In September 2010, we took our first cruise to Baja Mexico! We started in Long Beach, California and traveled to Catalina Island, CA, and then onto Ensenada, Mexico! It was so fun!!!
Christina in front of the ship.
After an afternoon in Long Beach, we travled through the night to Catalina Island. It was so unlike anything we were used to. When we woke up their was a thick cloud cover, but it didn't spoil our excitement any! We were thrilled with the view and ate our breakfast outside on the deck, despite the chilly wind. This bird stole Chris' ham, so of course he deserved a photo shoot, which he quite seemed to enjoy!
Early Morning View of Catalina Island
After breakfast we took a shuttle boat to the island. It was so beautiful and quickly became one of our favorite places. Chris said if he were to ever leave the Rocky Mountains, it'd be to live on Catalina Island! That's saying a lot!
Above: There are no cars in the town of Avalon on Catalina Island, so we rented cruiser bikes. This is an old casino that was built and owned by the Wrigley gum family. They actually owned the whole island at one point.
Below: We rode our bikes out towards a large zip line. We didn't go on the zip line, but it was a nice ride and we saw a few deer along the way.
After heading back to the ship for a bite to eat, we headed back out to Catalina. We had hoped to snorkel Lover's Cove, but it was cold and I chickened out! I wanted to stay warm, so we took a glass bottom boat ride over Lover's Cove. We saw soooo many awesome fish and sea life!!
Chris on Catalina Island!
Christina on Catalina Island!
The dinning experience was very elegant, but each night, midway through dinner, the waiters broke out into improptu dance! It was hilarious! They danced to things like "Low" and "Macarena". It was so funny because some of them soooo could not dance! One or two were quite good though!
Each night the ship had a turn down service. Our beds were turned back, a mint left on our pillows, and a towel animal was left on the bottom of the bed. We had a seal, dog, elephant, and a big 3D heart.
Formal night was my favorite! We just don't often have the opportunity to dress up, so I loved getting on my pretties and dolling up! After our dinner, we went to a night club to listen to a band.
The ship has so much to do! This is a guy break dancing. There are clubs everywhere, salons, spas, shops, a swimming pool, water slides and mini golf right there on the boat! There was so much more I can't even mention it all! You could spend your entire time on the ship and still not do everything!
It was strange waking up in Mexico. I was not used to seeing a big flag flying that wasn't American.
After the boat docked in Mexico, we took off to see a big group of seals hanging out in the port. We got whistles blown at us and screamed at in Spanish by Mexican police! Apparently, we weren't supposed to be down there! We explained we were trying to see the seals and he says in broken English, "YOU SEE SEALS ON BOAT! GO THERE!" ha...ha...
We rented a car and drove out of Ensenada to La Buffadora (The Blowhole). There are three in the world and this one is the largest. The picture doesn't do it justice, as it blew up to 50ft high and soaked us! It was beautiful to see and we certainly got sprayed!
Wow...I've never been to Mexico before! Those flea markets are crazy!! We couldn't walk two steps without being bombarded to buy something. It was exhausting! We did manage to come home with gifts for the kids though. I've never been called, "Honeymooner" so many times in my life! Little do they know we are going on 9 years. :)
After the flea market we went to a white sands beach. The ocean and beach were beautiful. I couldn't take pictures of most of Mexico though. I've never seen such poverty. Especially since we rented a car and drove down some side roads, where most tourists don't experience. It was really upsetting to me and I just didn't feel right taking pictures. I never realized people lived like that. I mean, you see it on TV, but for real...wow....just shocking.
Most of Mexico does NOT look like this! This was an American tourist spot. It was very pretty, but very unreal of how they actually live. If you were to ride the tourist bus and go to the tourist places you'd have missed the vast majority of poverty that we saw. I'd like to go back on a Humanitarian trip when the kids are older.
We took a drive to the other side of Ensenada, out to wine country. We walked the vineyards of a winery. The countryside out here was nice. The homes still very poor, but much cleaner. We tried to pull over in one spot to turn around, though, and a guy was standing there holding a machine gun....yeah....we kept driving!
When we returned our rental car the agency offered to drive us back to the cruise ship. They took us back in a limo!!
Mexico was quite the experience. It was one I will always remember and I feel blessed to have visit, but I will not return again without items to help those there.
The next morning we watched wild dolphins jump alongside the boat. They were so cute and did all kinds of tricks. They were quite the little show offs!
I got an airbrush tattoo of a dolphin...of course!
I loved my dolphin and thought she was so cute!!
We went mini golfing on the ship.
The swimming pool had ocean water pumped into it. It was so flipping cold!! We went down the water slide a few times, though.
The shows were great and we met a few friends along the way!
The trip was amazing!! We had so much fun and the rest was so very needed! We have decided to go back again! It was very memorable and we can't wait to bring the kids one day. (When I'm not worried about them falling off of the dock!!) We will be back!
