Good Times in Tijuana, Mexico

I was in San Diego, which is right next to Mexico. I couldn't go to San Diego without going to Tijuana too! But I really didn't want to go there alone.
After all it is a border city with a reputation that makes people stress to me to be careful. People pretty much tell me to be careful in every time I go to a big city but I don't think they are as dangerous as people say they are. 
But border cities in Mexico are known for stuff like violent drug cartels! I had seen enough of Breaking Bad to be a little worried... just a little! Don't go thinking I'm a pussy.
I talked to the 2 friends that I had in San Diego and one of them couldn't go because of work and the other one didn't even have a passport!
Well, Fuck.

Then I logged on to Couchsurfing.org. I had only recently joined and was a bit nervous about using it. I'll just have to use my judgement. What's cool is that you can read people's profiles and other people can leave a positive or negative reference about their experience with the person.
I clicked on the Tijuana area page and as I was scrolling through the conversations, I noticed someone's post titled Border Hopping. The guy's name was Alan and he was from Ireland and traveling around America. He said he had done 2 months out of a 4 month journey and wanted to go across the border while he was here but wanted someone else to go with too. So, I responded to his post.

He seemed excited and gave me his phone # and we communicated with our cellphones. So, the day came and it was time for me to go to Mexico with a guy I've never met.
I got my luggage and took the trolley to the gas lamp quarter of San Diego where we decided to meet up. I instantly felt relieved when I finally met Alan in person that he seemed like someone I could get along with. One of the first things I noticed about Alan was that he was very social and talked to a lot of people and could easily meet and have conversations with strangers. Shortly after meeting, we took the trolley all the way to the border.

Now what really surprised the fuck out of me was that there was no check in place or anything. You just walk across and you're in Mexico. Nobody even checked my passport or bag or anything. Anybody and everybody was allowed to walk into Mexico without any security. I couldn't believe it! 
Of course, I was sure that going back to U.S. will have a lot of security.
We had already reserved a hotel before we met. It was a 5 star hotel and the price was equivalent to about 80 something U.S. dollars. Splitting that price between the 2 of us made that a cheap stay for such a fancy place.

The First two people I met in Tijuana:

I got an interesting first impression of Tijuana because of the first two people we met there. 

Soon after crossing the border, I went to an ATM to get some pesos. While Alan was waiting for me near the ATM, he got into a conversation with someone.

I finished pulling money out, turned around, and saw Alan talking to some guy. The guy was friendly and said he came to Mexico to get fake abs surgery!

Why the hell would anyone want to get fake muscles?! So he could look stronger but not actually be stronger?

He started saying how it felt weird and showed us his bandages under his shirt. Then he started talking about how cute the prostitutes are and I'm not going to type the details of what he said next. He said something disturbing.

Now, let me tell you about the second person we met in Mexico...

On the roof of the hotel was a swimming pool and a hot tub!

As I'm writing this many months later, I have never stayed in any place as fancy as that again.

 We explored our large hotel some after checking in and found the pool and hot tub on the roof.

While we were relaxing in the hot tub, a large Mexican man gets in and immediately starts talking to us and telling us stories about him cheating on his wife and how he almost got caught one time. 

I think it was a strange thing to tell two strangers so early in a conversation.

Then he said he had to go take care of his kids or something and left.

Another odd thing was that inside that hotel was 2 plastic surgery centers!

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Later, someone else wrote to Alan about his post on Couchsurfing. Her name was Christian, or Chris for short, and she lived in Tijuana. She wasn't able to host us but was able to meet up and show us around.

Her and her friends picked us up and we went and got a bunch of Tecate beer, which is what I saw a lot of locals drink while I was there.

We dove down to a town called Rosarito and met up with people she knew on the beach. A lot of people were camping on that beach and also a lot of people had fires. 

So did we.

I realized that I had went to Mexico with a guy I just met and then got in car at night with several strangers to go to a beach somewhere deeper in Mexico but I felt comfortable.

After a while, we got all got back in the car and Alan, Christian, and I drank beers in the back seat on the way back to Tijuana. We drank a lot of beer.

By the way, Christian told us that locals don't drink Corona.

It's well-known as a Mexico beer in America but when we went to a small bar sometime in Tijuana and Alan tried to order a Corona, the waitress asked "are you serious?"

That night Alan, Christian and I went to La Sexta street. 

It was a main party street with lots of clubs and pubs.

We went into a loud and crowded club and drank a Flaming Sambuca. The bartender lit the drink on fire. At that time, I had never seen one before. 

To be honest, I didn't have much partying experience. I had always been a shy and subtle guy.  The fact that I was dancing that night and enjoying it must of meant that I was pretty drunk!

The next day I discovered that the check out time for hotels in Tijuana was 1 p.m. That's awesome! I've never seen it that late but I guess it's because Tijuana is a place of nightlife.

We decided to move into another big fancy hotel that we saw in the city the previous day just to see what the other one was like. 

We met with Chris again that day and walked around Tijuana

The big ball of Tijuana called the Cultural Center. Inside is a theater and a museum.

                   

This is supposed to be a clock. the city spent a bunch of money putting it up and it doesn't even work.

Later a homeless man walked over to us and said something in Spanish and then Chris gave him some money. 
Then she told us that the man had been deported. She explained that when people get deported, they take them to Tijuana and the Mexican government doesn't allow them to work so they are stuck and have no money to get back to their home town in Mexico.


As we continued walking, we found some kind of weird show people were doing in public where little kids were dancing wearing a mask of an older man's face. It was very funny looking and the announcer guy was dressed like some kinda clown for some reason.

The day came to and end and Christian had to go so we said goodbye and agreed to keep in touch on Facebook.
Alan and I walked around Tijuana at night for awhile and then got a couple beers and played pool at a bar.
The next day we walked around some more before crossing the border back into U.S. sometime in the afternoon.

I discovered they sell speed in Mexico!

Crossing the border into America had a lot of security and a line. Completely opposite of crossing into Mexico. They had x-rays and I saw a drug sniffing dog. I hate going through security.I still felt uneasy because of  The Bitch at the Canadian Border.

A few days later, I went back to Tijuana again to go to a costume party on the Saturday before Halloween. I had a great time and some amazing tacos that I am craving now as I write this. 

 Well, I guess that's all I have to say about Tijuana for now. 

I'm sure I will go back there again someday. Thanks for reading!

Going To My First Couchsurfing Event

While in San Diego, I was staying at a friend's house. My friend, Catalan, had a fancy professional bicycle. Something I was interested in doing at some point in my life was a big bicycle trip.

He took me to store that he bought it at, REI. It was a big amazing store filled with adventurous  things that I like.
One of the worker's at the store was telling us that he made a bicycle trip all the way across America! He also told us that he used Couchsurfing a lot along the way.
I had heard of Couchsurfing before but I've always thought,
what kind of people do that?? and wondered about safety.
I always used to expect to find perverted weirdo's on sites designed for meeting people... But maybe websites like that have become normal in this day in time. Damn, I was so ignorant back then.
He explained it was a legitimate and awesome site that lots of travelers used. It sounded cool so Catalan and I went and created a profile when we got back to the house.
Couchsurfing.org was organized by regions of the world. 
On the region pages are conversations like a newsfeed on Facebook.  Some people also create events that you can read about and click the join button if you wish.
On the San Diego area page was an event that a lot of people were going to called Tipsy Tuesday. It was a weekly
event where couchsurfers meet-up at a bar on Tuesday.
We were reading about it and it said that at 10 p.m. the bar had a reverse happy hour? Not sure what that meant.
Catalan said, "So, does that mean the drinks are twice as expensive?" 

When Tuesday came, we found the bar and the group of 
couchsurfers inside. More people showed up later. It was my first ever involvement in couchsurfing. Basically, everyone introduced themselves to other people and socialized. 
I talked to many people and told them I was in the beginning stage of my trip and had never used couchsurfing.
I was relieved that couchsurfing seemed like a cool community of travelers so far. The people were nice to talk to
and no one seemed like the creepy crazy person that I feared of being online. 
Another guy and I went to the other side of the bar and played Foosball. People from the couchsurfing meeting were now spread throughout the bar. I didn't know if everyone I talked to was with couchsurfing or just someone at the bar.
The bar had quite a bit of people in it.
Later, I noticed a guy who was smiling a lot. He was really smiling all the time. I looked at him and said "why are you so happy?!" He started talking to me about love and positive energy and was starting to sound a little hippie-ish at that point. After talking to him for a little while about love and hate, he made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with hate.
" Let me show you something" he said. He walked over to a
stranger, pointed at him and said "I don't know this guy, but I love him because he's beautiful." The stranger smiled.
Then he walked over to a crowd of people. Suddenly, everyone had their arms around each other and formed a circle. I got caught in this circle. The happy guy was across from me in the circle. The circle started spinning around and the happy guy said "can you feel it? can you feel the love?"

I personally think he was on acid.

Well, that was my first ever experience with couchsurfing. I just went to an event. But my first time ever using it to meet up with an individual directly from the site is in the next blog post....

What to do in San Diego

I spent quite a bit of time in the San Diego area, so here are a few of my suggestions.. 

• In-N-Out Burger

                                   

This was the first place my friend from San Diego took me to when I arrived. It's a tasty part of California culture! I had heard about them but have never seen any in other states.

• Sea World

awesome hat I bought at sea world

It had fun rides and there was a part where Shamu actually break-danced!    O.o

• The San Diego Zoo

The world famous San Diego Zoo.  I learned that a lot of the plants there inspired the artwork of Dr. Seuss. At least that's what the workers told us.
Also, they had some crazy looking turtles there.

These seats look like a butt

• Eat Food at Costco!

Big wine bottles for sale

San Diego had several Costco's and I love Costco! But what I don't love is that it has a yearly membership fee just to shop there! 
However, it is a wholesale store and could still save you money to shop there and be worth it in the long run but only if you live in a city that has a Costco.
I wasn't a member but a friend of mine was and I was allowed to go inside as long as I'm with him. 

Inside of Costco's are lots and lots of free samples of food! :)
There are actually enough free samples for a meal if you stay long enough and walk around. So, we started going to Costco every morning for breakfast!
If you are a member, or know someone that is, or hopefully meet someone that is, then you can easily enjoy the wide variety of free food samples in this great wholesale store!

• Look at Cool Looking Plants

I know this isn't really a typical "what to do" travel recommendation (neither is the Costco one, haha) but I would like to express that I really liked the way the plants look in that city.

• Gas Lamp Quarter

The gas lamp quarter is an area with bars, restaurants, historical buildings, tourists, hostels, hotels, shops, and nightlight. 

Below is a picture of me at a shisha bar in the gas lamp quarter.

By the way, I don't consider myself a smoker but I enjoy shisha about once or twice a year. So, Mom, please don't freak out if you're reading this, haha.

• Iron Mountain

A friend of mine took me hiking up Iron Mountain. When I got higher up, I saw many hills across the distance speckled with rocks. Some of those rocks looked a bit interesting.
If you look at the picture below you can see a rock formation that looks like a penis and 2 balls!

Do you see it? It's in the center

And this picture above looks kind of like a hand with a middle finger flipping us off!

There were also other rocks that looked like other things too like faces and asses but I didn't post those pictures so go see for yourself.

• Check out the awesome wave pool at Mission Beach!

Sorry, but I don't have a picture. I'd rather you just go see it for real!  

Ok, the real reason is my camera was out of battery that day when I went. I thought It was pretty cool, so I have to list it.

• Ect.

 There are many things you could do to have fun in San Diego.

I won't list Everything I could say since I believe in a healthy dose and wandering around randomly (if the location is safe, use common sense and keep well-informed) and that has often led me to discover many great things in this world. 

  I wanted to list some of the main things and a few not so main things to give a few ideas.

Another thing one might consider while in San Diego is crossing the border to Tijuana, Mexico. I did and I definitely don't regret it. 

Why Travel In The Navy Was Not Good Enough For Me

Well, I've already written 14 posts on this blog and some of you may have been wondering what I did in the past to prepare for my travel. So, I decided to make this a prelude post and explain some of previous travel and life experiences.
  This is where I lived in Texas as a teenager.

Out in the country near a small town.  I hated school and before I got out of high school, I knew one thing for sure... I didn't want to go to college.
 So, I decided to join the Navy. The main reasons were: to be successful without a degree; I had no idea what else i wanted to do with my life; I wanted to do something adventurous; and of course I had always wanted to travel the world and I thought that the Navy would be best for that. I thought of the Air-force but then I thought well, Navy has ships And aircraft. Also the idea of sailing to different ports around the world sounded interesting.
Many people join the Navy to see the world and I definitely did get see the world...  from the boat.
Well, there were a few places we went. I went on a 9 month deployment but most of that time was spent on the ocean. We left August 27th and our first port visit was December 20- something. It was in Oman and for a few days.

This post isn't about me complaining about the Navy and I'm not trying to bring discredit to the military. It's about why travel with the Navy did not give me a completely legitimate overseas experience. I imagine it might be just as illegitimate when travelling with a company. Also, that doesn't mean there are not some parts of it I enjoyed and am grateful for.
Here are the main reasons I don't like travel with the Navy:

     1.   You have a curfew and have to come back to the ship by a certain time.

  We had to work every single day whenever the ship is out to sea and people go crazy whenever we   finally pull in somewhere and have some time off. After exploring the city in Oman, I came back to the ship and found puke spots all over the ramp leading into the ship. Everyone gets drunk, some people got in fights, and one guy got married to a stripper. Whenever people acted bad, they would make the curfew earlier.

     2.   You are not allowed to explore alone.

 It is required to have a liberty buddy. Which is fine if you have a friend on the ship you are compatible with. I had trouble sometimes finding someone as adventurous as me and was surprised how many people just wanted go to a bar and drink or something that can be done anywhere. Sometimes some of the friends that I used to hang out with got out of the Navy or stationed somewhere else and then I had to try to find another person to leave the ship with.

   3.  If your liberty buddy does something bad you will also get punished.

Another thing about the liberty buddy system is you have to stay with your liberty buddy and come back to the ship together. If someone from the ship sees you without your buddy, you can get in trouble. Your buddy is also your responsibility, so if they break rules or act stupid you can also get punished.

   4. Duty every third day

The ship has something called Duty sections. You have to stay on the ship every third day in a foreign port. There has to be people on the boat all the time and also for security reasons. So let's say you do have a friend on the ship who is an adventurous travel buddy. That friend may not be in the same duty section which means that one of the days he or she is off is also your day to work and vice versa.  You might have to ask someone you don't know too well in order to go out if your friends have duty on your off day since you are not allowed to leave the ship alone.

  5. Not always much time

 We were in Spain for 3 days, one of those days I was on duty, so I spent a grand total of 2 days in Spain. 2 days that I had to come back to ship each night by a certain time. It was a nice 2 days but I don't count Spain as a country I visited.

So those are the major things I have problems with. Another thing is that you are not allowed to wear a T-shirt in a foreign port. It has to have a collar. I guess that's not a big deal but travelling independently and being able to wear and do whatever I want is much better for me.

On my 9 month deployment most of that time was spent on the ocean and we pulled into 3 ports. Oman, Italy, and Spain. We only pulled into Italy because something broke on the ship, however, I had a great time during that port visit in Italy. It was one port visit I was able to have a legitimate overseas experiences because I had friends who I was compatible with. I climbed a volcano, got a little lost and had a search party sent out but we found our way back before they could find us. We were late coming back to the ship but fortunately my boss was too drunk to care.  A couple weeks later that volcano erupted.
Also, sometimes people will sell tours on the ship and you don't need a liberty buddy to go because you will be on the tour with a group. Those tours can help to experience some of the country.

I made 3 months of another deployment before it was time for me to get out. Sometimes my friends got stationed somewhere else or got out of the Navy and I was stuck with many people who just wanted to bang hookers or get drunk. Partying with people from the ship can be fun, but I would rather explore while in a foreign place. It really bothers me to have physically gone to another part of the Earth far from home and not have really experienced it properly or to not have even had much time. In my opinion, It would have been better to have never went.

It's completely possible to have great travel experiences while in the Navy but it is limited and it depends on what ship you are on or where you are stationed and who you happen to meet. This was my experience. It is government and there will be rules and restrictions when travelling with a government organization. After getting out of the Navy, I started to travel on my own and found it was a lot more real.

 I made a lot of good friends and had some good experiences and I don't regret joining. While spending many months on the ocean I had no bills. Food, a place to sleep, etc. everything is covered so, whenever I got a paycheck I got to keep all of it and didn't have anything to spend it on except maybe food from vending machines on the ship. It's kind of like a floating prison, except people don't get butt raped. Well, not usually anyway.  
Many people who spent the same amount of time in the Navy didn't save nearly as much as me. I decided the last couple years in that I wanted to be a vagabond and to save as much as possible. Even whenever we weren't on deployment, I didn't buy a car like many people or spend as much on going out to eat or alcohol or going to movies or on material possessions.
Here some pics of my time in the Navy.

Drunk Sailor

Drunk Sailor

On the Ship at Night

After I got out of the Navy I had managed to save $30,000! :)  My plan was to make it last at least 2 years while travelling but first I went home for a few months to see my family.
I left my home in Texas to go and travel the world ,however, America is so huge of a country that going to a different part of it is considered as a different area of the planet.
 If you traveled from Maine to Hawaii you would still technically have traveled in 1 country but that's a lot of distance!
My intention was to travel the world and although I would spend most of my trip outside of my own country; but I visited some friends in other states first. I had several friends I met in the Navy who were in other states.
I met up with my friend Cody when he was also visiting New York City. 
Unfortunately, I didn't find out that a friend I knew in the Navy had moved to Buffalo until after I had already visited Niagara Falls. :(  I could have contacted him if I had known.

After I visited New Orleans, I took a train to visit a friend in Jackson, Mississippi.  After hanging out there, I took a bus to San Diego where I had 2 friends living at.

 Although the Navy didn't satisfy my wanderlust, I was able to save money for traveling and also get some friends and a place to stay around the vast country of America.