Hola!
I thought I´d put up a few photos from Tijuana.
I crossed over the US border with no problems, except for a woman on the tram asking me if I was homeless. (Maybe it was the pillow that I carry Linus-style everywhere with me, and the fact that it was filthy after being dragged (also Linus-style) across the floor of multiple airports.)
Once I was across the border, a woman stopped me and asked where I was going. I told her the area and she said she was going to her dentist in the same part of town (yes, she comes to Mexico to go to the dentist). She suggested that we share a cab, because she was worried about getting one by herself. I couldn´t believe that she was afraid to get a cab in the centre of town, at 10am, for a five minute ride! I´d only been in the county two minutes and even I could see that this was carrying the Tijuana paranoia a little too far.
I stayed in a little hotel near the entertainment and surgical centre of Tijuana. It quickly became obvious that tequila and giving anaesthetic is the primary source of income here.
The tequila part is obvious: heaps of young American gringos come here to party. But, there are also dentists, optometrists, doctor´s and medical-supply offices everywhere. Having dinner one night I saw two Americans wearing pyjamas, with little IV bandages on the back of their hands. I started listening in and realised they'd both had lap-band surgery. I'd feel fairly confident going to the dentist in Tijuana, but I'm not sure I´d be undergoing stomach surgery in a hurry.
I thought I´d put up a few photos from Tijuana.
I crossed over the US border with no problems, except for a woman on the tram asking me if I was homeless. (Maybe it was the pillow that I carry Linus-style everywhere with me, and the fact that it was filthy after being dragged (also Linus-style) across the floor of multiple airports.)
Once I was across the border, a woman stopped me and asked where I was going. I told her the area and she said she was going to her dentist in the same part of town (yes, she comes to Mexico to go to the dentist). She suggested that we share a cab, because she was worried about getting one by herself. I couldn´t believe that she was afraid to get a cab in the centre of town, at 10am, for a five minute ride! I´d only been in the county two minutes and even I could see that this was carrying the Tijuana paranoia a little too far.
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| The view from my hotel |
I stayed in a little hotel near the entertainment and surgical centre of Tijuana. It quickly became obvious that tequila and giving anaesthetic is the primary source of income here.
The tequila part is obvious: heaps of young American gringos come here to party. But, there are also dentists, optometrists, doctor´s and medical-supply offices everywhere. Having dinner one night I saw two Americans wearing pyjamas, with little IV bandages on the back of their hands. I started listening in and realised they'd both had lap-band surgery. I'd feel fairly confident going to the dentist in Tijuana, but I'm not sure I´d be undergoing stomach surgery in a hurry.
Turns out, for all its bad press, Tijuana is pretty safe. The manager of my hotel was telling me that from 2006 until 2010 there were fifty murders per DAY in the city! (Which has about two million people). It was all a drug turf-war; the cartels in Tijuana wanted to charge other cartels to transport drugs through the border region. Eventually, they all reached a settlement amongst themselves, and now there are ´´only´´ around two murders a day.
Of course, when I told the manager that I was heading to El Salvador he said, "Are you crazy? It´s so dangerous there!" And I said, "Ummm...do you know what the rest of the world thinks of Tijuana!?" "Oh, that's rubbish," he said. I said that maybe it was the same for El Salvador; unless you attempt to take over another drug cartel´s territory, you aren't likely to get into any trouble at all.
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| A revolutionary-style mural opposite my hotel with the heading - Mexico and Cuba are brother countries. |
Overall, I really liked TIjuana. Despite everyone looking as though they´d been clothed by the drug lord section of Target (c. 1985), the people were very friendly and happy to let me inflict my creche-level Spanish on them.
I´ll do a post with a few photos from El Salvador next week, but here´s one of the Mexico City airport, which I´m thinking was built for the Mexico City olympics. It has 60´s architecture, with the walls and ceiling of the whole airport constructed with these holes cut through them. Don Draper would feel right at home!
I´ll do a post with a few photos from El Salvador next week, but here´s one of the Mexico City airport, which I´m thinking was built for the Mexico City olympics. It has 60´s architecture, with the walls and ceiling of the whole airport constructed with these holes cut through them. Don Draper would feel right at home!
