Monday, October 20, 2014

Day 7 - Ensenada BC Mexico

Day 7 and I’m alive and well in Ensenada BC Mexico. The drive was a short one and with the early start that I had there wasn’t much for traffic to deal with or even anything at the border and I couldn’t believe how easy it is to cross into Mexico, I just hope getting out goes as smoothly.

Anyway as for the trip since I got an early start, remember my hosts were off to work early on a Sunday morning, I just headed toward the border figuring it’d probably take me some time to get things in order before I crossed. I had read that I should make my last stop which is one of the last exists before the border at San Ysidor so took the last exit before the border. What I was looking for was a gas station and a place to exchange some US currency for Mexican, but no luck finding it. This exit had a lot of shops and malls and right next to the fence between the countries, but no gas station. I did remember seeing the sign for the travel info at the previous exist so figured I better head that way to get things in order and maybe some help from them before I cross the border. The other suggesting for making the stop was to make sure to fill up on gas because you won’t find too many gas stations in Mexico and they’re all state owned and will only take Mexican currency, at least that’s what I read. 

Well I did stop at the first gas station at the second to last exit and did get a lot of help from the attendant on hand. A nice older Mexican gentleman that spoke good english and really helped me out. He didn’t know where the visitor center was, but I did ask him about a number of things especially the exchange of money and he said if the rate was a certain amount here get as much as you think you’ll need or just enough to get to Ensenada at which point I could exchange for more. 

After filling up with gas and having a little accident filling up my extra gas can, I got the bike wiped up and on my way around the corner to exchange. I don’t think the rate was as good as the attendant had said I should be looking for because it listed 13,100 to buy or 12,897 to sell. I thought I was getting what he thought would be a great rate at 13,100, but that was to exchange pesos for dollars and I guess I was selling which wasn’t as good. At that point not knowing anything about Mexican money I went back to the attendant to see what he had to say which was you should probably get as much as you need for Ensenada and can always exchange for more in Mexico because the hotels and other places in Mexico may have a pretty good exchange rate. I thanked him for his help so decided instead of exchanging a thousand dollars for pesos I’d start out with $400 which still gave me a lot of pesos. I figured I’m all set and ready to cross the border.

The border crossing was easier than I thought it would be cuz I could've just drove through without stopping since there was no where that they check my passport or anything like that, they just let the vehicles drive thru. Well for me I at least knew that I and to get a tourist permit that as soon as I crossed I stopped to ask one of the border patrol what to do which may not have been a wise choice. Ok, nothing happened even though they didn’t speak or understand my English that well, but they told me I’d have to park the bike and walk to the station that I had just passed since I didn’t stop there earlier. Not a far walk, but I do think it was probably the right thing to do. They were really helpful inside and that was where they checked my passport and charged me $20 to get in. I do think the guy gave me a deal cuz I thought he had said $30, but since he gave me 10 back it must’ve been spanish that I heard. 

Now I’m on my way and as long as I make sure to stay in the Ensenada Cuodo road (toll road) it should be the safer of the roads to get me to Ensenada without incident. I did find the right road, didn’t get turned off on a wrong exit and knew I was ok when I hit the first toll. Here is where I need to decide whether I pay all my tolls in US or Mexican currency because I have to be consistent at all the toll booths, again something that I thought I had read. Anyway I paid in Pesos, cheaper for a bike than a car which was only 15 pesos. And back to not knowing about Mexican currency I forgot to mention a guy at the exchange station that told me about the different coins and such and suggested how I use my pesos. What ever he told me helped cuz now I had an idea of what was what. Coins for 1, 5 and 10 pesos and bills of 20 or higher, I guess that would be 50’s, 100’s and a lot of 500’s that I got for the $400 I exchanged.

Back to the story, from there no problem that I was on to the second toll booth and was able to easily pull out the exact change needed. Sure it was 15 pesos again, but now that I knew how to count the coins I think I have just enough to get me thru. Now all I have to do is get to the third toll booth and I know I’ll be close to Ensenada because that’s the directions the Spanish school gave me. Well, I didn’t make it to the third toll booth because the road was closed that I now had no choice but to ride the free highway and now I know what they say about these roads, they are a bit dangerous. No shoulders, pretty windy curvy roads and the trucks and buses are coming at you as though you better get out of their way. It was a beautiful ride along the coast being able to see the ocean and stuff, but a little more exciting than I had planned on had I been on the toll road all the way here. 

Oh, and the other thing how am I going to find where I need to get since I won’t have gone through the 3rd toll booth that I had directions from. I do think I got a little lucky because even though I didn’t see a sign for Ensenada I did see the sign for a street I was suppose to look for, Calle 10 which I happened to notices to took it, following the big trucks into town. Pretty soon the rest of the directions did jive that I might be ok. Sure was the right exit that I found my way to the 7 11 where I was to call my host family.

Now making a phone call turned out to be another not as easy as it should be task. First of all since everything is in Spanish and the phone booth is pretty tattered and worn down it was a matter of figuring out how to work it which took me a bit of time. I did ask for help, but found that this phone wasn’t working as it should that they pointed me to another phone booth that they said is better for making a local call. Yes, they have a couple of different phone booths depending on what kind of call you are making. Well, this one worked, but as soon as my host Diana answered, it was apparent she didn’t understand my English and I didn’t understand her Spanish. Eventually she put her husband Roberto on the phone who said she’d be right down to pick me up. She walked because I don’t think they knew I was coming on a bike so I had to slowly follow here back to the house. Only a few blocks away on the side of the hill that it wasn’t a great place to park the bike. 

At least I made it that there’s more to the story that I will save for tomorrow’s blog after I see how day one goes at school. Anyway, I am safely in Ensenada and ready to learn a little Spanish so I can make my trip to Cabo. Stay tuned. 

1 Comments:

Anonymous Rob said...

Yes, it is usually easy to get into Mexico, but be prepared for the return where you could be in line for hours. Look for the kids selling Chiclets (gum) too.

10/24/2014 3:08 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home