After a very stressful day of being implicated in an accident (see previous post), we finally arrived at our urban campground in Ensenada. We chose Campo Playa RV park because of the convience of walking to stores and resturants. When we pulled in, I thought the placed was abandoned. There were dead palm fronds all over the place, the road (in some parts) is in terrible condition, trash bins are full to the rim, the office building was locked with boxes piled to the ceiling. We thought, oh well it is too late to find another place we will stay and dry camp. After walking around, we found out that it is indeed operational. Since no one was at the “office” we pulled in and hooked up to the 20 amp site. Apparently there is some sort of manager there and we paid her the following day. There are hot showers, but it takes like 5 mins to heat up and the water pressure is terrible. I would not recommend staying here. For $25/night I expect better. Oh and by the way, there is no “Playa” as the name indicates.
The main drag, Ave. Lopez Mateos, is where all the tourist shops are and a lot of bars. From our campground, Campo Playa, it is about a five min drive. There are many Mariscos stands around, which is fresh seafood you can get right on the street. We chose a mariscos that was surrounded by locals called El. Guapo. We try to abide by the saying, “Eat with the herd.” A dozen Pacific coast oysters costs only $5 and tuna ceviche tostadas for less than a dollar. My God, I was in heaven. They shuck the oysters fresh right in front of you, with a freakin’ butter knife! When the bivalve opens you can see the saltwater juice brusting out. It doesn’t get any fresher. I can’t wait to try more of these places.
Ensenada is a busy, bustling port city. There’s a lot of people and a lot of noise. Don’t get me wrong the people are super friendly, but it seems like there is some sort of construction going on at every corner. I’m ready to move further south for some peace and quiet, I hope. Our next stop will be on the beach south of San Quintin.
Our site at El Campo RV park
The road that ropes around the back of El Campo park…no way of getting an RV through that!
El Campo Playa…needs a little landscaping…
The electrical hookup options.
How we hooked up the electric.
Ceviche tostada, costs 80 cents.
El Guapo marisco stand, a dozen oysters costs $5
Yummy pastry section at the grocery store La Soriana…there were like 5 different shelves full of pastries.
Crossing the boarder at Tecate went more smoothly than I imagined. We arrived with our RV in tow on a Tuesday morning around 10:30 am. We needed to find a large place to park our RV because you can’t cross the border without a traveler’s visa, which is on the Mexican side. We parked in the large parking lot on a hill that is to the left as you are approaching the border. A sign indicated to pay $10 to park an RV. Since no one was at the office we placed the money in an envelope and proceeded to obtain our traveler’s visas on foot. I suggest exchanging some dollars at one of the convience stores on the US border side prior to doing this since it is cheaper to pay in pesos. By the time we were back at the truck around 11:30 semi trucks were starting to arrive and it was starting to get busy. We were happy to discover that the nice lady at the parking lot returned the money to us, stating that she didn’t charge for short term parking to obtain a visa. We filled up the truck with more diesel and headed for the boarder. The officer inspected the RV in just 1 min (looked in the refrigerator and one cabinet) and we were sent off. She never asked to see our passports, traveler’s visas, or any documentation about our dog Marilyn.
We turned right to get onto highway 2, as Google maps indicated was the fastest route, even though there were signs that said to go left for Ensenada. You can get to Ensenada by taking highway 3, which is more scenic and takes you through wine country, but from the topo maps it looks mountainous which we try to avoid to preserve fuel. It wasn’t very long before there was a military checkpoint and of course we were flagged down to pull over. The Mexican army men looked mean and intimidating holding their M16s. However as one of them approached my side I rolled down the window, smiled and said “Hola” to which he returned the gesture. Again he only searched the RV for about a min (looked in the bathroom and the bathroom closet) before they sent us on our way.
We were cruising happily along, listening to our favorite radio on Pandora, Road Trippin Radio, when something happened…To make a long story short, when Tim saw there was a semi truck pulled over on the right shoulder of the highway Tim signaled he was getting over from the right lane to the left lane, as you are supposed to do to give them room. There was plenty of room to get over even though there was a van far behind us. It wasn’t too long when we were suddenly pulled over. Apparently the woman in the van crashed and she was blaming us , saying we didn’t signal and cut her off…so the police made us return to the scene. The police were really upset initially because they only heard her side of the story. When we returned to the scene and saw the van, it was obvious from the force of impact she was most definitely speeding and most likely texting on her phone or some other distraction. She probably looked up from her distraction, realized she was approaching us too fast, freaked out, turned the wheel and crashed. Tim explained to them in Spanish what happened and after about an hour of deliberation they let us go. It was surprising to me that they never asked for any insurance. Most people don’t carry insurance here, which is why the lady was trying to pull one on us because her van was obviously totaled. Thank goodness she wasn’t hurt or any of her kids either! I felt bad when I saw there were kids in the van but, hopefully she learned her lesson to pay more attention when driving!
So we weren’t in Mexico for two hours when this happened, what a great start to our trip! However, the main reason I wanted to share our story is to debunk the theory that ALL police and army are corrupt. Honestly, I think it went better than if it would of happened in the US since no one was ticketed. No paper work no problems mon. 🙂 After the gut wrenching sensation subsided, we hit play on Pandora’s Road Trippin Radio, and continued on to Ensenada.
In California on the way to Tecate, the mountains look a pile of rocks.
