New Year's Eve in Ensenada!

Chris has already blogged New Year's, so kindly go take a look at his post to see some of the pictures.

http://arehart.blogspot.com/2006/01/happy-new-year.html

We had a great time -- the town was pretty quiet, except for the day that not one, but two trashy cruise ships were in town. We went out to see La Bufadora -- it's the only attraction in the area and the one thing I remember about Ensenada from my cruise sales days.


It's a cave in the rocks that forces water and air upwards when a big wave rolls in. That's it. What you don't see is the tchotchke/food stall bonanza that lines the road on the way. It was a nice way to pleasantly waste the afternoon.

Since you really can have too many tacos, that night we went out for an early dinner of excellent Chinese food (Thanks Lonely Planet!). I am here to tell you that my Spanish is good, on menus it's okay, but Chinese food translated into Spanish is damn near incomprehensible. We ended up picking a set meal for two and telling the lady that everything had to be sin mariscos -- no seafood.

What she brought out would have comfortably fed five people. Giant bowl of soup with big chunks of meat and veggies, two huge entrees, egg rolls, a sprout-based dish, and like 3 other things I can't even remember. The only reason I mention it is that we spent the entire meal feeling like disgusting wasteful Americans, and that we must have made a mistake on the menu. Nope, it's just the most generous Chinese food restaurant in all of Mexico. I'll give you directions if you ever want to go.

The quote of the trip award goes to a stupid gringa we came across in a bar. We were the only two people in there besides her, and she spent a half hour yakking on the phone with her friends who were stuck in traffic on their way down from Las Vegas. The bartender gave her the bill for her glass of cheap white wine, and she lost it. "Forty-two dollars for a glass of wine??? That's outrageous!!"

We let her rage marinate for a few seconds -- even the bartender was just looking blankly at her. "Um, yeah. That's in pesos," we told her. "Pay the man $4.20 in US dollars." How on earth do you get to Ensenada on the toll road, on which the toll amounts are posted in both pesos and dollars, check into a hotel at which the rate is posted in both pesos and dollars, and generally walk around in Mexico which is a foreign country which conducts business in pesos but accepts US dollars, and STILL not figure out that if you see a rate that's abnormally high, there's a good chance that it's in pesos?

Anyway, it was funny.

Our New Year's Eve was spent in a quiet little bar where the bartenders blew their decorating wad by about 8pm. After the five of them handed out hats and noisemakers, and hung up the "Happy New Year" banner, they went back to standing around, watching soccer, and serving the eight people in the bar. About five minutes to midnight, we realized that there was nothing going on so we bailed to the bar across the street, where we had heard a raucous mariachi band earlier. Sure enough, we made it in time to count down in Spanish with a margarita in hand. We were smothered by happy locals who wanted nothing more than to hug and kiss us and wish us a Feliz Año.

It was fantastic. I would highly recommend it to anyone -- even to my aunt Janie, who can't understand why anyone would ever want to spend New Year's in Ensenada. Because it's better than spending it in Yorba Linda, lady. ¿Me estás jodiendo?