Entering Mexico

Scott with Fred and Roberta Wise, it was so nice to see them!

Hola

We have made our first Port in Mexico!  Our last few days in San Diego were spent doing last minute shopping,  getting Josh settled into life on board and Scott had a visit with some special friends from his youth.  It was a little hectic but we left feeling well prepared and ready for Mexico.  We departed San Diego on Thursday afternoon for the 70nm run to Ensenada.  We were in company with four other sailboats all with the same goal.  We did manage to sail for the first 20 miles and then it was back to the usual motoring.  The five boats stayed in contact through the night and come early morning we were all on the approach to Ensenda.  The first and only one to get seasick on our boat was Josh, (Scott was fine for this leg!) but he recovered after a long nap and took the watch in the wee hours allowing Scott and I to get some rest.  We are both still having a hard time getting sleep when we are underway but it is getting better.

The crew on Kialoa leaving San Diego

We arrived at the Marina in Ensenada at 8am and the first order of business was to get checked into Mexico.  This is done very conveniently in one centralized building a short walk from the harbour.  We had to visit four different kiosks within the building, some of them more than once, but we were done in about 1 ½ hours and are now legally visiting Mexico.  Kialoa has a Temporary Importation Permit and can stay for 10 years however we can only stay for 180 days without leaving the country to renew our visitor visas…

Ensenada has lovely parts

and not so lovely parts

We spent the rest of that day relaxing and everyone had an early night.  Today we did a little shopping and exploring in the city of Ensenada.

 There is a lot of pressure to buy things, so many useless trinkets are available at 50% off…..Ensenada has a cruise ship terminal also and that brings a lot of tourists to the town.  One arrived just after us spent the day and left that night and another came in today.

just some of the wares available

Still hanging in there!

We are now preparing for the rest of the Baja Peninsula and working on our Spanish.  Blogger is now coming to me in Spanish so I am learning some new words as I make this post, including phrases like "Ocurrio un error" and "reportar un problema".  The wifi is rather intermittant here......