Current Time in Ensenada, Mexico

Ensenada lies on the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula in north-western Mexico, about ninety kilometres south of the border city of Tijuana. It occupies a wide, sheltered bay called Bahía de Todos Santos, backed by dry brown hills that turn green after winter rain. The climate is Mediterranean and unusually mild, cooled by ocean currents and sea fog, which makes the surrounding valleys ideal for growing grapes and olives.

The city has roughly three hundred thousand inhabitants, and its municipality is one of the largest in Mexico by area. Fishing and seafood processing have always been fundamental, and the port ranks among the most important on the Mexican Pacific, handling containers, cargo and a steady stream of cruise ships from California. Wine, agriculture, aerospace and electronics manufacturing, scientific research and tourism complete a varied economy.

The bay was sighted by Spanish navigators in the sixteenth century and named by Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1602, but permanent settlement came slowly through mission ranches. A gold rush in the hills during the 1870s brought sudden prosperity, and for a period Ensenada served as the capital of the territory of Baja California. During the years of prohibition in the United States it flourished as a resort where Hollywood visitors came to drink, gamble and sail, an era symbolised by the grand Riviera del Pacífico casino and hotel, now a cultural centre with painted murals, ballrooms and gardens open to the public.

The best known natural attraction is La Bufadora, a sea cave on the Punta Banda peninsula where waves compress air and blast a column of spray high into the sky, one of the largest marine geysers in the world. In town, the fish market beside the harbour is famous as the birthplace of the battered fish taco, and the old Hussong's Cantina, opened in 1892, is a Baja institution. The real magnet for many visitors is the Valle de Guadalupe just inland, the heart of Mexican winemaking, where scores of wineries, striking modern architecture and celebrated open-air restaurants have created one of the most exciting food and wine destinations in Latin America.

Ensenada has a relaxed coastal culture of surfing, sport fishing, whale watching in winter and off-road racing, and the Baja 1000, one of the toughest desert races in the world, traditionally starts here. Todos Santos Island offshore is known among surfers for enormous winter waves. Festivals of wine, seafood, music and cycling fill the calendar.

Good highways link the city with Tijuana, San Diego and the length of the peninsula, and buses serve the region, while the port handles passenger traffic. Ensenada is an important centre of science, home to a major oceanographic and higher education research institute and to campuses of the state and national universities, with astronomy observatories in the mountains nearby.

Ensenada is popular for its wine country, its seafood, its coastal scenery and its easygoing atmosphere close to the United States border.