14/11/2010

Mexico! Again !

This was the third time to cross the border over to Tijuana although this time I headed further south to a place called Ensenada where there was a hostel I want to go to.

I said an teary farewell to all the staff at the hostel, it had been a fantastic 3 weeks working there, all you guys are awesome.

I hopped on the trolley to the border where at one point they were doing repairs so we were shuffled off the trolley onto a bus that took us to the border.

Again this was the third time I crosses into mexico where there was no need to show passports let alone any type of security other than high barbed fences and two sets of steel rotary gates.

I walked over to the bus stand where there was a bus headed to Ensenada ready to leave, I paid the 140ish Pesos and hopped on.

The journey to Ensenada was incredibly scenic and meanwhile all the people on the bus where watching that terrible film 10,000 BC I watched (for the 100^th time) The sun setting over the Pacific.

For the 1.5hr journey I kept on checking the shoulder of the road thinking how nice it would be if I have my bicycle to cycle down here… but damn it, why did I sell my bike. L

Arriving in Ensenada I had no idea where to go to get to the hostel but thankfully a local who also road on the bus walked me there. He was a nice enough guy who showed me the way around the town and carried his cello about on his back.

Arriving at the hostel was a bit of a let down with only 4 people staying there.

Obviously I quickly met everyone and as I needed to make a plan I talked with Mark, an American guy who was headed in the same direction as me.. we checked out buses through Baja and as it turned out it was much cheaper to get a flight from TJ to Culiacan – the northwest ofMexico (on the mainland).

It came to $160 each to leave in two days meaning I have to go back to TJ for the flight.

Later after I had a shower the 4 of us went out in the town to eat fish tacos that were delicious and to check out the nightlife on this Sunday night.

Good news for us – because it was the pre-party for the Baja mexico rally some bars had promotions – the best we found was a $4 entry and $1 peso beers up until 10pm.

Keep in mind that $1 peso is the equivalent of about $0.08 cents. The only issue was that to get served at the bar you needed to fight your way through the people.

It was a good night out with me being drunk again where some Mexican guys let me help myself to their bucket of beer.

It was difficult to communicate to the people I meet this evening because a lot of the people spoke very little if any English… I did manage to entertain some with some of the party tricks that I have learnt during my travels which was fun but I really need to learn some Spanish.

I walked home by myself as Mark who’s Spanish is excellent and he was using to chat up a girl and the other 2 guys went home earlier, at this point I was pretty drunk and thankfully didn’t get lost on the unfamiliar walk home.

View from Bus to Ensenada

27/10/2010 - 13/11/2010

During these dates i stayed and worked at the USA hostel in San diego.

Im writing this quite a whiles after these dates so my memory is a little shot (this also could be because of all the alcohol I consumed during this time).

(INCOMPLETE)…. Because im Lazy

26/10/2010

Omar had to get up early to leave for work so after downing a coffee we headed to the trolley station for me to get back to Downtown San Diego with my bicycle.

Omar was smoking when I got my ticket for the trolley when an officer approached us and started being having a go at Omar for smoking too close to a public area, really, Omar dosent have a lot of luck with authority. The officer was an absolute prick, saying that he was being smart with him but really Omar had said nothing other than apologize.

Thankfully he didn’t get a fine but Omar waited with me for the trolley but then the officer approached us again telling Omar to leave the area because he didn’t have a trolley ticket. The Officer was such an absolute fuc*ing prick to him it really was completely over the top.

I made it back to the hostel where I paid for a night.

I spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon organizing ways to sell my bike and craigslist.org was increadible because after 30 minutes from posting details of my bike and pannier rack and bags I got several replys for both.

I met with Edgar at the hostel where I showed him my bike and he took it off my hands without even riding it, I mentioned some (but not all) of the issues with but he handed me the money ($120) and took off… what an easy sell.

15 minutes later another guy named Edgar came and picked up the pannier racks and bags for $25 - too easy!

I mentioned a few days ago that I was wanting to work at the hostel for a maximum of 2 weeks but they didn’t have the position. Now that I was back, a spot opened up and Ros, the assistant manager got me the position. This happened 30 minutes after selling my bike which is great but at the same time it would have been nice to sell it just before I leave. Oh, well.

I celebrated in the evening by drinking a lot of beer and meeting people in the hostel where it really wasn’t that busy but still fun.

Also got involved with a few others going to a thing called haunted hotel, it was for Halloween and cost $13, essentially they converted the basement of a hotel into a freaky/scary tourist trap. The girls in the group were so frightened but being as tough as I am it didn’t phase me :P.

They had actors dressed up as zombies and whatnot and they would jump out at you every so often. It was lame and really well done. Im sure if I was involved with some substance it really really would have freaked me out.

25/10/2010

Pretty much lazed around omars place all day only leaving to get some pot noodles and use the internet at the coffee shop down the road, Out side there was an absolutely disgustingly ugly hooker who not only was fat but also showing most of her backside and gut… yuk.

I met with Omer later and headed to his cousins place via a taco shop for dinner. Aliandro who constantly got stoned was a nice guy but completely out of it. We sat around drinking a few where random people came to his house for a brief visit and soon after left… you can figure out how he makes money.

Anyways I decided on joining Omar and his cousin back across the us border where they both had to work the following day, Aliandro was so out of it he thought he forgot his passport and had to sort out the issue at another border control office having to go through on foot.

I crossed back over the border with no issues and stayed at Omar’s grandmas place

24/10/2010

I managed to reduce all my things and get it all into my backpack which has been something ive been struggling with for the past few days, I do have too many things and its so difficult to throw things away.

I checked out at 10 and again ate all I could at the free breakfast before hanging about the lounge area waiting for Omar to show up and take me and my bike to Tijuana.

Unfortunately all of the pawn shops about in the border town was closed because of it being a Sunday, so I was again still stuck with a bike that I desperately need to sell, it had treated me well for the distance I cycled it and I am going to be upset to see it off and unhappier if I don’t get much money for it.

Anyways Omer only after meeting him for less than a day kindly drove me about still looking for a place to sell my bike. At one point he was looking for a toilet but he had a little bit of an accident whilst getting there, um, It was rather unusual and he was awfully embarrassed about shitting himself but there wasn’t much I could do to help him out, his family lived down the road on the US side of the border so we set off there.

I met his family and whilst he cleaned up and got some Spanish lessons from his little sister Anna. His mum even cooked up some Mexican food for me that was very delicious.

Again we tried looking for a place to purchase my bike but still had no luck, now I didn’t have a choice so Omar and I took my bags and bike through the border where I thought it was weird that I just walked into mexico without having to get my passport stamped let alone showing my passport anywhere.

MEXICO!

Well, here I am, another county ive stepped foot in.

Omar and I took the bus to his place picking up some beers on the way where he temporarily lived in his mums place that was under construction. Im certainly not fussy about where I was staying as ive been in rougher accommodations although it would have been nice to have some toilet paper.

Before heading out into downtown we napped for a good three hours and drank some more beer. It was raining out and being a Sunday the bar scene was at its lowest, still we found a bar playing metal music and chilled there for the evening chatting to a university teacher who taught English.

We did get some late night tacos that were certainly better than the ones I had in the US and headed back to Omars because of the lack of nightlife.

23/10/2010

Again, had to deal with a hefty hangover this morning but one thing I have to mention is that I met an absolutely stunning French girl who unfortunately was leaving today but I did not hesitate to tell her she was so beautiful, I only met her briefly but my god she was so hot, her name being Marina.

I had to sort some shit out today like sell my bicycle because the working position I wanted at the hostel didn’t work out as they were fully staffed.

I went all over the downtown area looking for pawn shops and bike shops only having one shit offer of $45. I put my bike up on craigslist for $150 where I got one reply from a guy but after telling him the frame size he figured it was too small for him. Bicycle rental store didn’t want to buy it either but they did give me an estimate of $150 - $200 being how much I can sell it for.

I tried all day even seeing other cyclists that I chatted to whilst running about offering them but without luck.

I was now leaving to Mexico tomorrow so any offer above $100 would have been fine.

I would stay in San Diego longer to sell the bike but at $25 a night at the hostel it wouldn’t have been worth the money, also I met a cool Mexican guy at the hostel this evening who offered to drive me to Tijuana and try and sell the bike at the pawn shops just before the border.

I didn’t drink too much tonight and chilled with a bunch of people at the hostel only putting back a few beers whilst playing card games with the Swedish girls.

22/10/2010 Attempt at going to the zoo

The hostel offered free breakfast so again, like always I took advantage making 5 Pancakes doused in syrup despite nursing another terrible hangover.

I met Steve (again) from meeting him last night but I had forgotten… damn free tequila.

I headed towards the Zoo with Steve where it was quite the walk but also the price to get in was close to $40… We decided not to go in as it was far too pricy and instead went to the Aerospace museum in Balboa Park.

The museum was actually really cool seeing a few short 4D films where the forth dimension is when they have fans blowing, moving chairs and even water spray that make the experience very entertaining. I still haven’t seen a 3D film but I now I can say I seen a 4D film.

I went to check out if I could spend a bit of time hanging around San Diego so I can sort out my shit like selling my bike by working in the hostel for a week or two, so tomorrow ill find out if they need anyone.

Tonight at the hostel they offered wine tasting and I bought a bunch of coronas and sat around sinking them back in the lounge where I met some Swedish girls into their photography. I sorted out their point and shoot camera with some hacked firmware that I have done with mine its geeky shit, that I wont go into detail… this is one way to impress girls. Anyways, after a while we headed out to the bars but unfortunately some of the crew were under age, we tried a few bars and got into the crappier ones so instead of buying expensive alcohol in these bars and clubs we went back to the hostel and chilled out drinking there which I think is always better because the music isn’t load and you are able to talk amongst ourselves without having to yell.

One guy even bought me subway at 3 in the morning. Thanks man, I don’t even remember your name, meh, ive been meeting too many people under the influence of alcohol so im always forgetting.

What the Zoo looks like from the outside

The only large animal i saw outside the zoo

Balboa Park, San Diego

Aerospace Museum

Is this how pineapples grow?

Inside the Gardens

magic!?

It was a difficult fit