Ensenada
— — a working harbour the Pacific keeps cool.
Not only on a wall.
“A port city on the Bahía de Todos Santos, about a hundred kilometres south of the United States border. The fishing fleet works out of the inner harbour, the cruise ships tie up at the malecón, and the cold California Current keeps the summer kinder here than anywhere else on the peninsula. Inland from the city the road climbs into the Valle de Guadalupe, the long narrow valley that has become Mexico's main wine country. South of town the headland at Punta Banda holds La Bufadora, a sea-cave geyser the Pacific drives skyward at high tide.
Ensenada, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Ensenada is a Pacific port city on the Bahía de Todos Santos in the state of Baja California, about 110 kilometres south of Tijuana on the Mexico Federal Highway 1. The municipality population is roughly 450,000, making it the third-largest city on the peninsula. The harbour handles both Mexico's Pacific fishing fleet and a regular run of cruise ships out of Los Angeles and San Diego. The city served briefly as the capital of Baja California during the late nineteenth century, and the late-Porfirian customs house on the waterfront still anchors the historic centre.
The cold California Current runs offshore here, which keeps Ensenada's summers in the low twenties Celsius and feeds an unusually productive fishery. The bay was named Bahía de Todos Santos by Sebastián Vizcaíno's expedition in 1602. South of the city, the Punta Banda headland holds La Bufadora, one of the largest marine geysers in North America, where Pacific swell forces seawater through a sea-cave roof and throws plumes up to 30 metres into the air on the right tide. Sportfishing for yellowtail and white sea bass runs strongest from May through October.
Most visitors split time between the city and the Valle de Guadalupe, about 25 kilometres inland on the old wine road that climbs out of town. The valley produces an estimated 70 per cent of Mexico's wine, with a couple of hundred wineries along the Ruta del Vino. In the city, the Mercado Negro fish market beside the harbour opens early and is the place for the fish taco the city is widely credited with inventing. Cruceros tie up at the malecón. Tijuana International Airport, an hour and a half north by road, is the nearest large air gateway.