August 2024: For my daughter Indie’s 1st birthday, my family and some friends rented a beach house on Playa Baja south of Ensenada, Mexico for the weekend. Despite living less than 20 miles away from Mexico, this was Indie’s first time to Mexico and also her 10th country. Baja Beach is a beautiful natural beach tucked in between the coastal mountains and Ensenada where you are likely to have the whole beach to yourselves. We had a large beach house beach front for two nights. Every night we had a large bonfire in our patio facing the ocean and during the day we went for a swim in the Pacific Ocean. It was a fun and relaxing weekend in Baja, one of many we have been lucky to have over the years.
Abandoned Beach
One of the reasons why we had most of the beach to ourselves was because there were so many abandoned beach houses, and a large resort also abandoned. The beach is one of the nicest along the Ensenda to Tijuana coast and has a lot of tourist potential, so it is surprising to see so few people on it. The abandoned buildings sort of add to the intrigue of the experience of visiting the beach and add a haunting element. I found out from a resident that there was a large development project in the early 90s that saw 100of Americans purchase homes in the area. The developer it turned out didn’t have proper ownership to the land and the government deemed the sales fraudulent and the military came in to seize the homes and the mega resort. Some people repurchased their homes while others abandoned them and the resort entirely and to this day these structures lie in ruin. My friend Dan and I explored the mega resort, climbing around inside its hallways starting to become overgrown by nature. The beach was moving to retake the hotel and vegetation was starting to grow over the structures. We managed the explore the hotel for about an hour before being kicked out by a security guard who finally spotted us. It turns out the hotel is for sale and security is onsite to prevent any more vandalism and squatters from seizing the property.
Abandoned mega resort
Abandoned mega resort pool
Happy Birthday to My 1 year Old Daughter
For Indie’s birthday, we swam in the beach, had bonfires, decorated the house and dressed her up in a little traditional Mexican dress. She had her own low sugar cake that her mom made for and in the afternoon we all had dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant with a live band that sang the traditional birthday song to her.
Our outdoor beach patio
Paula and Indie on the beach
Beach time
Indie and Daddy
Indie and Daddy
The last sunset of Indie’s 1st year of life
Indie and Momma in our amazing bedroom facing the ocean in the morning
Birthday party
Birthday party
Birthday party
Birthday party
Birthday party
Birthday party
Birthday party
Birthday party
At a local restaurant with a live Mexican band, I asked them if they could play a song for our 1-year-old daughter and they played the Mexican Birthday Song – Las Mañanita, which I had never heard of before. It was a beautiful 100 year old traditional Mexican song but quite sad song honoring the departed soul of a child. When I asked my Mexican friend why such a depressing song is played for so many children on their birthdays, she told me, “This is just Mexico. We like depressing.”
Birthday Dance Indie and Momma-Las Mañanita Traditional Mexican Birthday Song