ohhhh mexico

our cruise had two scheduled stops -- catalina and ensenada. unfortunately due to "dangerous swells" we didn't get to go to catalina. i had been there before so this wasn't a big deal -- the situation was made worse, however, when that turn of events meant all one thousand other cruise passengers were also stuck with nothing to do all day. tuesday was a rough day at sea.

but wednesday, christmas eve, we stuck to our schedule and docked in mexico. i'd never been before and was surprised at how much it (well, ensenada at least) looked just like long beach. plus a mexican flag, of course.



me and the sibs at our port. it was bright:



the adults (or perpetual tourists) decided to hire a sketchy-looking tour bus -- complete with a super nice mexican tour guide named gabriela, whom my mom adored -- to drive us around town.





first stop: la bufadora, or the blowhole. i had seen another blowhole in oahu (apparently there are only three in the world) and it was equally as boring as this one. oh well, tourist attractions usually aren't all they're cracked up to be anyway.

the gang at la bufadora. did i mention we were a party of eleven? :



the blowhole area usually looked like this:



until a wave would come, and then you got to see some foam shoot up:



like i said, very exciting. another appeal of this area is that the street leading to the blowhole is lined with shops selling all sorts of crap. i was over men yelling "hey pretty lady!" and "come inside, special deal for you" after about five seconds.



anyway, it was a good place for a few photo opps:



a chance to see this cool guy:



and eat some DELISH handmade tacos. i was nervous we'd get sick, but no one did. yay!



from there we took a ride around town. there was plenty of americana to be found:



we stopped at a roadside stand to buy tamales, at my mom's insistence (she's obsessed with tamales and made gabriela take us to her favorite venue). they were awesome and made from scratch by this cute little lady. again, no parasites! yay. (i told you we ate a lot on this trip.)



we ended with a drive through "downtown" and saw the uber popular papas & beer store. woo hoo. there were all sorts of sub-par christmas decorations around...it was kinda cute.



and then it was back to our ginormous ship for a nap before dinner. my favorite thing to do all week was hole up on a window seat with my book and read, overlooking the water. nothing better than a little vacationing alone time!