I recently went on a with my wife Melanie for our 11th anniversary to Ensenada Mexico. During the cruise, I learned a lot of new fun cultural information that I would like to pass on to you this week.

To start, I learned that the latest word for “cool” in Ensenada is “chilo” [chee-low].  I asked Miguel, our horseback tour guide, if that word is used just in Ensenada or in all of Mexico. He said that in Mexico City and the interior of Mexico they say “chido” [chee-though] instead of “chilo” for cool, but in Ensenada and many other coastal areas and border cities they say “chilo”. In Latin America, the word for cool is traditionally “chévere” [cheh-beh-ray]. To clarify a little, this is not the type of “cool” to describe the weather, but the exclamation.

Here are a few interesting bits of information I learned about Ensenada. It’s a city on the coast about 63 miles from Tijuana which lies on the border of California and Mexico. It has excellent weather, 65° – 80° (Fahrenheit) in the winter and 92° (max.) in the summer. They also have a rainy season during the year in January and February.

There are about 400,000 people that live in Ensenada. I was surprised to learn that about 10 percent are Americans; just about 40,000 Americans live in Ensenada! It’s easy to see why so many Americans live in Ensenada with the weather being so great year round. Ensenada also is a very friendly environment, wonderful business opportunities (which I’ll talk a little more about next week), and new homes that cost only $60,000. If I could talk my wife and kids into moving to Ensenada, I would seriously consider doing it.

Now I want to tell you more about one of our excursions in Ensenada. After getting off the cruise ship, we took a little bus to a horse ranch located about 30 miles north of the city (which overlooks the ocean, great view). The terrain had somewhat of a desert feel to it, but it was still beautiful. We mounted the horses and rode them up to about 1,000 ft. above sea level. At the top of the mountain was a fabulous view of the ocean, Ensenada, and an island in the Ensenada bay. It was breathtakingly beautiful and did wonders for the mid-winter blues. We had a fun ride and after getting back to the ranch we ate carne asada (roasted meat) with homemade tortillas and mango juice prepared by the some native Mexicans. We had a fun time; I highly recommend it.

Later, I found out that the owner of the ranch is an American woman who now has about 50 guide horses. She is going to construct a bed and breakfast which will be completed in the near future.

Sneak peek at next week: More fun Ensenada info!

¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until Next Week!)
David S. Clark — President / Director

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