Is this the Worst Hotel in San Diego?
You would have to see it to believe it. It sits on the worst real estate in San Diego, it was recently subjected to a police raid for a suspected meth lab and the entire surrounding neighborhood appears be crawling with drug addicts. It’s called the EZ8 Motel and while EZ8’s are not known for luxury this one takes the cake.
I like to cruise San Diego looking for interesting pictures and I just happened upon the EZ8 Motel in Old Town. It sits directly under a major interchange where 3 of the busiest freeways in North America intersect (The 5, the 8 and the Pacific Coast Highway). Now that is the freeways but if you look closely you will also notice that there are train tracks right next to the hotel too. Well that is because the Amtrak train as well as freight trains run right through this motel too. What a gem!
To truly grasp the ludicrous location of this hotel take a look at in the google map below. You can see traffic is merging from the East, North, West and South. It is a crazy snarling mess of a place and the hotel sits smack dab under it all.
I cruised in the EZ8 Motel not sure of what to find. But as I expected it appeared to be crawling with drug zombies. A few of them were raiding the Ice Machine and others appeared to be wandering around peeking in windows. Holy crap this place got a 1 star on Yelp which is about the worst I have ever seen but somehow they stay in business.
They built this huge tall sign so that people rushing by on the freeway can see the hotel. Perhaps they think that the crusty old sign will entice people into this wonderful place. I don’t think so.
Drugs
I was doing a little research on this place and discovered that just a couple of months ago the Fire Department raided the hotel and found a meth drug lab operating out of one of the rooms. Why does this not surprise me? You can read about here. EZ8 Motel is a Drug Lab.
Stabbings.
I posted this update because I was reading the paper and I saw that there was another stabbing at this hotel. I can’t believe this place is still open. Its a haven for all sorts of crime. Read the article here – Stabbing at EZ 8 Motel.
Reviews
When someone headlines their review, “Feared for my Life” you know it’s going to be bad. Here is what one review on Trip Advisor had to say about the motel.
“NO STARS!!THIS SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN!!!Please RUN! This was a complete farce. This is a very very scary Motel.NOT in OLD TOWn at all. We pulled in to find a frightening, filthy dump under the freeway. The photos on the ez 8 website are a lie. It is not near a trolly.. there is no restauraunt across the street. The room was disgusting and had blankets with cigarette burns all over and thru them. There are full time tenants living there with animals and sitting all over the place smoking.. The smoke smell is so pungent i couldn’t breathe in.. People hanging on the corners soliciting and selling.. We got our bags.. cut our losses and saved our lives and left.. ( oh and my room was 80 bux)”
And another reviewed which was titled “Episode out of Cops” tells the woes of another inhabitant that got stuck in a room next to a drug dealer.
Unbeknownst to us our neighbor was a recovering drug addict that stayed up late at night. First night was okay, but second night she got in a fight with her boyfriend over $40 and she called the cops on him. The boyfriend had left by the time to cops arrived, but we got to listen to her tell her life story and embellish her boyfriends misdeeds to cops for about an hour. The next night she spent on her phone yelling at her boyfriend and then of course he finally returned to her place so they could continue to argue the final night we were there. Why didn’t we leave, well we only had one day left before returning home.
But Mostly its the Location
But the real reason I vote this the worst hotel in San Diego is the location. And here is the picture to prove it. These rooms are all located directly under the freeway. I mean cars and trucks are whizzing by just 20 feet over your head when you stay in this hotel.
Darla Wants Ice Cream
We asked a question that we already knew the answer to. “Who wants Ice Cream?”, my mom asked as she took a box of cones out of her cupboard.
Without missing a beat, Darla replied, “Darla wants Ice Cream!”. And so it was.
La Jolla Ain’t Ugly
You know what makes me happy? Taking my camera out for a sunset stroll and all of sudden coming on to a view like this. Sometimes I look out onto this place and can’t believe that this is my front yard. The world is a beautiful place.
6 Best Day Trips from Cabo San Lucas Mexico
Most people know Baja for it’s beautiful beaches or for the deserts but there is another side that not many tourist go to visit – the old villages. By Old Villages I mean Santiago, Todos Los Santos and Miraflores. I have been to many throughout Mexico and the villages in Baja are as beautiful as any that I have seen.
To get the to the many villages in South Baja you need to take the long loop of Highway 1 and Highway 19 and preferably with a 4 wheel drive so you can get to some of the more off-the-beaten-path places that you will discover on your journey. The loop runs several hundred miles but it can be done in two days. We decided that we could sit around the pool in Cabo or we could get in a jeep and see some fantastic sites. We chose the latter.
6 Best Day Trips from Cabo San Lucas
The best day trips from Cabo San Lucas can be reached by Car. I recommend the following locations and even providing a map on how to get to each one. From Cabo San Lucas you should visit 1) San Jose Del Cabo, 2) Mira Flores, 3) Santiago, 4) Las Barilles, 5) La Paz and 6) Todos Los Santos. These are the best locations and there are literally many other little roads that can take you exploring other parts of Baja while you travel to these destinations. If you would like the map of the best day trips click here: Best Day Trips from Cabo San Lucas Map.
Village 1 – MiraFlores Baja California
This sleepy little village showed us the type of scene that might unfold in a small place anywhere off the beaten path in Central Mexico. Consisting of very rural farming types, the community was small and friendly. Most people gathered round the small convenience store in the town. This old farmer had quite a pleasant smile and was friendly to us in every way.
An old man with the pleasant smile invited us to chat with him and to look at his beautiful mural behind him.
Village 2 – Santiago
Further down Highway 1 up the road towards La Paz we landed in Santiago Mexico. Another friendly town with a nice church, a zoo and plenty of broken down buildings. This place was a treasure trove of interesting places to visit and walk around in. No tourist seemed to frequent this place. We had the place to ourselves and it was wonderful.
A beautiful church in Santiago sits vacant awaiting the prayers of people in the village.
Village 3 – Agua Blanca
Passing through mountains and deserts on the way to La Paz there are beautiful little villages like Agua Blanca. It seemed many of the buildings were old and in disrepair but still beautiful to wander through.
Tu stands behind the facade of a falling building. Only a few walls were left standing.
Caffe El Triunfo where the Bandits of Mexico get their coffee
Village 4 – Todos Los Santos
As you drive into the town the signs welcome you and tell you that you are entering a magical place. And they are correct. Todos Los Santos is a magical place. So magical in fact that it became the inspiration for the Eagles Hotel California. The Hotel California is in fact in this little town and it looks like an amazing and beautiful place to stay.
We enjoyed our time in Todos Los Santos where it seemed everything was about art, music and the enjoyment of life. It is only 1 hour from Cabo San Lucas so we would highly recommend taking the time to visit this beautiful town.
Tu walks down the dirt streets of Todos Los Santos. You can see the buildings are old and quaint.
So many beautifully colored buildings. When you walk here, you walk into history and that is wonderful
Get out and explore villages outside of Cabo San Lucas.
So many people go to Cabo San Lucas and end up spending all of their time around the pool sipping Margaritas which is certainly nice. But it you have the time it is certainly worth the drives to explore some of the beautiful and interesting villages that are outside the town and off the beaten path.
Punta Lobos End of the Road
The jeep struggled through a rough patch of particularly sandy road. My fingers gripped around the wheel in panic while I wondered if I had made a mistake. Turning off a deserted road in the middle of the Baja Desert Coastline I was determined to show Tu some beaches off the beaten path.
This cowboy thinks he’s some kind of Chingon standing on his jeep in the middle of the desert. He is not. He is Gallo. A Chicken.
I glanced down at the 4-wheel drive gears realizing that I had no idea how to operate them and now we might be in trouble. We were at least 3 miles from the nearest town and if I got stuck it was going to be a long and miserable walk to find help.
I asked her if she thought we should turn around and she smiled at me and said, “You can do it”. Re-determined to make it happen I put the old jeep in neutral and decided to try my luck at getting us through the sandy dune of a what Mexican’s in these parts called a road. Somehow I got the 4 wheel drive into gear and all 4 wheels began to strain (slowly at first) over the fine sand. The engine sounded horrible but somehow pulled us through.
15 minutes later we were on Punta Lobos – a small but spectacular stretch of beach only inhabited by rusty fisherman, abandoned boats and vans and birds. This was Mexico. This was where we wanted to be and we were there. Sure we had a bit of a panic but we were on a beach where few tourist ever laid eyes on. This was the type of thing that would make the trip memorable.
Apparently, this would be us – Living in our Jeep had I not explored the use of 4 -Wheel Drive on the Jeep.
The Punta Lobos Panga. Old Men on the Sea do their extraordinary work in these small boats.
The waves were pounding the shore. We were too timid to set a foot in them for fear of being washed away.
How much did these birds care that we were there? No mucho.
30 seconds to Happy!
Darla demonstrates her amazing ability to brush off the sad clouds and get happy.
It only takes a few moments to completely change your attitude and get on with a good day when your sad.
Another valuable lesson from Darla.
French Photographers – Francois and Isabelle
I spent a bit of time yesterday with Francois and Isabelle. They came all the way from France and were in California to relax and capture all kinds of great photos of the beautiful state.
I met Francois originally when he was planning his trip out to San Diego. He was reading up on best places to take pictures and stumbled across a blog post I had written awhile back about the Top 15 Place to Photograph in San Diego.
I really got a kick out of meeting Francois and Isabelle, hearing about France and talking endlessly about photography. I took them to my favorite three spots in La Jolla: Windandsea Beach, La Jolla Cove and Scripps Pier. It was a great afternoon!
The Old Men and Their Mural
We were driving through a tiny village in South Baja Mexico when these two men started waving at us to come over. They saw me with their camera and they kept pointing to the mural behind them that they wanted me to take a picture of.
It looks like a mural painted by school children and it was about keeping Mexican Water Supplies clean I believe. You know they always say don’t drink the water in Mexico and I guess the kids that did the sign really got that.
These two old guys were funny. Not sure they had much to do all day except sit outside a small store and talk to each other. The old man with the cane pretended to play guitar with his cane while his friend smiled happily beside him. You can almost see from his smile how he thinks his friend is crazy. He was a little crazy I would have to say. Another great memory from Mexico.
