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Ensenada
and Catalina
CALIFORNIA CRUISE-IN
With the holidays approaching, I head back to LA for a
quick world-touring break to spend time with the family.
Until, of course, I find a cheap 4-night Carnival cruise deal from LA
to Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico so I can still travel! Now
true, you can drive/ferry from LA to Catalina in about 2 hours, and
drive from LA to Ensenada in under 5 hours. But heck, with the
cruise so cheap (just $750 for my mom, bro and me), might as well
enjoy its 9-piece silverware all-you-can eat dinners, midnight buffet,
24-hour pizza bar, Vegas-style show, sauna, jacuzzi -- and dance club
and gym to work off all those meals. Granted, Catalina and
Ensenada are lacking in the Wonders of the World department, but I do
manage to dig up a few landmarks...
Ensenada
|
|
TOWER
OF WATER
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La Bufadora
I never knew it until I took the Ensenada half-day tour,
but the quiet 300,000-person town of Ensenada actually has a
landmark about |
| half an
hour southwest of the city. La Bufadora is one of the
world's three biggest blowholes; the others are in Australia
and Hawaii. A blowhole is basically a huge water spray
from waves crashing against rock, which looks like a water
geyser shooting up from the rock. I check out the
sprays, which shoot up to 75 feet. And that's a wrap for
Ensenada...Off to |
Catalina
Located a short boat ride from Long Beach, Catalina's
Avalon is a small island town where you go to escape the city
life. Like Capri off Naples in Italy. The small main street with
little tourist shops, cafes and restaurants, serves as a base for the
island's sports, including kayaking, scuba, snorkeling, horseback
riding, hiking and gambling at the Casino. We
decide to jump on the glass bottom boat to see underwater fish and
forests of kelp.
Then, we decide the best
way to quickly see the city is to rent a golf cart for a 1-hour
tour. It turns out golf carts are the main way to get around
town for tourists and locals. We grab a golf cart, and tour the
city, drive out the mountains, driving up to the botanical gardens,
and back down to the casino.
Our trusty golf cart, with the casino and our cruise
ship in the background.
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Our Carnival Ecstasy ship
An awesome lookout point on the way from Ensenada to
LaBufadora
Catalina's most visible landmark is its casino, which
also happens to be an art museum.
This must be a really nice life for residents.
We see fish in the glass bottom boat.
We can almost hear the fish singing "Under the
Sea."
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