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!