Mexico!!!
Quote of the day: "Man I don’t have my passport…" – Franger as we are about to cross the border to back to the U.S.A.
We went to MEXICO! And even came back with a few stories to tell! If there was only one sentence for this day it would be that Tijuana was an experience.
It was a long and bumpy journey on the highway to the Mexico border. I’m not sure if it was mini bus we were in or the quality of the highway but man was it bumpy! So bumpy in fact my Powerbook didn’t survive the journey, I switched it on for about 60 seconds and then it crashed – turns out that it bumped out the airport wireless card enough to ruin the system. Took me quite a while to figure out what was wrong with it when we got back to the hotel room, but it’s all good now. So I can proudly say my Mac made it through Mexico!
There’s one long strip in Tijuana which is a mecca for tourists. In fact it is pretty much the only safe place to be in Tijuana for gringo’s and we’re told for our safety not to stray to far from there. Pity because I wanted to visit the bull ring, but it wasn’t recommended for first time visitors.
First thing you’ll realise when you walk on the strip, is that you’re everyone’s Amigo. Second thing you’ll realise is that you’re realise is that you’re going to be saying no a lot.
Like any place where people are poor there is lots of competition. Mexican’s were all over us trying to entice us to walk in to their bar or buying their wares. They were so aggressive in trying to get us there they would try to stop us and pull us in. Nothing a simple ‘no’ wouldn’t cure, but if you even glanced at an item there would be a Mexican telling you everything about it.
And they were smart negotiators as well, pulling all kinds of tactics on us. Australians by nature are very placid negotiators and our group found it difficult to get what we wanted. We were either too silly (I’m in a hurry but I want this cheap…) or to rude (walk away after a counter offer). Even some Mexican’s didn’t accept our offer after bartering for a while and saying that we couldn’t buy from them for any price. No problem though as you can buy the same junk in most stores.
I learned after walking the entire strip that after 100-200 metres of walking into shops you’ve seen 90% of the entire strip. Vendors seem to all have the same junk everywhere, they must all buy the same stuff from a warehouse.
We found a nice little restaurant which was hidden away of the main drag and didn’t have the hustle and bustle of Mexicans asking you for another shot of tequila or else. The food was different then expected, but everyone left satisfied.
We even tried some Mexican SOL beer, which is similar to Corona except comes in two seemingly random alcohol percentages. One in 4.6% and one in 6.2%; just a lucky draw whichever you get I suppose.
We even ventured into a adult bar where we were able to have many Corona’s on the cheap. An interesting tactic the guy at the front pulled on us when we got in was that he took us to the darkest most dimly place in the joint and sat us there. Returning with a bucket of drinks he asked for $20 USD. No problem, except that it was so dark and American money looks mostly the same… You can see where the con is here of course.
Luckily most of us fold our notes away and know where most notes are. That and we had freaking bright Mobile phones when which turned on lighted exactly what we wanted. Don’t try and mess with the yobbo’s mate. (Disclaimer: Don’t think anyone of us really classify’s as a yobbo but…)
As we waited in line to head back to the USA, Franger and Greg decided to check out some last minute alcohol shopping. Nothing spectacular, except that when Franger put his wallet in his pocket he dropped his passport on the floor. Greg being the thoughtful bloke he his picked it up without telling him he had it. Five minutes later Franger was in a panic searching for his passport and retracked his steps. Luckily Greg gave his passport back after a few minutes of panicking and I got some of it on film… Let’s just say that Frangers relationship with Greg was a little ’strained’ after that.
It took over an hour in a half in a bus to travel less then two miles to cross the Mexican border back to the USA. It seemed like there was an issue in customs that their scanning machines were busted. When we eventually got to customs they were just checking passports and letting people in, which was excellent. Didn’t want any complications crossing the border.
Pretty tiring day – even though we only technically spent under five hours in Mexico, there was a lot of travelling and a lot hustle and bustle. Glad we went to Mexico even if it was ‘fake’, it did give me a snapshot of Mexico itself and it’s people.
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