Tijuana, Mexico
San Diego is only about 20 miles from the border of Mexico (if you haven't guessed by all the Mexican food and drink we've been having). We figure we may as well check it out. because 1- its on some TV shows as a cool holiday destination for Californians, and 2 - we are running low on funds and Mexico is cheap.
First, another Man Vs Food challenge at the Broken Yolk Cafe. Well, not exactly the challenge, but Courtney takes down 1/3rd of what Adam did. Not a bad effort, girlfriend.
We get the trolley down to San Ysidro, it only takes about 20 minutes and drops us off right on the border. Ok, how do we actually get across? Follow that sign that says pedestrian crossing to Mexico. Ok - easy. No passport required, a quick check of the bags and we are back in one of our favorite countries again.
We get a cab out to where we are staying near the beach and check in. Then its off to the beach to see why this place is so popular.
Well, its the middle of winter so everything is pretty quiet. There is a thick fog over the beach so it looks like the end of the Earth. Its pretty cool. We meet some old friends again, a group of stray dogs, and take them for a walk on the boardwalk.
We grab a coffee and our broken Espanol comes back to us quickly. Its just like riding (crashing) a bike.
We walk as far as we can up the beach and then turn around and check in for some tacos and a cerveza. The band is playing and everyone is chilling out and having a good time. It's good to be back.
The aim of the next few days is to try and save some money, so we grab some supplies from the supermarket and settle in back at the apartment. We cook up some food we can eat for the next few days and take it easy.
Day 2
Another lazy day in Mexico for us today. We get up late, have breakfast at the apartment and some coffee and lounge around for a bit.
Time to check out the actual town of Tijuana. We get a cab to the main street and get dropped right in a tourist hotspot. There is a market all selling the same stuff and you can smell the desperation on the people trying to get us to come in for a drink at the bars. You can tell it's off-season when there are more sprookers then tourists.
We quickly walk past here and onto the main street. We wander up for about a kilometre and take in the sights. It's a pretty busy town for what I thought was just a tourist location. We duck into a proper market and buy some snacks. We see some fruit(?) sitting at the front of some of the stalls covered in bees. No thanks.
We are hanging for some more Mexican food. Burritos aren't strictly Mexican, they are an American invention, but the Mexicans do it well, so into the most generic/authentic looking place and "dos burritos, por favor".
The meat is always a little crispy when you get a burrito here. They must fry up the meat at the end or something. It's great.
We keep walking, this time down another main street. Again, plenty of pressure to come and drink at their bar, or check out their shop. You get used to just ignoring them. A bit rude, but ah well.
We spot a casino and head in. We miss Vegas. This is not Vegas. We buy a chip and head on down the road.
We have a cheap beer at the only bar in Tijuana without a sprooker.
Next door there is a shop with soccer shirts. Jeff adds to his collection with a Tijuana football club shirt. Sweet.
And that's about all the budget can handle today. Off home to lounge around more.
Day 3
We sleep late again, have breakfast and lounge around some more. Hey, we've got to get our strength up and budget for LA. At this rate we should be able to buy LA. We decide to head out for Mexican fare for dinner seeing as it's our last night and who knows when we'll be back.
We walk down to the beach and stop off at a little place where a guy is enticing us with cheap beer. We sit out on the balcony and watch the overcast sunset with the waves coming in over a couple of beers. This is the life.
Seeing as this place only serves seafood and neither of us are that keen on it we head back to the other restaurant from our first night, just down the beach again. We order some delicious tacos with just the right amount of crunch in the meat and scoff them down.
We head back to the apartment for some cards and an early night.
Day 4
We get up early, drink a few litres of coffee and pack. Our second to last pack for the trip
frown emoticon
We catch a cab to the greyhound terminal and only get into a near miss accident once. We are early but the bus people tell us we can hop onto one that is just about to leave. Sweet. We ride for about 10 minutes then get off at the border crossing. A bit more formal coming back into the US, passports out, bags through the security scanner. They let us back in, hooray!
We head outside and not long later a bus arrives to LA. Not the one we went to the border on but we try our luck. No luck. We'll have to wait until the next one which is about 2 hours. Boo. Deciding we don't want to wait around doing nothing we hop on the trolley back to San Diego to pick up some misplaced souvenirs and grab some lunch.
We head back to depot that's in San Diego hoping we can get a bus as we've now missed our original. We can, but at a price... Cheapskates. But we want to go to LA so we pay.