Mexico Tour
Written by Bryant Irawan
During the Thanksgiving weekend of 2006, ICAA launched its sixth organized tour. However, ICAA decided to take things to the next level and seek to accomplish a quest never been done before in the history of ICAA. Finally we were heading to a country so unfamiliar and so unique in its own way; no other country can match its vigor and eccentricity. Although many people are unaware of its true personality, everybody in our tour will have second opinions about Mexico, land of natural beauty and Our tour was not going to another ordinary U.S. city tour spot, we were going to Mexico, land of bartering and natural beau ty.
 On the way to Mexico, the tour took a quick stop to browse the historic side of San Diego. Presently, San Diego is slowly undergoing a metamorphosis into becoming another economic metropolis. On the other hand, San Diego maintained to prevent all the history from being wringed out and forgotten. In 1968, the state of California declared Old Town San Diego to become a state historic park, but it took 40 years for tour companies to finally see that San Diego deserved to have historic tours like most metropolis cities. Old Town consists of a puny village compared to what present San Diego has become. However, tourists and visitors are able to see how an old American town operated and how much past schools in 1865 advanced into becoming present public schools. Mason Street School, first public school established in San Diego, looked completely different than our present schools. The obvious differences was that their whole school was smaller than one classroom in present schools. Desks were cramped and it would be impossible for teachers to teach several grades at once. Schools back then must have been straight to the point and short in time in order to fit time to teach all the age groups.
 Our next stop in San Diego was more on the futuristic side of San Diego. Believe it or not, San Diego is home to many military bases that belong to the Navy, Coastguard, and even the SEAL operation team. Our tour went on a quick half an hour tour to see docks that repaired massive air carriers and passed through some of the military bases. The cruise ship also circled around the well-known Ocean Bridge that linked Coronado and San Diego itself. This bridge was made during the time Ronald Reagan was governor of California and was soon going to posses the seat of the president of the United States of America. After a quick loop around the bridge, our tours went off to the VIP Oriental Buffet with an empty stomach.
 The tour enjoyed an oriental buffet and filled their stomachs to prepare them for the long trip into Mexico. Obviously a two day tour could not travel all around Mexico so our tour focused in on tour attractions at Baja California. Our first stop was La Bufadora, the famous natural blowhole that spits water and foam everytime a tide sweeps in the cave’s mouth. As soon as a tide enters the cave’s mouth, air pressure builds up and shoots the water back out at a height over 70 feet.  After our whole tour was satisfied with its beauty, La Bufadora had one small street close by for tourists in case they were eager to try local taco specialties or even deep-fried churros.
Night was falling in and our tour started to Ensenada where the tour guide already booked a hotel for us. Ensenada was more of a peaceful city and didn’t have much street merchants. Instead Ensenada’s busiest shopping street was filled with top designer stores and old antique shops. After unpacking all our baggage in our hotel, we walked to a local steak and lobster restaurant. After being exposed to the chilly winter nights of Ensenada, entering a cozy, heated restaurant was a blessing from heaven to everybody in our tour.
As I took a quick skim on the menu, I noticed a lot of my favorites were included and fillet mignon only cost a mere 15 bucks. Believe it or not, the lobster wasn’t far off from the fillet mignon. Maybe a mere one dollar separated the two of them. Amazingly enough, the restaurant managed to prepare all the meals for our 54 persons tour in an unbelievably short amount of time. However, the best surprise of the day was, the fillet mignon included a baked potato and a bowl of clam chowder. But that wasn’t all. The fillet mignon was so juicy and was the size of my head! The steak must have been an inch thick since it was so difficult to slice through all the meat packed in the steak.
 While everybody was calm and chatting along while they ate, the restaurant had a group of mariachi band. In Mexico, the tradition is whenever the band spots you laughing or sees your teeth, they start singing at your table. You might think it is a blessing to have a private mariachi band play beside you, but there would be tragic consequences concerning your bill. A whopping three dollars would be added for every song. Fortunately for us, nobody was caught in the mariachi band’s decisive plot and were off to try a desperate plan to burn off a puny ounce of the humongous dinner.
On the way back to the hotel, the tour guide informed us that the liquor stores in Ensenada sells a mysterious secret ingredient, kahlua, top ranking chefs regularly apply to their desserts and much more. Kahlua is a rich coffee wine that can be applied to most desserts and drinks. However, in Ensenada one bottle of kahlua was around 10 bucks. In the States, one bottle could reach to 35 dollars!
 We arrived at the hotel. Most people in the tour thought the hotel would be puny and cramped. They were proven wrong a thousand times over and over again. The rooms were ordinary sized, but the showers were so huge! The shower could at least hold around four people and all of them would have an easy time maneuvering. After scrubbing that horrendous brown wash away from our bodies, we dashed on our beds and made sure to have a good deep sleep to prepare us for our crammed schedule ahead.
 The next day, we were off to Calafia, land of the oldest winery in Mexico, in Rosarito. This hotel was the location of where the movie “Titanic” shot its restaurant scene. The restaurant is right beside a cliff so you are able to see the ocean ahead. The restaurant is placed so close to the edge of the cliff that you can’t even see the shore to give the restaurant the feeling that its gently floating in the middle of the ocean where nobody is around.  After a traditional Mexican buffet, we were off to Tijuana and its famous shopping streets. Unlike Ensenada, Tijuana was filled with street merchants that offered quality goods for very low prices. If you have a talent to bargain, you have a high chance of lowering that price even more!
 On the way there, the tour guide hired Ramon, a guitar instrumentalist, to help lift our spirits up and have a little amusing sing along. After an enjoyable sing-along help pass the time we gave our farewells to Ramon and ventured off to the merchant streets of Tijuana. There were donkeys with black and white stripes that posed in every corner of the neighborhood and were on the standby for any children or families to climb on its back and take a few snapshots with authentic sombreros. We didn’t have much time to fully browse through every store in Tijuana because the border were usually packed so we grouped everybody together and headed to Coronado Hotel.
 But first our bus had to manage to jump over the border. Unfortunately, no bus would be able to accomplish this feat so our tour had to take the “being scanned thoroughly” option.
However, the bus line was completely empty and we got past the border in a record time of around five minutes or so. You might have remembered from our trip to San Diego that the ocean bridge linked Coronado and San Diego. We came back to where we first started and crossed the ocean bridge to arrive at Coronado.
 Turns out that Coronado’s real estate was booming for San Diego. The hotel was elegant and fancy. Other than that, all the electric appliances were installed and designed by the inventor of electrify himself, Thomas Edison. Beside the hotel, a small sandy beach resided for hotel guests and tourists that knew its secret location. The hotel was built in 1884 and finished in 1888. The project was completed without ever using a nail!  Twelve presidents had parties in its elegant dining room that was topped off with a marvelous hand made wooden roof. Sadly, our tour was coming to an end and a short nap helped pass the time away on our long trip back home.
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