tijuana

The thought of an 'other' country, with other food, other language, other culture, just 20 minutes due south has always intrigued me. For a $5 trolley ride or a $5 parking fee Tijuana is available to any i.d. carrying U.S. Citizen. To get there you park and walk about 15 minutes to a surprisingly poorly identified but large concrete ramp. Steph and I had to keep asking people if we were going the right way. Maybe entering Mexico by car is much more festive because it sure wasn't on foot. You go up the concrete ramp and then over the I-5 on a pedestrian bridge where you get a nice lay of the border-checkpoint-land. The cars slowly creep towards the U.S. while Mexicans et. al. walk up and down the lanes soliciting goods and border guards search vehicles and confiscate Zanax and Churros. In TJ, the sidewalk scene is a total change from the mall we left our car at in the U.S. The TJ storefronts are close together with hand-painted signs, signs everywhere and merchandise spilling out onto the sidewalks. The Pacificos, Tecate and Corona beeers taste great for 99 cents on a sunny day on a Tijuana patio with hot salsa and fresh chips. After two of those the urge to start buying up chihauhas and inexpensive pharmaceuticals was strong but I fought it off. The walk back to the border and wait in the customs line was pretty uneventful except for the guards amusement looking at our passport photos. Steph looks like a baby-dyke and I look like a chinese exchange student. Of course, now we both look hot.

Tomorrow I run a 5K for T-day. Aside from fear of being trampled, fear of sweaty armpits, and fear of numbers, I think I'll do fine.