For the first time in several decades (nothing to do with Covid!) we drive south across the US/Mexico border at the San Ysidro/Tijuana checkpoint.

Crossing south into Mexico is no problem; coming back is an entirely different matter....but more of that later! Once through the crowded streets of Tijuana, the journey becomes much easier as we hit Highway 1, the coastal road that goes all the way to Cabo at the southern tip of Baja California. We're headed just 100 km (60 miles) south of the border to Baja's third city, Ensenada.

Ensenada was all about fish! Tourism (primarily from the US) may have superseded the fishing industry as Ensenada's lifeblood, but a walk through the Mercado de Mariscos (also known as the Mercado Negro, apparently because it's so dirty!) shows fishing to still be alive and well.

Tourism now outstrips fishing as Ensenada's main industry. The massive Princess Line cruise ship which can be seen in one of the photos symbolizes Ensenada’s role as a destination for the US West Coast mass market cruising industry - the “booze cruises”.

For the happy cruiser who does disembark (likely the minority!) Ensenada does have a couple of interesting attractions. The city has two bars which claim to be where the Margarita was first concocted. We go for the Bar Andaluz in the Riviera del Pacifico, now mostly a museum and event centre but in the 1930's, a very grand hotel where during prohibition the Hollywood glitterati came to quake their thirst. Today it was just a bunch of less-than-mobile wheelchair bound or walking frame supported elderly booze cruisers! Our Margaritas were pleasant enough although not a patch on the ones we'd had the previous evening at what is now Ensenada's number one watering hole, the hotel Punta Morro

The arid valleys to the east and northeast of Ensenada have developed over the past couple of decades into a wine growing region complete with some fine restaurants and a few good lodging options. The younger Lee's have joined us for the weekend and have organized a bus for the day to take us on a winery and wine-tasting tour in the Valle de Guadalupe, the most established of the region's wine-growing valleys. To be properly prepared for what's to come, we begin with lunch at "Deckman's en el Mogor" described as an "outdoor campestre experience, set under the trees and looking out over the vineyards".

Lunch lasts three hours.....

.....followed by visits to several wineries, of which the names I have no recollections!

Around an hour's drive around the bay south of the city is Ensenada's main tourist draw "La Bufadora", a spectacular blowhole that shoots water unto 100 feet (30 metres) in the air every minute or so. We visit twice - the first time to check it out and then a couple of days later when Bennett was with us.

Other than the odd booze cruiser, most of the tourists we encounter are locals which likely explains why most of the souvenir and tat stalls that line the almost half mile "gauntlet" between the parking area and the viewing area don't seem to do much business! With one exception at least on our second visit.....

And then the time comes to head north back across the border. It's the day before the northbound border crossings re-open for non-essential travel for the first time in more than 18 months. Massive crowds are expected on "opening day" making the pedestrian and vehicle lines hours long; so we think we've avoided the worst. With not a little difficulty and much confusion, we make our way through the Sunday afternoon Tijuana traffic to the "Sentri" lane which allows pre-approved border crossers and their vehicles a relatively quick and easy passage. The line was just 15 minutes long vs almost two hours for the regular vehicle crossing line. All five of us are "pre-approved' as is my car....or at least so we thought. Benjamin driving was told by the very stroppy US border officer that his pre-approval ID card hadn't been activated for a land crossing. We had no clue what he was talking about and he certainly wasn't going to explain! Matters weren't helped when Benjamin admitted that we'd bought two bottles of wine after telling said stroppy official that we had nothing to declare. We're dispatched without further ado to the secondary screening area. We drive through what appears to be a vehicle scanner, all five of us then tossed out of the car which is then put through a pretty limited search. Other than "you can return to your vehicle", nobody says anything to us and some twenty minutes later, we're waved out. Absolutely none the wiser for what or why!

And the following day....the much heralded "opening day" the lines and wait times were by all reports much like most other days during the border shutdown.....