I recently made reservations for Charlie and I to spend our 50th wedding anniversary at a beach resort in Zihuatanejo, Mexico in March, 2024.
We are very comfortable down in ‘Ol Mexico, having traveled there a lot over the decades. My personal history with Mexico involves almost 70 years of travel, recreation, and good times. I can read and speak some Spanish, so I’m pretty at ease with the culture, and the locals are always friendly.
It began back in the 1950’s when my parents built a vacation residence in Baja California just a few clicks north of Ensenada. Our abode was a small travel trailer with an add-on structure so that there was sufficient room for two adults and four children. We had a family ski boat at the time, and it came in handy for skiing, fishing, scuba diving for lobster and abalone, and cruising in the ocean, which was a couple hundred feet from our “house”. My brother Terry and I had a ball there, goofing off around the beach and shooting off any firecrackers that we could find. My Dad’s uncle Les also had a residence there, along with a fishing boat, and I got to go out with the serious anglers from time to time.
The toll highway from Tijuana to Ensenada hadn’t been built back in the Fifties, so the 104-mile drive was made over lousy, narrow roads in dicey areas. We had to climb up over a mountain on the way, typically in the fog at night, as we would usually do the trip down from Los Angeles in the afternoon after my Dad got off from work. Once, we came upon a grisly auto accident on that mountain pass, found some bloody survivors, and we took one of them with us to a hospital in Tijuana.
The Tijuana-Ensenada corridor was pretty seedy then: lots of run-down dwellings, the ever-present odor of sewage, and roads with lots of potholes. Tijuana, back in the Fifties, was kind of an “anything goes” playground for young folks and American soldiers stationed in San Diego and Oceanside. Needless to say, my Dad always got us through Tijuana as quickly as possible to avoid auto accidents and crooked police officers.
The border crossing at San Ysidro was interesting to me, as a kid, because crossing the border going south involved passing a Federale official sitting in a folding chair, usually taking a nap. Coming back north, crossing the border, involved a large traffic jam where Mexican vendors would walk alongside cars hawking souvenirs and U.S. Border Patrol officials would give your car and passengers the once-over with minimal fuss. They were generally looking for contraband like fireworks and illegals hiding in the car trunk. Drugs were not a problem back then.
I think my parents sold that beach house in the late Sixties. The trailer park property was later leveled to make space for the Autonomous University of Baja California and a very nice seaside restaurant (Punta Morro).
In the early years of our marriage, Charlie and I visited Tijuana, Rosarito Beach, and Ensenada on numerous occasions to eat, drink, and shop. We took the boys down to Estero Beach (south of Ensenada) to do some beach camping with my brother Terry and his family. One of the fun things to do when visiting that area was to see “La Bufadora”, which is a famous blowhole located on a rocky point jutting out into the ocean (and where my Dad almost died many years earlier when scuba diving at that spot!).
By that time, the toll highway was in place and made the trip a breeze. I recall a fishing trip down to Ensenada that I made with some buddies one time. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes while sleeping on the beach, caught a lot of yellowtail, and stopped at a bar on the way north which was infested with prostitutes. One of my friends, who got chummy with one of the girls in a restroom, got a very itchy souvenir that day, if you follow me. HaHa.
We’ve visited Rosarito Beach numerous times for shopping (lots of great pottery, furniture, and yard art) and eating. Our favorite restaurant was called El Nido: great food, good service, very interesting décor.
For a while, Charlie and I and friends would make the trip south from Southern California to Puerto Nuevo (just south of Rosarito) to enjoy the famous lobster dinners. Originally (back in the early days with my parents) the place consisted of a couple of restaurants serving nice-sized lobsters. However, as time went on, Puerto Nuevo became overrun by many lobster restaurants and the lobsters got smaller and smaller and the price got more expensive. We finally gave up on the place.
Years later, we discovered a golf resort south of Rosarito Beach called “Bajamar” where we had some great times with some of our neighbor friends from Bear Creek. A portion of the golf course is located along the rocky shoreline, with four spectacular holes that would rival Pebble Beach at a fraction of the cost.
Charlie and I have been to Ensenada many times over the years by car and cruise ship. It has grown into a very large city, it’s a major port, and the downtown area where tourists go has become quite respectable. There are lots of good places to eat and drink. Hussong’s Cantina is a famous dive where you can get an overpriced cerveza. Our favorite restaurant is El Rey Sol, which is an elegant place serving a French cuisine.
The last time I drove the coastal highway south of Tijuana was on a golf trip to Bajamar with some buddies. We had a great time, but the trip was spoiled coming back to the U.S. when a Mexican cop braced us near the border for a $100 bribe, which we paid to get the hell away from him. By that time, the border crossing at San Ysidro had become a massive circus, what with the thousands of cars, thousands of vendors pestering the in-line drivers, and the increased security. The crossing now took at least an hour. So, that was the last time I drove a car south along the toll highway into Baja.
For a time, Charlie and I (and friends) used to do some short vacations down in San Felipe, which is a small fishing town at the northernmost point of the Gulf of California. To get there, one must drive south from Mexicali about 200 miles through a very desolate desert, with military checkpoints every so often to discourage local bandidos. The trek is comparable to driving the length of Death Valley… and then another 60 miles.
San Felipe reminded me of Ensenada back in the Fifties: a few restaurants, several bars, no crowds, cheap prices, and laid-back attitude. Our favorite nightclub was called the “Rockadile”, where they played loud rock and roll music, and the place featured an indoor sand volleyball court where drunken patrons would blow off steam. Another cool place in town was an open-air enclave of taco joints where the lunch special was several street tacos and a Pacifico beer for one dollar, and that included all of the chips and guacamole that one could eat. We would spend a whole afternoon there, eating and listening to Mariachi music. Just down the street, there was a bar with one of those automated bulls that daredevils could attempt to ride. I tried and failed.
On one San Felipe trip, our group of neer-do-wells decided to participate in the annual Pete’s Camp off-road 50K poker run in the desert. We drove in our friend’s Jeep 4×4 and trashed it but had a fabulous time, particularly at the 25K point where there was a giant marlin barbeque, free beer, and a wet tee shirt contest for the thousands of shit-faced participants.
Over the years, I did a lot of fishing down in Baja waters. My brother and I got started with day trips out of San Diego to catch albacore and yellowtail. Then, we graduated to 3-5 day trips to Guadalupe Island, which is probably the Great White Shark capital of the West Coast. The waters around this island are infested with big fish, seals, and big sharks. It was not uncommon to hook a fish, have that grabbed by a seal, and then watch the seal be brutalized by a huge shark. I can recall one time when I was fishing along the rail when a Great White, that had to be fifteen feet long, cruised just under the surface about five feet from me: awesome!
We later upped the fishing ante by taking 8-day trips on the deluxe Excel fishing boat (125’ long, 32’ wide, deluxe cabins, only 28 fishermen) to do stand-up fishing for bluefin, yellowfin, and albacore tuna, yellowtail, dorado, and wahoo. It was expensive but an adventure, fishing the famous Alijos Rocks, volcanic pinnacles which are about 180 miles offshore and 500 miles south of San Diego. My favorite parts were fishing for squid (bait) at night, bottom fishing for huge Yellowtail, and “kite fishing” for large tuna.
My brother Terry, my friend Ken Mohr, and I took a bunch of those trips. On one of them, we were returning home to San Diego when the captain came on the intercom and informed the fishermen that the Twin Towers in New York had just been attacked. On the way into San Diego harbor (a major Navy port) we were boarded and searched by Seals. It was a very sobering moment.
On other trips, my brother and I fished at La Paz (for Dorado; i.e. Mahi Mahi) and at Punta Colorada, which is a fishing camp midway between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. That part of the Sea of Cortez used to be a world famous fishery, but illegal trawling in the area by the Chinese has decimated the stocks of game fish. We caught a few fish in Punta Colorada, but were not successful in finding many Roosterfish, which are said to abound there. My brother Terry caught a small (100 pound) Marlin by accident.
On another trip, we fished out of Cabo San Lucas for tuna but had little success. I caught a bull Dorado while trolling on the way back to the harbor; it was a monster. The highlight of that Cabo trip was driving ATV’s in the sand dune complex just north of town. Terry and I got to racing through the dunes and desert, going faster and faster, until I flipped my rig and got crushed by it. I was damned lucky to survive that wreck; my pelvis was black and blue for a month. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?
Speaking of Cabo San Lucas, I have been there many times, and it has really changed over the years. Initially, it was a sleepy fishing port where American anglers would attempt to land huge Black and Striped Marlin in famous billfishing tournaments. There was a small harbor adjacent to a small, dusty town with several restaurants and bars. I liked it then. Nowadays, there’s a big city, a big harbor, lots of pricey eateries and watering holes, and cruise ships unloading thousands of tourists each week. It’s now as American as San Diego… very touristy.
Years ago, Charlie and I and some friends stayed for a week at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, which is a high-end timeshare resort located on the coast a few miles west of Cabo city. It was gorgeous there; however, it was on a hillside, and it required a golf cart taxi to get around. It also had a signature Jack Nicklaus golf course on the grounds (very pricey and always windy), along with a high-end restaurant which we frequented.
Charlie and I have taken many “Mexican Riviera” cruises on different ships over the decades, and they all stop in Cabo. Probably the most fun one can have there is ATVing the sand dunes and paddling a canoe out to the big arched rock called El Arco. On one cruise, with our grandson Craig, he and I jet skied out of Playa Medano… it was a lot of fun.
I first visited Mazatlan about 40 years ago when I went fishing down there with some friends. It was a much smaller metropolis back then and the touristy attractions were all located in the “Zona Dorada” and adjacent to the Malecon… where the original Senor Frog’s was located. Of course, everyone went there to get drunk, dance on tabletops to loud rock and roll, and act like fools. Lots of fun.
Over the years, Charlie and I took several cruises that stopped in Mazatlan and some other trips where we flew down there for a week on the beach. It was always fun, particularly riding around town in the “pulmonia” open-air taxis. They are modified VW “Thing” vehicles with custom horns that honk out playful sounds like La Cucaracha, Oooogah, Wolf Whistle, and such, and also blare loud rock and roll tunes.
We visited Mazatlan one time with friends who owned a timeshare at Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan near the Zona Dorada. It was very fancy and had a great beach full of walking vendors, parachute rides, and palapas where one could have lunch and drink Margaritas. We liked it and fell for the pitch… that we could shave $100 off our room bill if we attended a timeshare presentation. We fell for it and were driven out to Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay, a sister resort owned by the same corporation. It was much fancier than P.B. Mazatlan, the facilities were new, and there were plans to build a Greg Norman golf course on the grounds. We fell for the pitch and purchased a “Junior” suite.
From that point on, we vacationed in Mazatlan every year at Emerald Bay, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with family, and sometimes with our So Cal friends. At some point, two of those couples bought timeshares there and we proceeded to have a lot of good times over the years. We even upgraded our timeshare to a Presidential unit (two sleeping units) for two weeks per year. It was an extravagance, but we were making good money and enjoyed the hell out of our times down there.
One of the best things about Mazatlan is the food. It is a major seaport for commercial fishing and is just down the coast from Guaymas, which is the “shrimp capital” of Mexico. Over the many years that we vacationed in Mazatlan, we discovered many great restaurants. Our favorites are La Costa Marinera, Pancho’s, Panama, and Gus Y Gus (all near the Zona Dorada area) and Topolo and El Presidio Cocina in the historic “centro” area of downtown. Another fun thing to do, when you’re not sunbathing, eating, or drinking, is to rent a motorscooter and tool about throughout the exotic city. I’ve done it numerous times; always fun. Or, you can take a walk along the 13-mile paved Malecon walkway, which is perched on the seaside cliff above the crashing surf, like many locals do in the mornings and evenings.
It was in this area that our pulmonia driver stopped the taxi one evening on the way home from dinner in downtown… to show us hundreds of raccoons that had come up from the riverbed adjacent to the street to beg for foodscraps. They were fairly polite, for raccoons, and patiently waited for the bits of bread leftovers that we had on hand. It was one of the most unusual sights that I’d ever seen.
Puerto Vallarta is typically the southernmost port of call for Mexican Riviera cruise ships out of Los Angeles. We’ve been there quite a few times and its always memorable. While Mazatlan is sub-tropical, “P.V.” is tropical, with all manner of palm trees, parrots, and steep, forested slopes that go up a thousand feet or so from the shoreline. The streets are cobbled and the town center area is chock full of great shops and restaurants. There is also a very beautiful area along the Rio Cuale (in the middle of town) with nice restaurants and views… it’s called the Romantic Zone. The central downtown environment is focused on the large church (with a crown on top) which dominates the space.
My grandson Craig and I, while on a cruise visiting Puerta Vallarta, experienced an excursion called the “Great Adventure”. We hopped on a Zodiac boat at the wharf, drove about 30 minutes across the bay at high speed, disembarked at the tiny, indigenous village of Yelapa, loaded into military-type trucks, drove up the steep mountain into the lush forest, and rode donkeys the rest of the way to the mountaintop. Then, we zip-lined all the way down the mountain (perhaps ten long zip routes), belayed ourselves down a good-sized waterfall and then a 100’ drop from the forest canopy, and finished the trip with a slide down a water-filled chute. Quite the adventure: Craig loved it.
On another cruise (through the Panama Canal), Charlie and I stopped in Acapulco. We explored the town, saw the famous La Quebrada cliff divers, and did some shopping. That night, we enjoyed our 25th wedding anniversary at a spectacular restaurant up on a hill overlooking the bay with all of the twinkling lights of the city. It was magical.
Charlie and I have been lucky to have enjoyed lots of cruises in the Caribbean. We’ve been just about everywhere in that pond, including many stops in Mexico.
In fact, our very first cruise was on Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway, which was the smallest cruise ship that we ever sailed and probably the classiest. One of our stops was Playa del Carmen, where we went ashore to take a bus tour to the Mayan pyramid in Tulum and, later, to the Xel-Ha lagoon for some snorkeling with fish, stingrays, and turtles.
Many years later, when the area had developed significantly, we spent some time at Tankah Bay (just north of Tulum) with son Jeff and wife Carol. It was a beautiful beach setting with coral reefs to explore, gorgeous sunsets looking out over the turquoise ocean, and numerous places in the village to enjoy the local cuisine.
We have enjoyed Cancun a number of times, as cruise ships often anchor there. It has become a crowded, pretty wild place for young people to party. The nightclub scene is not really our thing, as we tend to like to enjoy cocktails from a seat in a swim-up bar and consider our options for dinner that evening.
Our favorite place in Cancun, by far, is a place downtown called La Habichuela. It doesn’t look like much from the street but, WOW!, when you enter the place your jaw drops from the beauty and classy setting. The food is GREAT. I recommend that joint to anyone who visits Cancun and has the nerve to leave the tourist zone and drive into the downtown area. Maybe the best restaurant that I’ve ever patronized.
We visited Cancun once with my Mom and sisters while on a cruise. Charlie and my sisters decided to “swim with the dolphins” (they had a great time) while my Mom and I did some shopping and I took her out to lunch. It was a special time for us. On the way back to the ship, a severe thunderstorm swept into Cancun, the likes of which I’ve never seen. It rained so hard that you could hardly see through the falling water. After sheltering in a shop, and debating what we should do, it was decided that we would make a run for the ship down the quarter-mile pier. We did that and got drenched to the bone before stepping onto the gangplank. That frantic run was even the more impressive because my Mom was in her Eighties at the time.
During a trip to Cancun once with son Jeff and wife Carol, we drove our rental vehicle the couple of hundred miles west into the Yucatan rainforest to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We stayed at the Mayaland Hotel, which is located on the national park property, and it was very nice. The next day, we explored the World Heritage Site… it was awesome, one of the coolest places I’ve ever visited.
Later, we visited several of the cenotes (underground water-filled caves) that abound in this part of the Yucatan. Probably the most scenic is the cenote Ik Kil where, I believe, Jeff and Carol swam and dove in the crystal clear water. Overall, the trip to Chichen Itza was a 10+.
Probably the most spectacular trip to Mexico that we ever took was unplanned. We were both working hard and needed to “get away”, but only could spare 5 days. I got a local travel agent to come up with a plan and she suggested Mexico City. I was not amused, as I had heard that it was very smoggy and crowded (20 million people and 20 million VW’s). She talked us into it and off we went. We stayed at the luxury hotel Camino Real located adjacent to Chapultepec Park, which would be Mexico’s version of N.Y.’s Central Park or the National Mall in Washington D.C. It’s a beautiful place populated by museums, walkways, statues and lakes. The most impressive attraction was the Museo Nacional de Antropologia which was every bit as impressive as the Smithsonian in D.C. We loved it.
By accident, we met a taxi driver who was also a licensed tour guide, and we hired him for two days to take us “wherever he wanted” in the sprawling city. He proceeded to do just that while giving us a college-level lecture on the history and culture of Mexico. What a cool guy! We visited the Presidential Palace, the National Pawn Shop, the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, the Aztec ruins of Tenochtitlan (Templo Mayor), and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, among other places. And ate at restaurants that he enjoyed: the food was great.
On one of the days, our guide drove us out of the city to the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan. This place is the most impressive ancient city that I’ve ever seen. It is a huge complex of stone structures built by… no one knows!… and flourished from 300 B.C. to 500 A.D. There are two large pyramids that dominate the ruins along with many other sizable structures (possibly religious or governmental) flanking a broad, stone-paved boulevard. The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest pyramid in the world, with four times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. At the time I visited, it was permissible to climb up to the top of the structure, which I did along with hundreds of Mexican locals. It was very steep and difficult to climb; one wouldn’t want to stumble, for sure. The view from the top was magnificent!
On my list of most impressive sites that I’ve visited, Teotihuacan has to rank near the top with Venice (Italy), Toledo (Spain), the Alhambra (Spain), the Vatican (Italy), the Amalfi Coast (Italy), Pompei (Italy), Santorini (Greek Isles), and Yosemite National Park (U.S.).
In conclusion, I have immensely enjoyed my decades of travel in Old Mexico. Lots to beautiful things to see, fun things to do, and wonderful places to eat good food. Probably the best thing about Mexico is the people: they are friendly, helpful, fun, and intelligent. I can’t remember running into any “bad guys” down there in my 70 years of travel… except that gangster motorcycle cop at the San Ysidro border crossing many years ago. He had a family to feed, I guess.
I can hardly wait for our 50th anniversary trip to Zihuatanejo!!