Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

In December, our backpacking & sailing friends from Colorado, Bev, Jim & Karen arrived in Ensenada for the Christmas holiday.  Our first stop was lunch and wine tasting at La Villa del Valle, an inn in Valle Guadalupe.  

               

Corazon de Tierra restaurant & garden

The restaurant, Corazon de Tierra was recommended by one of the racers we met at the Todos de Santos race.  The restaurant was created for Chef Diego Hernandez, who has been cooking his way through some of Mexico's finest restaurants.  I can't say enough about our meal ... a winter salad made from organic produce grown on the property, local duck dumpling soup three ways, fish with gremolata, fennel puree & sautéed Swiss chard with arugula, rib eye with black bean jus & acorn squash puree, and lemon verbena ice cream with lavender cream and fermented fig compote ... wow!  It was one of the best meals I've eaten!  And they make their own Vena Cava wine which is outstanding.  Congratulations to the owners of La Villa del Valle, Phil & Eileen Gregory.

Anges Cameleyre, who arranged our visit, and Chef Deigo Hernandez

We can't wait for lunch!

               

Winter Garden Salad & Ribeye with Acorn Squash Puree

We stopped by Adobe Guadelupe Winery ... they also create excellent wines.  Keep your eye on the Guadalupe Valley wine region - they won't be able to keep their wines secret for long.

Adobe Guadalupe Winery

Tasting Room

Christmas Eve: On Christmas Eve, Kathryn took our friends to show them the sights in Ensenada while I went to a doctor's appointment.  

Cultural sights & ... 

Commercial sights

After lunch we took Agave Azul offshore to sail and to look for migrating Gray Whales.  It was a great sunny day with temps in the mid-60's.  A few miles offshore we found our whale.  We found just one on this trip and it didn't breech, but we did follow the whale for a half hour or so as it surfaced and spouted.  We sailed around the islands, the wind picked up to 20 knots and we had a great sail back to the marina.

               

Jim & Beverly

               

Karen & Kathryn

Bev, Jim & Karen in search of migrating Gray Whales

Thar She Blows!

North Island Light

Surf off the windward side of Islas Todos de Santos

Christmas Day: It was another beautiful day on Christmas and we left early to take our friends down the coast to see more of Mexico and to visit the natural blow hole, La Bufadora.  As we drove on the road high above Punta Banda we saw several whales spotting offshore.  The traffic was light and it was early for the local tourists so we had an easy time getting there.

               

La Bufadora shopping & a snack of churros!

The tide was high and so was the spray at La Buffadora 

The girls ... 

On the way back to the marina we continued our search to find the best fish tacos in Ensenada.  Our first stop was a return to one of our favorite's, Tacos Don Zefe.  

Tacos Don Zefe Cocina

Tacos Don Zefe

We asked the staff at Tacos Don Zefe for directions to another place that we heard had great tacos.  It was across town and their directions were right on target.  The fish tacos at El Chopipo are the best we have had to date.  They had large pieces of fish fried in a light batter and they had a good selection of sauces.  Kathryn is a fan of ceviche, so she tried a tostado de ceviche, which was excellent, but we will definitely go back for the fish tacos.  We have a few more of the smaller street stands we want to sample on our next visit.

El Chopipo

Tostadas de Ceviche

El Chopipo Cocina

We headed out for another chance to see the Gray Whales.  We didn't see any whales, but thought I saw a large pod of dolphins in the distance and as we got about 9 miles offshore, we sailed through a huge feeding frenzy by birds and dolphins.  Even the sea lions from Islas Todos de Santos came out to join in.  We were under sail the whole time so we tacked several times through hundreds of dolphins as they continued feeding and surfing our bow wave.  It was an amazing display of wildlife.

Pelican feeding frenzy

Hundreds of dolphins also feeding on a large school of fish

"How Cool Is That?"

Dolphins surfing our bow wave

Christmas Day sunset behind Islas Todos de Santos

Thanksgiving in Ensenada

My children, Mark & Carrie, joined us in Ensenada for Thanksgiving.  When we arrived in Ensenada it was sunny with a nice breeze, so we dumped the bags below and took off for a sail to Islas Todos Santos.  

Leaving Marina Coral

Mark

Carrie

As we got closer to the islands the wind got lighter so we headed southeast and put up the chute.  We'd never been to the main Ensenada port, just 2 miles south of Marina Coral, so we motored in to tour the harbor.

The port is busy with container ships, dry dock, a large fishing fleet and yacht harbor.  Ensenada is also a stop on the cruise ship circuit.

We motored back in to Marina Coral just as the sun was setting & BBQ'd steaks for dinner.  A perfect end to the day.

Thanksgiving Day

Instead of a traditional Pilgrim dinner, we decided to explore in town to find the best of Ensenada's renowned Fish Taco's!  Our first stop was Tacos Don Zefe, and we were just in time for their lunch special - 2 tacos for 7 pesos.  That's right, we had 8 tacos for $2.00 US total!  They also have Shrimp, Squid and "Gobernador" tacos .  Also on the menu was a Mantaraya Quesadilla - shredded manta ray.  I tried Mantaraya on a later visit and it was delicious.

The Pescado is fried in a tempura batter and the diner selects from tomato salsa, pickled onions, shredded cabbage, radish, fresh limes and a variety of sauces add spice and flavor.  Kathryn has been trying to get me try more spicy foods, so I thought this would be a good place to try.  One of the sauces was in a small bowl and lighter in color, so I thought why not, it must be lighter in heat, too.

This is a photo of Kathryn before she swallowed a bite of the taco with the "lighter" sauce.

This is the photo showing her squeezing the tears out of her eyes after a bite with the "lighter sauce".  I drank half the can of Coke after my bite!

Rancho El Fenix was another favorite stop on our quest.

One of the local tourist attractions is "La Bufadora", a blow-hole on the Punta Banda peninsula about 35 kilometers south of Ensenada.  

To get to the blow-hole, you had to run the gauntlet of tourist stands, but despite a low tide, the blow-hole itself was pretty spectacular.

La Bufadora

We made one more stop before heading back to the boat.  Just north of Marina Coral is the Punta Morro resort, which I was told had an excellent restaurant with a great view.  After our fish taco experience we wanted more local food, so we stopped at Punta Morro on the way home.  

The bar at Punta Morro

Ceviche and Lobster Quesadilla

 Islas Todos Santos from Punta Morro resort

Mark had to be back at work in San Diego on Friday by 3:00pm, so we got a very early start to drive Mark & Carrie back to San Diego.  

Whales!


Kathryn and I arrived back to the boat early in the afternoon.  The wind was blowing 15 - 20 knots so we decided to head out for a quick sail.  As we neared Islas Todos Santos I noticed some spray near the island that I hadn't seen before.  As we got closer, I noticed that the spray was moving in our direction and we saw the spouting plumes and tail fins of two whales.  In the next 15 minutes we saw the pair breach completely out of the water half a dozen times.  It was amazing!  We didn't get closer than a few hundred meters, so even if I'd had my wits about me to grab the camera, I don't know how well the photos would have turned out.  Gray whales typically migrate down the Baja coast in late December to breed, so we'll have another chance to get some pics over the Christmas holiday!  Stay tuned.

America's Cup World Series - San Diego

AC Fleet in San Diego / ORACLE Racing (Coutts)

On my way back from Ensenada, I stopped at the America’s Cup Village in San Diego.  There was no racing on Monday or Tuesday, but that allowed me to get a up close view of the AC45’s and to be a tourist in the village. 

Aleph - France

Emirates Team New Zealand

A fun tourist activity is a 5 minute video of what its like to sail on an AC45.  Viewers sit on catamaran trapeze seats and when the action starts high power fans and splashes of water add a bit of realism to the video.

AC45 tourist video ... it was wet!

AC World Series racing has been very competitive and the two previous days of warm up races saw 6 of the 9 teams winning races.

Day 1 Racing

Today was the first day of the World Series and with a new skipper, French team Energy won the top spot and along with Emirates Team New Zealand and ORACLE Racing Spithill, they are seeded in the match racing semi finals.

GreenComm Racing - Spain

ORACLE Racing (Spithill)

Kathryn and I have been following the America’s Cup races on TV.  Racing the AC45’s looks crazy difficult.  A boat can be well ahead of the fleet and lose their position pretty quickly as mistakes are made or conditions change.  It is a good thing they have two years to practice before the main event in September 2013.

Wine Tasting in Mexico?

Guadalupe Valley

Kathryn attended a meeting in Albuquerque last weekend so I headed down to Ensenada to spend some time on Agave Azul.  After completing boat chores on Sunday morning, our slip neighbor, Bill and his wife Sandy and I went off in search of wine tasting in the Guadalupe Valley.  Kathryn and I enjoyed an excellent bottle of local wine, Monte Xanic, at a restaurant on our last trip so I was excited to visit the wine region.  Guadalupe Valley is just a few miles up the road from Ensenada and a complete drive through the region takes just a few hours.  

Wine tasting in Mexico is a bit of an adventure.  Although there are signs to La Ruta Del Vino there were few signs to individual wineries.  So we started at the easiest to find & largest winery in the region, L.A. Cetto.  We tasted some good wines, bought a few bottles and we got a wine area map that helped us find other wineries.  

We drove down some flooded dirt roads (big storm on Saturday) in search of a recommended winery, but couldn’t find it.  Bill speaks Spanish so he stopped to ask a winery worker for directions.  The winery worker turned out to be a plastic surgeon who owns his own winery.  His winery tour appointment was a no-show so we stopped to taste his Vinedos Lafarga wines.  He told us about the history of wine growing in the valley and how his family got started in the winemaking business.  His passion for winemaking made it a great visit.

Dr. Lafarga 

Vinedos Lafarga Vineyard

The big find was Adobe Guadalupe, a winery recommended by a local sailor who raced in the San Diego to Ensenada race.  The region has conditions similar to those in southern France so Bordeaux blends and Rhone varietals are popular.  The Adobe Guadalupe wines were excellent.  Mexico is definitely on its way to becoming a top wine producer.  

Adobe Guadalupe Winery

It's a comfortable B&B, too

Tasting Room