#17 Cruising in Mexico

On Saturday, we were to port in Ensenada, Mexico. Unlike in Santa Barbara, we actually pulled right into the harbor, so no tenders for today. After another great breakfast at the buffet, we went down to Deck 5 to get off the ship. It was really weird at first, being in a different country. Everything was mainly in Spanish and we had no idea where we were going. We were afraid to ask anyone for fear of them not being able to speak English.

We walked around for ages, it seemed like. We had a map of the downtown area, but it wasn't very good. The "shops" that were supposedly to be a great shopping area disappointed my wife. Instead, we tried to find the beach. After walking around some more, we finally decided to just head back to the harbor to ask for directions. We came across a taxi driver waiting for customers and he pointed us in the right direction for the beach. However, he offered to drive us because it was about 2 miles away from where we were. We decided to save the money and walk because the weather was nice and as we had eaten so much on our cruise, it would be good for us. Wow, he wasn't kidding. It really was 2 miles away...and we walked, and walked, and walked. Eventually, we found it! And it was totally worth the walk!

It was very different from Santa Barbara because there were actual waves here and we watched some people trying to surf. I went swimming in the ocean; the water was cold, but I got used to it after awhile. Besides the surfers, we were really the only ones in the water. The waves don't look too big in the picture, but they were rather intimidating. It was an incredible experience to be able to swim in the ocean. It was crazy as I was getting pushed around by the water as the waves crashed down and the water then receded back. We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours, then decided to start our journey back to the ship.

Overall, our cruise was great and I'm really glad we decided to go for it! For a long time, we were so indecisive about whether we wanted to do it or not. Finally, my wife found a great deal for Thanksgiving week and we decided to go for it. I'm really glad we did because it was a really cool experience. Again, there were a lot of "firsts" for me on this trip. I had never really gone on a vacation before. It was my first cruise, my first time in California, my first time to Mexico, my first time seeing the ocean, and my first time at the beach. The food was so good and the service on the cruise ship was great too! We might go on another honeymoon next year!