San Diego - Still staying classy! Stayed at the Ocean beach hostel. Gotta say, I Iove hostels and as I´m sitting here in expensive Mexico I´m missing them at the moment. Hard to find the backpacker scene in Mexico so far. Ocean beach hostel is some deal. For $18 they provided a taxi from the airport which in itself was worth $18. Then a free bottle of champagne on checkin and a private room for the two of us. The second night they stuck some scandanavian girls in there with us. Plus besides that they do a really decent free hot breakfast and a dinner most nights! Although we missed this as we met up with Jodie who I used to work with there a few years ago and hung out with her for the day eating non stop in some classy restaurant that she works in!! Thanks Jodie!! Never been so stuffed. Seanie arrived in from Ireland that night to get the trip started.
We spent one day hanging around San Diego been pretty bored. Great city but without a car its hard to do stuff. Spent a summer here five years ago so walked around the all the old joints, beaches, met up with some friends but it was fairly cold and june gloom was hanging over the city. This is a dirty grey crowd that just hangs over the beaches and the city for june. Go 20 minutes inland and its sunshine! San Diego is great for the friendliness of the people. You could be walking around the city or the beaches and people just say hi or good morning like you would on a deserted Irish country road. Of course its still crowded with Irish but we did have a decent mix in our hostel which was cool. Spent the second night chilling out at some beach bonfires.
We thought it was time to hit Mexico and hope they didn´t have the junio gloomio. The aim was to escape the cloud and get some beaches and sunshine. Crossing the border into Mexico is an experience. Two very different contrasting worlds, with McDonalds on both sides!! I expected things to be cheap and to be bargaining like in Asia but everything seems to have a set expensive price, same for locals and tourists. The main problem with Mexico so far is its very very expensive. I knew it wouldnt be along the same lines as Asia but definitely thought it would be cheaper than USA or Europe. So far this is not the case. The main things we need money for are accomodation, transport, drink and food. And all of this was even cheaper in NY. I guess maybe when we get to the mainland it might go down a lot. I hope.
Ensenada was the first stop an hour south of the border and Tijuana. First day there was day trippers from the cruise ships so we partied with them. Drank too much tequila and spent the whole next day recovering. After the day trippers from the cruise ship left it was dead, tourism had left the city so we went out with the Mexican girl at our hostel who was very willing to drive us around and show us some bars and two Germans we met.
Decided to head south again in search of people and ended up in Lorete, about a 16 hour bus ride away. One thing I can say is Mexican buses are unreal. Best buses I´ve been on so far. Didn´t want the journey to end. This was the next biggest city down so we thought something must be happening here. Bus ride was amazing. I usually hate long bus rides but great scenery and so comfortable. Driving through deserts full of Cactaii, mountains, little shacks in the middle of nowhere and then glimpses of the turquise blue sea of cortez between it all. At Lorete we checked in to a random hotel been the only guests and headed straight to the beach. We were like the only people in the whole town. Had this whole beach to ourselves, actually the whole town to ourselves we reckon and at this stage were really just looking to meet people. So enjoyed the day, got a lock in at some little shack where we had a some beers, made up some story to get a refund on our room and hopped on another night bus down to Cabo San Lucas. So in what we thought would take a week has only taken a few days to get to the end of Baja California.
Cabo was finally proper sunshine again, sorching although nothing compared to the NY heat and still ridicuslouly expensive. Its a millionaires playground. Walking through this neighbourhood of mansions that would make some hotels look small. Some of these we saw in the real estate agents for up to $10 million. Others rent per night up to $6000 per night. They are all built on the hills around the city with amazing views. We didn´t think we´d be allowed to walk around but gave it a chance and got some decent views of the Bay. Cabo was nice but wasn´t really my scene.
Photos up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185885&id=509199014&l=dbaaf28a9b
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