In the following a couple of travel hints are provided. They are based on my
(Jochen Heidts) experience on the occasion of two observing runs at San Pedro
Martir and are especially meant for non-Mexicans coming from overseas or the
US (or South-america). A similar (and also good) summary can be found
here .
Of course, everybody can fly to any airport in Mexico and use than a rental
car to go up to San Pedro Martir. Since distances are very large, however, and
since road conditions especially in wintertime can be rough this is not
recommended.
The best way is hence to go to Ensenada the day before the observations
start and to spend a night there. Ensenada is located about 80 miles south of
San Diego. The two closest airports to Ensenada are the
Tijuana airport (just at the
Mexican-US border on the Mexican side) or the
San Diego airport (which is about 25 miles
north of the Mexican-US border). Since Tijuana provides only a few flights per
days from Mexico City (and none from the US if I understood correctly) its
probably best to fly to San Diego.
From San Diego Airport take
a cab to San Ysidro (the border), which costs about 55 US$ and which takes you
about 30-40 min. Alternatively, you can take the
City Bus 992
to America Plaza and change there to the trolley
Blue Line
to the border (San Ysidro Transit Center). It is much
cheaper (a few US$) but takes much longer (about 1 1/2h). Note, that the
airport fo San Diego has three terminals (a map can be found
here ),
which are connected by a shuttle and all of which have city bus stops.
In San Ysidro you have to cross the boarder by foot,
which is normally quite easy (no passport
control, just follow all the people). Note that US-cabs to NOT go across the
boarder. Once you have crossed the border, you have again 2 options to
continue to Ensenada. You can take either again a cab or a bus. Plenty of Cabs
are available at the border. You can fiddle a bit with the drivers to lower
the price, in the end it will be of the order of 110 US$. The bus leaves very
close to the border from the Plaza Viva. To go to Plaza Viva, go straight
ahead after you have crossed the border for about 200m than turn to the right
and after another 200m you reach the Plaza. The bus station is on the right
hand side across the street. The busses leave every 60mins, price for the
ticket is a bit more than 10 US$. Riding time is about 1 1/2 h.
More information can be found
here .
Once you are in Ensenada take a taxi (few dollars) to your hotel.
Hotel arrangements for Ensenada are best be done via
David Hiriart.
You are normally booked in the
Hotel Cortez,
which is located in the very center and which is surrounded by
quite a few nice and cheap pubs, bars and restaurants.
The next day, a shuttle will pick you up
at the hotel (normally at 9.00 AM) to provide transport
up to the observatory. The ride itself takes about 4-5hrs depening on road
conditions, traffic and the driver. Roughly after two hours, there will be a
stop at a gas station, where you can also buy some soft drinks (note, that the
observatory provides only water, coffee and tea at the telescope as well as
juice in the cafeteria) and other goodies. Remarkable is the great selection
of potato
chips (Kari and myself tried 14 different brands during our May 2008 run
:-).
The observatory has a nice residencia with wireless in every dormitory. Food is
provided in the canteen, where always fruits and cookies are available. Note
that mid-night snacks have to be ordered a few hours before the diner by simply
write down your selection on the board in one of the corners of the canteen.
The 84cm telescope is about 2km from the residencia. You can either walk (if
you prefer) or use a observatory car (enjoy it, its an original "beetle").
The charge at the observatory is currently 35 US$ per day full board and
transport from/to Ensenada.
Transportation down to Ensenada is again provided by a shuttle, which will
leave at 9.00h daily and which normally brings you to the Institute of
Astronomy in Ensenada. There you can clear you bill. For your way back
San Diego
you can either use again a bus/trolley (a ride to Ensenada bus station wil be
arranged in Ensenada) or by taxi again via
David Hiriart. This taxi will
cross the border and brings you either to the San Diego airport or to a hotel
in case you plan (or need to) stay one night in San Diego. Price is on the
order of 120 US$. There is a risk though that you spend quite some time at the
border to go into the US (can be everything from 20min to 3h!).
If you plan to stay one night in San Diego, I would recommend you to stay in
the hotel
Pacific Shores Inn . Its a nice hotel with spacius rooms and
only 200m from the beach, where you can enjoy the sunset with a drink in one
of the many bars there. Since you are an astronomer, I would recommend to have
diner in the
Green Flash, which you can
find by going from the hotel to the beach and than walking for about 700m to
the left. If you are still not tired afterwards, walk around a bit to find
myriads of pubs, discos etc. From the hotel you can take either a cab to the
airport (about 25 US$) or a bus again via Plaza America. The bus stop is
directly in front of the hotel.