Tijuana as a tourist

We made a brief stop in Tijuana and I stepped out onto Avenida Revolucion and was transported right back to my teen years, when, without a passport and without my parents’ knowledge, I would cross the border on foot, jump into a cab, and spend the evening at the various bars.

It defies the logic I now possess as someone who has raised a child that I got away with these decisions but here I am 37 years later – with Rio Rita in the background – one of my regular haunts:

I would agree with what you’re all probably thinking: Tijuana as a tourist destination? It’s one of the most dangerous cities in the world – the second highest homicide rate anywhere and yet it was quite nice in the tourist core. Transiting the city in our bus, we also saw other, more troubling, sites, but I’ll let you research them on your own:

We stopped at a Tijuana migrant shelter – Casa de Migrante, a local shelter for up to 140 people. Casa de Migrante houses solo travelers and families for a few weeks at a time while they try to get entry documents into the US. We were led around by a young Japanese student who volunteers there – teaching classes, doing tours, entertaining the children. She grew up in Japan, got a Bachelor’s degree in Moncton, New Brunswick, and then headed down to Tijuana to help out. She was incredibly soft-spoken and modest but her devout commitment to human rights and humanity in general was pretty impressive coming from someone who was about 23. She’s fluent in Japanese, English, and Spanish and she was a refreshing contrast to the other Mexican traveler/marine biologist we’ve been hearing about – whose only connection with Tijuana was dancing to Depeche Mode and New Order at 3am before heading back across the border to get some scrambled eggs at Denny’s. But, of course, we all bring different “gifts” to the table.

To protect the privacy of all involved at the shelter, I can’t share any pictures other than this stack of tortillas they were making in the kitchen:

That stack of tortillas leads me to our next Tijuana stop: Mercado Hildago, where Artemio took us for a quick walk. I spied these additional tortillas and now I have a goal of getting myself an entire bag of these for the bus. Artemio says that tortillas are a big deal in Mexico, which I already mostly understood, but it took a walk through the market, filled with tortilla presses, to see the true devotion.

Here are a few shots from the market. The second one down is a duo of soft cheeses and I was offered a sample but could not assess the refrigeration plans/history:

Here’s a couple more from some assistant photographers I found online:

Time to go explore Ensenada. The last shots are from the Tijuana Cultural Center, which opened in 1982 and yet somehow I never saw it on my regular cultural/dance/dive bar visits. It’s a pretty fantastic Tijuana spot:

There’s a museum inside that covers the history of the Baja Peninsula, from prehistory to the 20th century. Artemio says this mural captures the entire history in one vision:

But typical me, my attention was stolen by this massive fly that also, probably, captures the entirety of Baja history for those with a better understanding of art.

Oh, and finally, despite many discussions with Ron about not drinking the water etc., a problem has arisen wherein Ron cannot remember to not use the water in the bathrooms even though I have placed a water bottle in there. I will hopefully have nothing further to report back on this issue;)