Formal Entry Completed

We began the day by visitng Jonathan at the marina office at 9 AM. We were going to pay for 2 nights' stay until he told us that there is a 3-day rate which would give us the third day for only $30. After some discusion we agreed to stay for three days.

Then Jonathan spent a full 30 minutes preparing us for the visit to the CIS to get our official permits, including producing photocopies that we would need and presenting us with a plan of the office with a step by step guide of which corner we should visit when.

We arrived at the CIS at 10 AM and jumped the bureacratic hoops the next 2 hours before we had all of the required permits. I must have presented my passport a half dozen times and made over a dozen signatures, as well as writing down the same information several times. Never mind, though. I am grateful that the government has set this one-stop shop (the first and only one in Mexico so far) that does away with the bad old days of running from one end of town to the other for a day or more. And the staff were very pleasant and professional. I now have a temporary import permit for Pachuca good for 10 years. The costs were moderate, which tells me that the Mexican government has not tried to turn this into a cash cow. The biggest cost was $658.34 which mercifully represented pesos and equated to about $50 USD. There were a couple of other items at about $200 pesos.

It was 1 PM when we were walking back and I decided to go into the town and find an ATM and some food to eat. I found an ATM at a bank and drew out $4000 pesos which was thoughtfully presented in 500, 200, 100, and 50 peso notes.

The I found a restaurant not too up market but above street vendor standard until I get a better feel of the culture. The lazy choice would have been to go to the familiar McDonald's, and a Japanese restaurant interested me. However, I would have considered eating non-Mexican food a travisty which I would have been ashamed to confess to the blog.

I was very pleased with my choice. It was a large, elegant and well patronized restaurant. There seemed to be waiters everywhere. I ordered a bottle of Sol beer then chose broiled fish done "Ranchero" style in the sort of piquante tomato based sauces that the Mexicans seem to love. I was presented with a gigantic heap of fresh nachos and dip to keep me busy while I waited for lunch. The lunch was a very generous serve of soft fish in the sauce, with side dishes of rice and tortillas. The meal filled me to the point where I was wondering how I would manage to walk back to the boat. The entire meal cost $120 pesos which translated to $9.70 USD, beer and all. As I walked out the waiter opened the door for me I gave him my thanks, glad that I had left him a $25 peso tip.

The climate is great, the food is bountiful with huge varieties of vegetables, fruit, and fish. Near Ensenada is the Guadalupe area that produces 90% of Mexico's wine. The people and the children look relaxed, happy and healthy

I think that I am going to enjoy this country Mexico.

I took the accompanying photos on the way back from the CIS. The first image is of Benito Juarez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Ju%C3%A1rez). The middle image is of Miguel Hidalgo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Hidalgo_y_Costilla) The image at the far right is of Venustiano Carranza (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Venustiano_Carranza, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404701149.html) whom from the distance I thought might be Leon Trotsky (Assasinated in Mexico in 1940 by an NKVD agent) .