if all of their time was spent in service to tourism....of which there is very little.

Eric, my man....you have to go and have a closer look. Allow a few days...it's large.

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by soulpatch
Isn't Ensenada that little area from the Pemex at the fish market to the little bridge by the Cultural Center? :saint:

Ohhh, hell no....there's two or three more blocks of restaurants before you hit the wide open wastelands. :lol:

mtgoat666 - 5-23-2011 at 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
From Erics blog:

"...Ensenada. It is a town that exists almost entirely to service tourists, especially the cruise ship tourists who show up in droves."

dennis:
thank you for posting that. i now know to skip the blog link, as it is apparent that the author is blind, an idiot or both.

the guy who thinks ensenada is only a cruise ship tourist trap

mtgoat666 - 5-23-2011 at 02:41 PM

from his website:

WHO THE HELL IS ERIC STONE?

I'm a second generation Los Angeleno who loves the big, sprawling, dirty urban mishmash I call home. I'm also one of the few people on the planet who loves Jakarta, Indonesia, which in its own way is similar to Los Angeles, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt—or not.

For the better part of 30 years I've worked as a writer, photographer, editor, publisher and publishing consultant. As a writer I've covered a wide range of topics, including business, economics, finance, politics, arts, culture, sports, travel and I once even wrote an advice to the lovelorn column for a bi-lingual English and Chinese fashion magazine. At the moment I'm writing books, both fiction and non-fiction, and the occasional magazine article.

I spent 11 years living in Asia, based in Hong Kong, then Jakarta, but always traveling a great deal for both work and fun.

Now I live high on a hill in Silverlake, my favorite Los Angeles neighborhood, with Eva, the woman I love. Our house is a short walk, or no more than a 25 minute drive from restaurants, markets, shops and whole communities that represent almost every country on Earth. It's a good thing I cook though because I still haven't found a really good Indonesian restaurant.

[Edited on 5-23-2011 by mtgoat666]

Sarcasm Aside

Gypsy Jan - 5-23-2011 at 02:41 PM

Why not check this out?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensenada,_Baja_California

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gypsy Jan
Why not check this out?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensenada,_Baja_California

Allow me to fix up your link there, Jan:

http://tinyurl.com/3bzzusa

.

[Edited on 5-23-2011 by DENNIS]

David K - 5-23-2011 at 05:17 PM

Gee wiz, it is just his opinion of what he saw... Maybe offer to show him or inform him there is so much more to Ensenada... ?

estone888 - 5-23-2011 at 05:17 PM

Okay okay everybody. Sorry about that. By the time I finished lunch and wandering around the harbor for the research I needed to do, I was tired and lazy. I went and took a nap. I then took a long walk in the evening, to the south along Juarez, then Reforma, (oh, sorry, to the southeast) down into what seemed to be a non-tourist part of town - where there is a large church - and beyond. I am fully aware that there is a great deal more to Ensenada than I saw in my brief time walking around. I am very much looking forward to going back and exploring it in much greater depth at some other time, when I have more time.

Sheesh, I should have known better to give a first, uninformed impression. I'm a regular poster on Chowhound.com and plenty of people there can get hot under the collar quick, too, if you're not careful what you say.

I am now warned.

I have changed my blog post to read:

I'm not crazy about Ensenada. It is a town that exists almost entirely to service tourists, especially the cruise ship tourists who show up in droves. (NOTE: I have been informed, in no uncertain terms, that I am wrong about this by a number of highly vocal posters to a forum on the website BajaNomad. They all seem to be a lot more familiar with Ensenada than I am, so I stand corrected and am looking forward to a return visit so I can better get to know the place.) It does, however, have the largest container port in Baja California - a prime entry point for people being smuggled from Asia, particularly China, on their way to the U.S. That's why I was there.

Eric

[Edited on 5-24-2011 by estone888]

David K - 5-23-2011 at 05:39 PM

Welcome to Nomad Eric... don't let the bullies push you around... just share what YOU see... then expect some of 'us' Nomads to tell you that you really saw something else! :lol:

Have fun, no matter what!

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
... don't let the bullies push you around...

Bullies???? I thought we were being nice. :lol:

Gotta toughen up these noobs. There's a war goin' on, ya know.

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by estone888
- a prime entry point for people being smuggled from Asia, particularly China, on their way to the U.S. That's why I was there.

'Splain please..... Why would that bring you to Ensenada?

David K - 5-23-2011 at 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
... don't let the bullies push you around...

Bullies???? I thought we were being nice. :lol:

Gotta toughen up these noobs. There's a war goin' on, ya know.

Yes, you are so right Dennis! :light:

David K - 5-23-2011 at 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Originally posted by estone888
- a prime entry point for people being smuggled from Asia, particularly China, on their way to the U.S. That's why I was there.

'Splain please..... Why would that bring you to Ensenada?

Just a guess, but what I read in Eric's post above was that Ensenada is the largest container port in Baja... and containers come to Ensenada from Asia... so... :light:

estone888 - 5-23-2011 at 06:03 PM

Yep, there was a period when - not sure if it's still true or not - one of the primary smuggling routes for Chinese illegal immigrants to the U.S. was through the container port in Ensenada. Once there, it was easier to get from Mexico across the border into the U.S. It figures into the novel I'm working on.

Well, in the Grand Tradition of Baja Nomad

Gypsy Jan - 5-23-2011 at 06:09 PM

I seem to have created a sh*t-storm.

So, I guess that I am carrying on the tradition of Chope.

[Edited on 5-24-2011 by BajaNomad]

mtgoat666 - 5-23-2011 at 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by estone888
Okay okay everybody. Sorry about that. By the time I finished lunch and wandering around the harbor for the research I needed to do, I was tired and lazy. I went and took a nap. I then took a long walk in the evening, to the south along Juarez, then Reforma, (oh, sorry, to the southeast) down into what seemed to be a non-tourist part of town - where there is a large church - and beyond. I am fully aware that there is a great deal more to Ensenada than I saw in my brief time walking around. I am very much looking forward to going back and exploring it in much greater depth at some other time, when I have more time.

Sheesh, I should have known better to give a first, uninformed impression. I'm a regular poster on Chowhound.com and plenty of people there can get hot under the collar quick, too, if you're not careful what you say.

I am now warned.

I have changed my blog post to read:

I'm not crazy about Ensenada. It is a town that exists almost entirely to service tourists, especially the cruise ship tourists who show up in droves. (NOTE: I have been informed, in no uncertain terms, that I am wrong about this by a number of highly vocal posters to a forum on the website BajaNomad. They all seem to be a lot more familiar with Ensenada than I am, so I stand corrected and am looking forward to a return visit so I can better get to know the place.) It does, however, have the largest container port in Baja California - a prime entry point for people being smuggled from Asia, particularly China, on their way to the U.S. That's why I was there.

Eric

[Edited on 5-24-2011 by estone888]

actually, ensenada is much more:
it is the functional center of commerce for most of baja norte parts south of ensenada.
it has a bunch of colleges/universities/research institutes, so is a bit of a "college town."
is is baja's only deep water functional port worth talking about, serving the TJ manufacturing industry,
it is not TJ frontier crappy urbanism of transients and ner-do-wells, is culturally more like mainland.

better wise up if you are going to write a book portraying the town!

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by estone888
Yep, there was a period when - not sure if it's still true or not - one of the primary smuggling routes for Chinese illegal immigrants to the U.S. was through the container port in Ensenada. Once there, it was easier to get from Mexico across the border into the U.S. It figures into the novel I'm working on.

Yes and no. They arn't, from anything I've ever heard of, being shipped in containers. they'd be like micrwave popcorn.
They are, however, even today, being unloaded on the beaches south of the city to make their way through the hills to points north.
In the past, with a much smaller police and military presense, I've seen as many as thirty Chinese walking single file down the Bufadora road having just been dumped from off-shore boats.

So...what did you have in mind? Interviews??...Recipes??

bajaguy - 5-23-2011 at 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS

Quote:

Laundry......???? :lol:

estone888 - 5-23-2011 at 08:45 PM

Well, this is certainly a mighty fun introduction to BajaNomad, gotta give it that. Considering that none of you know much of anything about the book I am working on, or my process for working on it, I am amused by some of your criticism and speculation.

I can see that this is going to be a rather lively, interesting, at times aggravating and hopefully from time to time useful forum to spend some time on. :spingrin:

Suggestion

bajaguy - 5-23-2011 at 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by estone888
I can see that this is going to be a rather lively, interesting, at times aggravating and hopefully from time to time useful forum to spend some time on. :spingrin:

Best get some popcorn and a beer or two.........

DENNIS - 5-23-2011 at 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by estone888
Considering that none of you know much of anything about the book I am working on, or my process for working on it, I am amused by some of your criticism and speculation.

Interesting reply, but I didn't know you were working on a book and, if you really had a researching authors curiosity, you might show some interest in facts that are, or are not, pertinant to your assumptions as you have stated them.
I'll just step aside and await your best-sellers debut. I'll be awaiting a title such as, "Play Stations and Broiled chunkys in the Container stack."
Buena Suerte.