Embarkation!!!

On the morning of the 17th I woke up. It was another beautiful San Diego morning and I had some time before my bus to Ensenada at 10 am. I decided to go for a jog and work out some of the stiffness that occurs when flying and stressing out. My run was about half an hour long. I went from the Sheraton Hotel to the west end of the island and back. It was absolutely beautiful. On the way out I ran by the marina and saw all the pretty boats. Coming back, I was running next to the bay with a view of the downtown skyline. At exactly eight o’clock I heard something and took off my headphones. A bugle was playing reveille across the bay.

At the hotel I got ready, packed everything up, and went out to the bus. I checked in at a table staffed by Semester at Sea, got tags for my bags with my room number on them, and joined a plethora of SAS students, family, and friends. I got onto bus 12 after handing off the checkable luggage. Thus began my journey into Mexico.

It was a pleasant journey. We stopped multiple times for Mexican officials and armed soldiers to come aboard and count how many people were on the bus. Then, near Ensenada, we encountered a dinosaur.

In the middle of the highway was a road-repairing device. It seemed to have the ability to pull up asphalt and also lay down the crushed rock to create new road. This machine was large and had a cab low to the ground above the tank-like locomotion units. Then it had a neck that was about twenty feet long. It extended at a forty-five degree angle and the flattened, much like the head of a dinosaur. Our bus stopped and waited for this mechanic wonder to slowly swing around and pull over to the side of the road. That was my encounter with a dinosaur.  

Driving into Ensenada, the bus went around a turn and suddenly we could see the MV Explorer, one of the fastest passenger ships in the world, sitting in the harbor. As we completed the turn a Carnival Cruise ship dwarfed our beautiful Explorer. In the port, I got off the bus and went through a series of checkpoints. I confirmed that I was not ill with the swine flu, then I turned in my passport, received my SAS I.D.,  and boarded the ship.