Last weekend Charlie and I redeemed a Groupon voucher I had bought to spend two nights at the Rosario Beach Hotel just about 30 minutes away from the border. The voucher not only included two night stay in a ocean view room but complimentary breakfast and 6 margaritas! Before purchasing I researched yelp and overall it had some pretty good reviews so for $190 we decided to do it! As always, one of my other intentions with the purchase was i knew that at that location technically Charlie should be able to go surf. Well, the day we arrived the waves were probably the best but the wind was on it and it just really wasn't where it should have been at. So unfortunately Charlie did not get to surf. Other then that the trip was exactly what we wanted!
It only took us about an hour to get down there. Very smooth traveling. It has been at least 3 or 4 years since we have driven across the border so we were both a little anxious but it all went well. The hotel had security 24 hours a day so we weren't worried about the car at all.
We arrived a little early so we had some time to kill.
Right behind the hotel was the beach and a pier. In fact, you could watch the waves come in from the jacuzzi and pool. We walked the beach and to the end of the pier to get some vista shots.
It was a beautiful day!
There was a lot of life in this city! Occasionally traveling to our favorite camp spot in Mexico, La Fonda, it just seemed like a ghost town. But not here.
There were a few other hotels but the main spots were two beach bars, Papas&Beer and Iggy's which are pictured below. Tongs of vendors, ATV rides, horse rides, food and drinks!
I planned ahead for us on this day and packed a picnic lunch with a few bottles of wine. We ended up posting right near the lifeguard tower and had a two hours lunch. It was perfect. Just watching the waves, chatting, occasionally laying down, talking to some of the vendors (who were relentless).
We had killed more then enough time so decided to go check out our room.
Well we were pleased! We were very excited about the view and decided to do a little sun salutation, giving thanks for it all.
It was a tiny balcony but definitely didn't phase us.
They actually had two pools at this hotel. The one below us was for kids but we contemplated going down the slide, of course.
And of course, this was the only picture I got of the both of us :)
We enjoyed just sitting and taking it in.
That evening we walked on the main st just checking to the stores and restaurants. There was a lot going on in town! Some really popular restaurants and live music. We enjoyed just kind of being outside observers. We walked into a little random taco joint and had dinner. It was perfect. We are over the nighttime partying so we were in bed at 9 watching Spanish TV. Charlie and I have said we don't really care much about the fact that we don't have cable but we were loving watching movies in Spanish. We actually watched Toy Story because we could follow the dialogue. It was great practice but when i think back it cracks me up.
The next day we went down to the hotel restaurant to redeem our complimentary breakfast. We had an egg and chorizo scramble with black beans and tortillas. It was very good but didn't feel like breakfast! After that we decided to take a walk on the beach. Found about a dozen sand dollars and it was perfect out. Well as you can see it was an exhausting walk because we came back to the room and it was nap time.
While Charlie napped I read and took some pictures on the balcony.
Just South of the pier there were horses hanging out for paid rides. I really don't know how I felt about it, the horses were out there probably 12 hours a day and I didn't see them feeding or giving them water so I wasn't really into paying these people to ride them but we did get to watch them trot around a lot which made for some nice pictures. When the sun went down they would do obstacle runs around the trash cans, there were some experienced riders so it was entertaining to watch but I wish i had a big bag of carrots to feed them.
Just couldn't get enough of the view.
We wanted to walk around town again. The night before we saw some signs that kind of made us do a double take. This one below was one of them.
But this was better!!! First off, I saw this "BudLight" store and though WTHeck. I knew I wanted a picture of it because how funny is that, in another country, they have a store for the crummiest American beer. Turns out it was a regular liquor store so I reframed from taking a picture until a guy came up to the DQ (yes Rosarito has a Dairy Queen, maybe a delicacy) next door on his horse. Then i knew I had to get a picture.
We decided to grab some beers on the beach and just hang out and observe locals on a Sunday. The beach was hopping with people! Tons of families spending the day at the beach. There were a few other tourists scattered but it was primarily locals I think. By this time, we had SO many people coming up to us asking to buy stuff, braid our hair, henna tattoos, massage, bracelets, food, and anything you could think of. I think I said "no gracias" 100 times on that trip without exaggeration. We did notice that they go up to everyone though, not just the white people.
But it didn't perturb us much, we just enjoyed our chips, guacamole and Sol's on while watching the waves (or lack there of) roll in.
There were a few stray dogs running around. This one behind Charlie was especially timid, we were watching her with some other people who were feeding her and she scared really easily. So what does she do? She runs behind Charlie like he is shelter and just plops down to sleep.
We had had enough of beers on the beach and decided to test the jacuzzi waters. We were not disappointed. Because it was Sunday afternoon the mother's day mayhem had all checked out and we had the jacuzzi pretty much to ourselves. The two of us just relaxed again watching the ocean, therapy in itself. Since we had such a "tough" day we wanted to just order dinner and take it back up to the room. Dinner was delicious, another variation of meat, cheese, beans, rice and tortillas but always satisfying.
After sleeping through breakfast we decided to check out and head home. We had gotten a fast pass for the border but totally missed the turn. From our time leaving the hotel to getting home it was only 2 hours so it wasn't bad at all.
Until next time Mexico!
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