Langostas!

Unlike Jen, who had a very industrious day planned on Saturday, we had a bit of lunch adventure planned – heading down to Mexico with some friends to get grilled baja lobsters at a little town, Puerto Nuevo, which is located maybe 45 minutes south of the border between Rosarita and Ensenada.

The day was hot and clear and we got together at my friend Francisco’s house with (the erstwhile bloggers) The Beloved, blogmonicablog and her man, McP (who does not blog, and seems a little incredulous when we bring it up).  Everyone soldiered into my car – with five people going, it seemed a little wasteful to go down in two cars, and since I was driving, I knew I wouldn’t have to get wedged into the backseat…(kudos to McP who did the in-transit photography...)

It’s always interesting to go to a different country.  For lunch.  We crossed the border a little before noon.  Getting into Mexico is pretty easy.  This picture is us approaching the border crossing into Tijuana.

Border_crossing

Ahhh Tijuana … what can you say.  Except avoid it.  And drive on the bypass road around it.  And put your air-conditioner onto “interior circulate” as you parallel the border to the coast.  Once you reach the coast however, you get onto Hwy-1, which follows the gorgeous coast along Northern Baja.  These houses were in a little town north of Rosarita.

Little Pink Houses_sign

One thing that you notice as soon as you get out of the Tijuana area is that this area is growing and growing fast.  Buildings, hotels, new houses are sprouting on the parched earth faster than weeds.  I’m not sure the infrastructure can handle it, but fortunately, I think someone’s got Their Eye on the folks here.

Roadside_Jesus

Arriving in Peurto Nuevo – which is really just a turn-off with (to quote Cori) a gobzillion lobster joints and souvenir shops you’re struck by the smell of the ocean and the aroma of cooking lobsters.  Having eaten a light breakfast, we were all ready to get down to business.  Our destination was Restaurant Puerto Nuevo Uno – shown below.

Numero_Uno

Yes, that’s a line waiting to get in.  Which isn’t too bad – on previous trips the wait could be more than an hour, but this one looked to be under that.  One of our traditions while we wait is to send someone across the street to the deserted “Restaurant Langosta” and bring everyone back what we lovingly call “Cheaparitas”.  The cheaparita is a 99-cent frozen margarita (in a 12 oz styrofoam cup – complete with salt on the “rim”!)  that we’re pretty sure is made with kerosene.

Steve_w_cheaparitas

Anyway, a couple of those on an empty stomach, and you barely know (or worry about) how long you’ve waited outside in the sun.  Soon we were inside and Cisco deftly ordered (he was the only one that spoke Spanish fluently – my 3 years of German not helping me much here…) and soon the feast of grilled lobsters, beans, rice and hot home-made tortilla was before us…

Before

And gone.

After

It is really phenomenal, and well worth the trip and wait.  Afterwards, we ambled about the dusty town – more to let lunch settle and put off getting back in the car.

After Dinner Walk

But soon, we were back on the road to the US.  The drive back was un-eventful, but the border crossing into the US takes considerably longer than the one leaving it.  Although like the wait at the restaurant, this one was pretty short (relatively) too, about 45 minutes.  I snapped this pic as we were about to go through – getting in these lines always reminds me of the scene in “Traffic” where Michael Douglas’ drug-czar character is seeing for himself what crossing the border is like.

Almost home

All in all, a great (albeit not very industrious) day – we were back in the late afternoon, well-fed and pleasantly tired.

PS  Some extra pics in a Collection as well.