Flashback post: Tijuana, Mexico

For as much as I travel, until less than a year ago I'd never been out of the country. It's one of the things that's always really bugged me, especially when I'd know people who wouldn't even drive forty minutes into the city who would travel halfway around the world and I was just hanging out here. I still haven't done enough to remedy this, though there's talk of some stuff, and I keep looking at flight prices to Jamaica and going "Ooooh" for next year. But for my first venture out of the US, we go to Tijuana. Which barely counts.

If you live in LA, going down to TJ for the day is a definite thing. Plenty of people told me stories of having ditched school to hang out there instead, or how they had some wild night back in high school. The older you get, the less common this seems to be to do. But hey, I was moving and I'd never been, so screw it. And I worried like crazy before this trip. I worried about whether I needed to change my dollars into pesos (not really, no). I worried about cell service (it sucked, I didn't have service till we were in line at the border). I worried about my credit card getting canceled because of transactions in another country (call your credit card company or bank before the trip so they know). I worried because everyone was warning me about how dangerous it is.

Personally, I think you need to watch yourself anywhere you go, not just Mexico. Take precautions. Don't leave your purse open, don't put all your money in one place, be aware of your surroundings, don't go alone. I was warned not to be out after dark, and to watch for pickpockets and muggers, and that I was absolutely going to get sexually harassed. I didn't have any negative experiences with the people. Everyone I met there was perfectly nice, and I never once feared for my safety or belongings. So, be aware that there are risks, but know that nothing will probably happen to you.

The other thing I seriously worried about was the fact that I don't speak the language. I, like many Los Angeles residents, speak Spanglish, which is different. I can ask how to find the bathroom and find myself peppering my sentences with Spanish words, and I can tell you in Spanish how sorry I am that I don't speak Spanish. I suck at learning them. I grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood and went to a predominantly Polish school and I retained nothing. Sure, I could memorize words in French or German or Swahili to sing them in choir (all things that happened!), but memorizing isn't learning. And I really didn't want to be the ignorant American who shows up to another country and expects everyone to cater to me. Luckily, Tijuana is so tourist-based that there was only one instance where I ran into someone who didn't start by speaking English to me. We went for ice cream because it was hot like fire oh my god and needed a break, and the people there had no idea what I was asking for. So it meant trying to use my very rudimentary Spanish skills and a lot of gestures, and using that to make a successful transaction. If it's something you worry about, too, at least make an effort to learn the language. Not only will you help you, but people tend to be more willing to help you when they see you're trying.

So, with that out of the way, my friends Emily, Kelsey and I headed down one Sunday in May to help me expand my world beyond national borders.

Um. Avoid driving.

Everyone is trying to get in and out of Mexico, basically. Traffic piles the hell up. (Also, do not watch Sicario before driving to Mexico.) Rather than get stuck in gridlock and border checks, we started in San Diego and took a trolley that got us right up to the border. There's a little area with a McDonald's and bathrooms where you need to pay to use them. And then you just walk across. There's a long walkway, covered with barbed wire and with armed guards walking around, but to get in they didn't check anything. We just walked under the sign that said "MEXICO" and there we were. Easy enough.

What do you do in Tijuana without a plan? Wander, mostly. There was a big gorgeous church we got to check out, but being Sunday it was definitely too busy to do any real exploring. We saw some traditional dancing on a stage. We went into shops. Things definitely are cheaper there, so it can be a good place to find goods at a discount, or yes, cheap prescription drugs that don't require a prescription. When you walk around down the lines of shops, most of them had people calling out to us promising a free tequila shot if we came in. There are also a lot of little restaurants who boldly advertise margaritas because they know why Americans are coming here.

Also they paint donkeys to look like zebras and charge you to take pictures with them. Idk.

There wasn't a ton of stuff to do, though. We planned on sightseeing and walking around, but the streets were not laid out like the maps we saw. And when we'd try to find a landmark on said maps, those landmarks seemed to have been left off. It was a giant hassle, and when we started walking figuring we'd come across something, we ended up walking around in residential neighborhoods and through construction sites until we managed to turn around and find our way back. I also managed to get severely dehydrated and sunburned over the course of this. It was so bad I ended up going home sick from work the next day. Did it stop me from getting drinks at a little restaurant right by the border? Nope, it did not! We'd been there all day and hadn't actually had Mexican food in Mexico, so we stopped in. The food was pretty good, and even though they accidentally brought four margaritas and two tequila shots that we shared at the table, I'm pretty sure the reason they were offering tequila at every store was because it was watered down.

The border into the US was hell, though. There are stalls for food, and people selling trinkets in the line, because you'll be there for I think two and a half hours. And here's a secret: if you have a passport card, you get to go in the middle line, which we saw most people just walking through. The giant line is for passport books. Unfortunately we didn't figure this out until we were about 80% through the line and one of us didn't have the card so we would have had to wait anyway. (And no, I'm not sure if this works the same if you're walking into Canada. I might have to test it.) And when I had to show my card and they asked where I was going, I was so caught off guard I answered, "The US?" Eh, they let me in anyway.

So that was Tijuana for me. Would I go back? I definitely want to go back to Mexico, but I've got my sights set on Mexico City at the moment. Tijuana's fine, but it was a lot like downtown Los Angeles to me, and the border was so much hassle when I could just pop on over to Olivera Street.

Also I didn't know how to end this because the only thing I was coming up with was "And having popped my international travel cherry, I'm free to slut it up by seeing the rest of the world" but my mom reads this blog. Hi, Mom.