You get the stamp in the Passport which says you have been to Mexico, but in terms of the cultural experience, this place is pretty far removed from the Mexico you would expect to see further south.
This is the place where I decided to spend my birthday. But, being a little older, wiser and calmer these days, I aimed to enjoy myself - get rollicking drunk sure - but not fall prey or get sucked in by the debased hedonism that most people go there for.
Having met up with Tomas and Hana along for the ride also kept me in check (Czech). These were two very sensible young folks, and traveling on a budget tighter than even mine was. They also had that air of cultured sophistication that I’ve noticed a lot of Eastern Europeans have. I met them in town after my coupla sneaky-pints, and we hopped aboard the Trolley (tram) for the quick trip down to the border.
The U.S./Mexico border is a sight to behold. Thousands of people on foot and in cars happily breezing thru border controls heading south, but queues and delays galore for those wanting to cross over to the USA. Before we knew it, we were in Mexican territory, and realized we hadn’t even had out passports stamped – its not necessary here, but we all wanted it for keepsake and reminders. Now, none of us spoke Spanish, and here literally 20 metres over the border all anyone in authority seemed to speak was Spanish, and not a jot of English. So, trying to find out where we could find an Immigration official who could stamp our passport wasn’t such an easy task. After 20minutes of sign-language and fumbled Spanish we were directed to a man all alone at a tiny little desk in a tiny little office under the footbridge that we crossed to get into Mexico. Passports duly stamped, we then set off for downtown TJ as its fondly known. It was pretty funny really, just how relaxed this whole Mexican border control was. I guess they want Americans in the country to spend their money.
A short little bus ride dropped us off at Avenida de Revolucion (La Revo), and within 30seconds we were accosted by bar touts offering us cheap drinks and cheaper girls. It was everything I had expected.
It was a hot mid-thirty degree day (about 90 Fahrenheit), there were bars by the million, all blaring out music of one description or another, some good, but mostly bad…dirty, grubby streets packed full of food-hawker stalls and trinket sellers, the smell of the street food mixing with the litter-strewn gutters, a heady concoction of chili-sweet-and-sour…and constant attention from little beggar boys and girls – either genuinely homeless, or sent out to accost tourists for money by opportunistic parents – but you could never tell which was which. Basically, the telltale signs that we were now in a 3rd World country.
I had seen much of this before, and was simply soaking it all in. Tomas, and Hana in particular were a little shocked by it all, especially the begging. And then there were the bar touts I had mentioned…“One dollar Corona for you Senor’s…and free Margarita for her!!! (If you can imagine this being said in cheesy, sleazy Mexican accent, it helps set the scene a little).
Hana was getting offered free drinks all along La Revo as an enticement to get all three of us in their bar, but the day was young, and the other thing that TJ is famous for is incredible cheap markets. We wanted to sample a bit of everything, not just get shit-faced from the off. A few hours window-shopping with the occasional purchase, a bit to eat at a cheap taco bar, and then we’d hit the booze.
I’ve gotta say, Tomas and Hana were fantastic at bargaining for price in the markets. Hana was a natural. As always in 3rd World countries, marketeers are opportunists, hoping to make a quick profit from naïve tourists, and often preying on your sympathies.
Czech Republic not exactly being a rich country either, my two companions were not swayed by this…”We are not American, we are Czech, we are poor too” At one stall, they managed to talk down the price of a traditional-style hooded top from US$30 (the opportunist price) down to US$7!!!…The stall owner would still have made maybe a dollar or two profit from this, but was not terribly happy. I wanted one too, but they didn’t have one in my size and colour…with their help, at another stall I found one I wanted and ended up paying US$9 – he would not go any lower. Without Hana at my side, I prolly would’ve got hit for minimum US$15 – still very cheap, mind, but as I say, these folks often do sell these at close to the US$30 mark.
Having decided to avoid the over-priced La Revo food joints, we then found a quaint little side-street café, and ate stupendously delicious chicken burritos for about a dollar each, washed down with a 50 cent Coke. Right, now suitably fed, and stomach lined, it was time to find a bar. Once again, we opted to avoid the main drag, simply by this stage coz we were sick-and-tired of the heckling and touting, and decided we didn’t want to give these guys our money anyway. By this stage it was well after 4pm – we had set this time earlier in the day as our shopping curfew, and besides I was really getting thirsty by now, with my morning pints well and truly worn off. A small market square to the side of La Revo had a number of little café’s to choose from, and we picked one at random. Sitting in the patio with a perfect view of the market action – awesome people watching opportunity, we had hit upon a winner.
We did have plans to perhaps do a bit of a crawl, but in the end stayed here…for about 5 hours. How could you argue with Large Corona bottles at a buck apiece??? Our waiter, Jose, was fantastic, attending to our every need, even when it got busy.
Super-friendly, funny and full of jokes and tales, and when I told him it was my birthday (and actually showed him my Passport to prove it! – they get that claim all the time – “Hey, its my birthday, how about a free drink!!!), it was Royal treatment the whole night.
When it came time to eat again, and we couldn’t choose, he even organized a mini-banquet selection of several menu options at a price that couldn’t be argued with, not even by Hana!
Long into the night we stayed there, well until it came time to leave to make sure we could get the Trolley back to San Diego at least. We watched as the sun disappeared, and the market packed up, we watched as several parties of people came into the café, ate and drank and left, and even as Jose and the other waiters began packing up for the night at our cafe. Several hours drinking, included a number of tequila shots, a meal that filled us up twice over…and the bill????? US$14 each!! I’ll never forget that coz I was quite shocked at how cheap that was. Of course we left a decent tip for our friend Jose, coz, Man that was some birthday drinking session.
It was quite an effort to get back to the bus stop, staggering up La Revo, the 3 of us holding each other up. The Czech’s have quite some reputation for drinking, but Tomas was quite under the weather...his excuse being that he was out of practice, having not drunk in about 3-4 months because he was not old enough to drink in the United States. Fair enough, I guess.
After a long wait for the bus, we finally got back to the border, and had to deal with the queues I mentioned earlier…which were even worse coz it was late at night, and folks wanted to get that same last Trolley back to SD as we were.
Wisely, we decided to pass the time in the queue by taking turns at shopping in the Duty Free stores as we slowly inched pass them. My purchase, for a tidy sum of about US$13 was 500ml Tequila, a 350ml Mescal (with the worm), and a free shot “Tijuana” shot glass. Not bad, I reckon.
Back in the USA, I was feeling rather satisfied with my little expedition south of the border. It was a Birthday adventure well celebrated.
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