Ensenada

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Ensenada is the third-largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California. It is located 116 km (about 70 miles) south of Tijuana, at 31°47′N 116°36′W. The city had a 2005 census population of 260,075. Ensenada is also the municipal seat of Ensenada Municipality, one of the five into which the state is divided. Ensenada is locally referred as La Bella Cenicienta del Pacífico (The Cinderella of the Pacific). The city is home to immigrants from other parts of Mexico and from all around the world.

Located in the Bahía de Todos Santos — an inlet of the Pacific Ocean — Ensenada is an important commercial and fishing port as well as a cruise ship stop. There is also a navy base, an army base and a military airfield.

The city is backed by small mountain ranges. Due to its location on the Pacific Ocean and Mediterranean latitude, the weather tends to be mild year-round. Although the winter rain season is short and the area is prone to prolonged droughts, Ensenada sits in the heart of a wine country that is widely regarded as the best in Mexico. 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.

On January 26, 2007, Ensenada became the See city of the new Roman Catholic diocese of Ensenada, with Mgr. Sigifredo Noriega as its first bishop. The territory of the new diocese was carved out of the archdiocese of Tijuana and the diocese of Mexicali.