Day three of our cruise was spent in Ensenada , Mexico. When we woke up in the morning, we were just pulling into the port at Ensenada.
It was fun to watch out our window and see the ship sail into the port and watch the workers strap massive ropes from the ship to the dock to hold the ship in place. The process was fascinating. As we were sailing in, we noticed that all of the seagulls had changed from white to brown. Russell mentioned that we were definitely south of the border because even the seagulls were brown.
When we got off the ship, we got to take some fun pictures with the native dressed dancers.
The best was that the kids got to hold a real parrot and pose with it. Emily liked having the bird on her head for a minute. Once again these pictures were pirated from the cruise because we didn't want to buy them... Shh! Hey I would have just taken my own pictures with my phone but the workers kept standing in front of my and got mad when I tried to take my phone out for a picture. So we had to be pirates. The pictures are pretty cool though.
Our excursion for the day was a trip to La Bufadora or the Blowhole. La Bufadora is the second largest marine geyser in the world, capable of shooting water up to 65 feet into the air. It's located on the Punta Banda Peninsula, about 17 miles south of Ensenada. We decided to book this excursion through the cruise ship so we were guaranteed to make it there and back on time. We boarded the bus with the other people from our cruise and drove the 17 miles or so to La Bufadora.
The Blowhole was really awesome to see. If we stood close enough to the edge, we could feel the spray of the water as it shot out of the blowhole. It was pretty cool to watch and after a while, you could tell when the big sprays were going to happen. You could hear the rumbling in the cave and see the water levels raise and lower on the edge of the cliff sides. You knew when the water levels lowered it was going to be a big blast.
The geyser is formed when ocean waves force air and water into a partially submerged sea cavern. When the waves recede, the pressurized air shoots the water up into the air.
The area was really crowded because it is a major tourist trap but we managed to get some good pictures and videos of the La Bufadora going off. The kids thought it was worth the trip and so did we. At one time, though, we were trying to get a picture and this Asian guy just kept backing up into Emily and pushing her out of the way with his backpack. I told her to stand still and not let him in while we took our picture but he just kept backing up into her. Finally we just moved out of the way and he totally took over the spot we were in. It was so funny.
This is a birds eye view of what the La Bufadora looks like from the other side of where we were. We were standing near the buildings. I also stole this picture off the Internet for our reference.
This is a picture of the opposite side of the peninsula from the La Bufadora. I don't know what this little island is called but it was definitely eye-catching.
As we walked back to the bus, we spent some time browsing the flea market shops. These flea market vendors are ruthless. They see tourists coming from a mile away and can suck you into their shops like nothing. We really had to be firm and negotiate the prices down on most of the things we purchased.
There were some things I am sure we got taken on like these little ladybug bobble head figurines but there were some things we felt all right with the prices we paid. We had to pay the full price for this little ladybug because Brooklyn would not let it go and the lady knew that and would not budge on the price so we had to pay or deal with the wrath of a two year old. $3 was not worth that even though the ladybug was really only worth $1... Oh well... We also purchased some Mexican ponchos and blankets, vanilla, a shot glass and some other little trinkets for the kids. They each got to pick something and haggle for it. Just before we got on the bus we saw one more vendor tent selling Mexican puppets. I had to have one because they are so cool! We snagged one for $7 which was probably overpriced but we had talked them down from $15 so that was good.
When we got on the bus we were still waiting for one more lady and the tour guide and the lady's friend were getting pretty nervous. We had to leave at a certain time or the tour bus would be in trouble and the lady was nowhere to be seen. Finally her friend ran out to go find her at the risk of being left behind herself. As we were pulling out of the parking area we see the two ladies running toward the bus waving their arms. The tour guide just shook her head and told them to get in. If they had been one second later, they would have been left behind. We made sure we were early to the bus because we did not want to be left behind.
Everyone had a good snooze on the ride back to the ship. We also made some new friends while on the bus ride. We met a lady named, Shauna and her 10 year old niece. She was from Panguitch and her niece was from American Fork or somewhere like that. Anyway they were from Utah. They chatted with us the whole ride there and back and after that we saw them all the time on the cruise ship. The niece and Charlotte became friends.
Back at the port, we got to see a whole colony of sea lions on the shore next to our ship. They were just lazily laying around without a care in the world. When we were coming into port in the morning and as we were leaving at night, you could see groups of sea lions resting on all of the buoys with the brown seagulls as well. They were fun to watch.
From our room window on the ship we had a perfect view of this huge Ensenada, Mexico sign made out of rocks on the dock.
That night we showed off our matching Mexican ponchos we got at the flea market. They are actually quite warm and will be nice in the winter. Charlotte and Emily decided to get Mexican blankets instead of a poncho. I like the colors they chose and the blankets are warm too.
On to day 4: a fun day at sea.
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