Thursday, April 19, 2018

Tijuana, Tacos and a Birthday Piñata in San Diego

After exploring Ensenada and the Guadalupe Valley, our final afternoon and night in Mexico was in Tijuana. The city has quite the reputation - Americans tend to think of it as a former seedy tourist party city that was more recently besieged by drug cartel violence. But in the last decade, huge changes have occurred. Señor Frogs and the tacky tourist shops are gone, and crime is down - locals have reclaimed their city as a hub for culture and food. New restaurants and local shops are popping up, making Tijuana an exciting and unexpected destination. We already knew this from Alex and her family, but people are starting to catch on: The LA Times, New York Magazine, and other media are all talking about the new energy in this vibrant border city.

We booked a room at Hotel Pueblo Amigo near the border so we'd be able to walk across in the morning. After dropping off our rental car, we spent some time at Casino Caliente, attached to our hotel. David won some money on roulette! It's fun to bet in pesos, because you get so many more chips to play with. After getting our fill of the casino, we went to Mercado Hidalgo, a large market filled with all kinds of produce, candy, and household goods. We walked across the street to Tacos El Gordo for some delicious al pastor tacos. This is the original, but they've since expanded and we've actually been to their location in Las Vegas!

The view from our hotel, with new skyscrapers going up.
Mole at the market.
Can I have this at my birthday party?
Paul in the pinata section of the market.
Tacos on the outdoor bar, right in front of the grill.
So many tacos on this trip, and they were all great!
David with the trompo team.
They were super friendly!

It was a short walk from Tacos El Gordo to Centro Cultural Tijuana, a huge art museum and cultural hub. We didn't go through all of the exhibits, but we browsed the small but cool gift shop. The building is really neat - it's a huge tan sphere, with a lot of outdoor art and a cafe. Definitely a centerpiece of Tijuana. We crossed the street to Plaza Fiesta, an area with narrow pedestrian streets and a lot of bars. It was still early so it wasn't lively yet, but a few places were open. We sat for a while at the Border Psycho brewery and tasted some of their beers. Beer is another thing that is really starting to catch on in Baja California, with a number of new breweries in the area. Next we walked back to the hotel to change before dinner.

The cultural center is really impressive.
Really cool art at the cultural center.
Beer flight at Border Psycho.
There's a lot of cool street art all around the city.
Crossing the Tijuana River. Similar to the Los Angeles river, it's been fully channelized.
The atrium of our hotel, complete with casino.

Dinner for Alex's birthday was at Misión 19. It's a really trendy restaurant with creative dishes based on the produce and seafood of the region. It's in an upscale area of Tijuana, on the second floor of an office building with big windows overlooking the city. The chef is a culinary pioneer who helped to kick off the foodie renaissance in Tijuana. And what a meal we had! Every dish was delicious, and uniquely presented. We definitely recommend this place as your "fancy" meal when visiting the city. Be sure to make reservations! After dinner we went up one floor and had some drinks at Bar 20 before going back to the hotel to rest up for our early morning departure.


Nice cocktails and great food at unbeatable prices (thanks exchange rate)!
Delicious grilled octopus. So much negative space...
Three types of local pork. All amazing.
Deconstructed red velvet cake. David prefers it fully constructed. 

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and walked back across the border, catching a Lyft to Alex's parent's house south of San Diego. The schedule for the day was a birthday party for Alex, complete with lots of grilled meat from her cousin (a chef). We stuffed ourselves with tacos and had our fill of tequila and beer, before whacking a piñata and having a living room dance party. Fun times were had by all!

The remains of someone else's bad choices the night before.
Firing up the grill for the all-day birthday taco-fest!
The beer of choice for many of the party-goers. Look at those peppers!
He's kinda a wolf pup...
This is small fraction of all the meat grilled on this day!
Stuffing the piñata.
Alex's dad was pretty adamant we drink lots of tequila.
Hanging out, drinking and eating with friends and family. Yay birthdays!
It got a bit cloudy and cold, but the rain held off until night.
So many tacos...
Who doesn't love a good birthday piñata?
Moana piñata, of course!
Blowing out the candles.
Lots of Mijares!
What a face!

That's a wrap on our February trip to San Diego and Baja, Mexico. This trip had been in the works for a couple years and we had a great time with Alex, Julie and Monique. Baja is often overlooked as a tourist destination by Americans, but has a lot of things that make it appealing: from food and wine to beaches and friendly people. We know we'll be back to Mexico soon - it's one of our favorite countries!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Wine Tasting in Baja's Guadalupe Valley

The main event on our trip to Mexico was a day in the up-and-coming wine country of Baja California. Over the last ten years the region has really grown as a tourist destination for wine and food. We took our rental car up into the Guadalupe Valley, just a short drive outside Ensenada. There are dozens of small scale vineyards in operation across a pretty large area throughout the valley. Some are adjacent to the main road, while others are off the beaten path and tricky to get to on bumpy dirt roads. We went to four separate wineries before heading back into town for dinner.

We started at Vinícola Tres Mujeres, a very small winery. We had a private tasting in a small cellar. It was the perfect way to start our day!

The dirt road up to Tres Mujeres.
First sips of wine of the day at the small vineyard Tres Mujeres. Cheers!
The sign says it all.
Paul was the DD for the day, so only had sips here and there. Good sport!

Our second stop was Viños de Garza, a much larger and more developed winery. It had beautiful grounds and a deck with views across the valley. We did a full tasting here, trying a bunch of different types of their wine. We had some local cheese and spent a while relaxing and enjoying the weather!


Our second stop - Viños de Garza - was nicely landscaped.
Vineyards out into the distance.
It was sunny, warm and beautiful out.
Monique with the money shot.
Learning about our wine at Viños de Garza. This dude was also pretty easy on the eyes. ;)
What a great place to hang out!


Little drunk...didn't care.

Our third winery was the unique Vena Cava Vinícola. It took a while to get there, as it was down some very rough back roads. After getting turned around once or twice, we made it to our destination. The cellar is made of old boats, and there was a small pond with ducks. Bonus: there was a taco truck! We got some wine (just a glass, not a full tasting) and sat outside and had some food.


Third Stop - Vena Cava Vinícola - with bonus little lake and boat.
This place had the most laid back, party atmosphere, and was popular with some larger tour groups.
This part of the valley felt very rural.
Snacks we brought with us from Ensenada...
...and luckily they also had some food for purchase! After hours of drinking, these tacos were warmly received.
The man-made pond with mountains in the back.

Our final winery of the day was Viños Pijoan. It was approaching sunset and starting to cool down, so we just stopped in briefly before they closed. The bartender (vintner?) was super friendly and let us split a tasting flight. They also had an amazing port, and several adorable dogs. After finishing up, we drove back to Ensenada, stopping by some roadside dinosaurs on the way.


Last stop - Viños Pijoan - with some very friendly dogs hanging out and a small tasting room.
Mexican puppies at sunet - We call dibs on the instagram handle.
Cozy bar at Viños Pijoan.
What trip is complete without replica dinosaurs? This wasn't at a vineyard, but we pulled over for photo-op.
Julie! Watch out!

After a day of drinking with lots of sun, we returned to Ensenada tired and hungry. After chilling at the AirBnB a bit and watching some winter olympics, we walked down the street to Asadera Loyola. This little open-air, hole-in-the-wall restaurant was packed with families and had a great mom & pop vibe. Plus, they had tacos al pastor on their trompo! Yum!

mmmm. Tacos al pastor!
Paul got the photo op of a lifetime playing trompo chef for a minute!
The next morning on our way back to Tijuana we stopped for breakfast at a cute little shop/restaurant called La Flor de la Calabaza. It had a lot of farm fresh foods and was a good choice for a yummy meal. We also picked up some souvenirs there.

The non-touristy area of Ensenada.
Some unique trees near our AirBnB.
Breakfast!
Beans, egg, avocado... David was happy!
We had an awesome time exploring the wine region of Baja California with friends. It's a really great destination that's more laid back than Napa or Sonoma, but still produces some excellent wine. Next stop - Tijuana and San Diego!