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La Bufadora

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The La Bufadora Blowhole South of Ensenada

There aren’t really too many tourist sights near Ensenada, unless you feel you must include Hussong’s Cantina on the list. Neither Dan nor I wanted to visit that particular institution, however, so we drove south to the Punta Banda Peninsula 17 miles (27 km) south of Ensenada.

According to Wikipedia:

La Bufadora is often considered a marine geyser, however, it does not have a thermal source or cause, as geysers do. In this case, the spout of sea water is the result of air, trapped in a sea cave, exploding upwards. Air is forced into the cave by wave action and is released when the water recedes, ejecting water up to 100 ft. [30.5 meters] above sea level. This interaction not only creates the spout, but a thunderous noise as well.

The interval between eruptions is fairly constant, and matches the dominant swell, confirming that the activity at La Bufadora is determined by surface ocean waves. Between 2005 and 2011 the recurrence between eruptions was between 13 and 17 seconds.

La Bufadora is one of the largest blowholes in the world.

Normally, on a busy day, visitors must run the gauntlet from the parking lot to the blowhole, bypassing a slew of souvenir stands, food vendors, highly suspicious pharmacies, and bars. But, as we were there on a day when there were no cruise ships in the Port of Ensenada, most of the businesses were closed. On the day after, I am sure the place was hopping.

La Bufadora Between Upswells

In a word, La Bufadora was an interesting place. I did get tired of telling importunate vendors on the way to the blowhole, however, that I was a cheap bastard and wasn’t interested in souvenirs.

Back from Ensenada

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Ensenada Sign at La Bufadora

Yesterday afternoon I returned from Ensenada, where I spent a couple of days with my brother Dan. Unfortunately, the long drive left me with a bit of a sore throat, which I fought by sucking Ricola lozenges. It made me think that I have to scale down some of my travel ambitions, as I am no longer as young as I used to be. But that doesn’t mean that I am falling out of love with travel: It just means I have to do everything more slowly, in stages.

I met my brother in front of one of the San Ysidro parking lots by the border crossing. He drove down I-15 from the Coachella Valley, while I took the I-405, the I-5, and the I-805. Because of heavy traffic and several accidents on the highway, it took me four hours to reach the border.

At that point, Dan took the wheel to cross the border and take the scenic 1-D Quota Road past Rosarito Beach to Ensenada. I was relieved to be just a passenger for that final leg of the trip, as driving in Mexico could be a challenge.

Fortunately, the weather on Tuesday and Wednesday was perfect: breezy and in the low 70s Fahrenheit (21 to 26° Celsius). For some reason there weren’t many American tourists in town, so it felt as if we had the whole place to ourselves. We were surprised to see that a lot of the businesses were closed, until we realized that most of the Yanqui invaders came from cruise ships like The Navigator of the Seas and various Carnival Cruise liners. In fact, only as we were leaving town yesterday morning did we see a liner loosing boat people on the streets of Ensenada.

For the next few days, I will describe in some detail about what we did, what we ate (hey, we went down there for fish tacos—and we were not disappointed), and what we saw.