Many of us woke up to see the ship docking at Ensenada, Mexico. This would be our first Mexican port and also the last port we dock at before we return to come home.
We got off the ship and took a short bus ride to downtown Ensenada. For those that have never traveled to Mexico before, it is a very different atmosphere from that of the United States or Canada. For one thing you have people trying to sell little trinkets on every street corner. The bus driver to the city warned us about people selling things on street corners. He said that almost all of the silver sold on the street is fake. He also warned us about little kids that sell things on the street too and not to buy from them. He said that the kids make so much money selling things that they don’t go to school and therefore never get an education.
The street itself looked fairly normal, but when you start looking at the products that are being sold, this is where you really notice a difference from the United States. First, probably every 5 to 10 stores is a drug store. From what I could tell, you could walk in without a prescription and buy almost anything that you want. Plus, as you are walking by, people are coming out and trying to get you to buy their medications that are supposed to be able to grow anything on your body you may want to grow.
The people from the drug stores aren’t the only ones that are coming out of their stores to try to get you to come in. In fact, almost every store you pass someone is trying to bring you into their store. This is very different from the United States where some stores you can walk into and look at products and the person behind the counter doesn’t even look up.
For my wife and me, after walking a couple of miles around Ensenada, we decided to catch the bus back to the ship. I found that others in our group had the same idea and were hanging out at the pool and hot tubs.
After enjoying the pool for the first time and getting a little sun, we decided to hang out and watch the sea lions. There was a large bunch of them sunning themselves on some rocks. They were barking at each other and it was pretty neat to watch them communicating with each other.
Tonight’s dinner was the last dinner that our group would officially have together on the trip. It was a chance for us to chat together and really enjoy the company of everyone. Everyone seemed to be a little extra energized tonight and had lots of fun with our waiter, who could dish it back just as it was being dished to him. The special tonight was the baked Alaska for dessert. All the wait staff paraded it through the dining room. But because of safety rules, they couldn’t have them flaming like used to be the case, but had little electric lights.
After dinner, back to our rooms to pack our bags as Saturday we fly out. I don’t think there is a single one of us who is happy that the trip is over. In fact, tonight we already talked about potential trips again in the future. If we could make that happen, I think it would be a lot of fun.
