Ensenada

Ensenada is a coastal city in Mexico and the third-largest city in Baja California. It is located 125 kilometres (78 miles) south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula. The city is locally referred to as La Cenicienta del pacifico, or, The Cinderella of the Pacific.

One of the first cities founded in the Californias, Ensenada is now known as a cruise ship destination, aerospace center, and as the heart of a wine country regarded as the best in Mexico and the Americas alongside Napa Valley. It is said that the first Vitis vinifera made it to the peninsula (specifically to the San Ignacio Mission) in 1703, when Jesuit Padre Juan de Ugarte planted the first vineyards there. Situated on the coastline of Bahia de Todos Santos - an inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the Gold Coast - the Port of Ensenada is an important commercial, fishing, and cruise ship port. Residents often refer to themselves as portenos (port-dwellers), in reference to the historic harbor. The city is home to a navy base, army base, and military airfield; functioning as an airport of entry into Mexico. Ensenada is the municipal seat and cultural and commercial center of Ensenada Municipality; one of the five municipalities into which the state is divided. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 279,765; 59% of the total population of Ensenada Municipality.