After a good night's sleep we knew the first order of business was to check ourselves through customs and register the boat in Mexico. At 9:00 a.m. Tom and I began the process at the Harbormaster's office... 
Five torturous hours later we completed our business at the little bank set up in the custom's building. Prior to 2005 the bank was located down the street. Considering we had to the visit the bank between every step (five steps total) I think we got off easy with just five hours.
The custom's official was kind of a jerk but at least he had a small TV in his office and he was watching telenovelas, so I got to watch Destilando Amor at 10:00 a.m. and Juan Querendón at 11:00.
Hooray! It's 2:00 p.m. and we're legal!! The new boat is allowed to stay in Mexico for 10 years!!
After the torture of customs the crew headed off to the closest watering hole to celebrate with a few cold ones.
After our refreshment we walked around Ensenada enjoying the sights. The guys were impressed with the industrial strength speed bumps...
...and cherried out vehicles.
Judy and I preferred the wheelbarrows filled with candy, nuts and candied fruit.
We also liked the horses and buggies.
I guess in Ensenada you can advertise on the street signs:
We eventually made our way to one of Ensenada's famous fish taco restaurants. It's all about the condiments...
Yikes! This is just wrong. We did NOT eat here:
We spent the next morning fixing minor problems and putting the boat away until we can fly down in a month or so. This is why it's good to sail with kids, they're perfect for sending to the top of the mast!
Happy, pretty boat in her new home.
We hired the harbormaster's young brother-in-law to drive us to San Diego airport. Thankfully it was an uneventful trip up. Although I have flown out of Mexico several times this would be my first trip across the Tijuana/San Diego border.
You can walk across...
...or drive across, which is what we did.
The border in Tijuana is very interesting, not only is the side of the road lined with stalls, but individual vendors walk between the cars hawking everything from fresh fruit to gigantic crucifixes.
The following are some fantastic photos of the border that I lifted from a very interesting blog called Tijuana Tales by Kinsee Morlan. http://tijuanatales.wordpress.com/
Kinsee very generously allowed me to use some of her photographs because I, crammed in the back of an SUV with 7 other people plus luggage and sailing gear, could barely move much less take pictures. Hers are much better than mine would have been, Thanks Kinsee!
Last chance to buy a crucifix or oversized vase or two:
I love these guys:
Thankfully we had an uneventful trip over the border; our border guard looked very relieved when we hit the button of random searches and got green for "GO". She did NOT want to search our car.
