So I finally made it to Mexico for the first time. It's only 25 minutes to the border but as soon as you cross you immediately feel that you're in a vastly different country. Tijuana is an industrial city and very very poor. It's hard to even describe it in words as you look over the graffiti covered cement wall into rows of alleyways where corrugated metal clad buildings are stack one on top of the other like you would imagine a shanty town to be. Everyone I speak with tells me not to even consider it when judging Mexico as a country, so I didn't. As soon as you pass through it heading down into Baja the land opens up and you get the sense you're heading into the country. A major surprise for me was that there is no stopping when crossing the border. Nobody cares if you have a passport or even an ID. You just pay a toll and go without ever even laying eyes on a customs agent. It's kind of scary because if you cross and forget your passport you're going to have a hell of a time getting back into the U.S. where they are dead serious about crossing. More on that later...
I was accompanied by my coworker Veronica, her boyfriend Paul and their friends Camilla and Stacie for a night of camping on the beach in Rosarito at a campground called La Fonda. You pay $30 U.S. per car for entry into the campground and then it's every hombre for himself. It was Saturday afternoon and we were lucky enough to get a spot next to some people who had just spent the night and were heading home. We took over their spot and had a nice large and comfortable camping area for the five of us. The campground is on the edge of a cliff that overlooks the ocean below, just beyond a good 500 feet of white sand beach. NICE!
We started the evening having dinner at the beach restaurant that caters specifically to camp-goers and other tourists. We split several authentic Mexican dishes and each had two margaritas. Though the waiter spoke some English we wanted to be troopers and held our own with our broken Spanish, except for Veronica who is from Mexico and helped us out when we fumbled over our words.
When we got back to the campground after dinner we broke out our bathing suits and the beers and then Paul went off to the campground packy (uh hem, liquor store for those of you readers not from New England.) A full bottle of Tequila later we were dancing around the campfire Lord of the Flys style and decided it was time to move the party up the beach to the nightclub/bar for some serious boogie-oogie-oogieing. By now you guys must be getting a feel for the kind of camping this is. We're not talking Survivorman here. This is seriously laid back, full bathrooms, shower, and running water camping.
We get to the club and of course there is a DJ and an electric bull. I don't have photos of the electric bull unfortunately because I was laughing way to hard to control my camera... so you'll just have to take my word for it. Veronica and Camilla got on the bull first... and last because once they were forcefully dismounted Camilla landed on top of Veronica wounding her fairly substantially. At the time the Tequila dulled the pain but it would become abundantly evident the next morning.
The bull was cleared away and the dance floor opened up. Veronica, Paul and I stayed late into the nigh dancing to such 90s hits as MC Hammer's, "You Can't Touch This" and Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina." Needless to say, it was a great time spent with really cool people.
The next morning I spent regretting the nights indiscretions with the bottle. Tequilla es muy muy mal. By late morning, however, I was feeling much better and managed to get out of my PJs and into my bathing suit. Stacy and Paul were able to wake up and get several hours of surfing in. I'm told the conditions were amazing and it was one of the best days they've ever had in the water. I only managed to get my feet in but was a little skittish as there were several sighting of jellyfish, lobsters and sting rays. I opted to lay on the beach where I preceded to get severely sunburned on my backside, which at the time, I didn't realize would leave me unable to sit right for the three days following the trip. The one thing I have to say that was hands down the absolutely coolest thing I saw while camping and quite possibly ever, was the periodic pods of dolphins that made their way down the shore. It was absolutely incredible to sit there on the cliff at sunset watching dolphins rising out the water and playfully chase each other just a couple hundred feet off the shore. AMAZING!! We had at least four separate sightings over the weekend. The surfers had the best view as the dolphins didn't seem to be phased by them in the least and wandered by them just a few dozen feet away.
In the mid afternoon we packed up and hit the road. Well as it turns out, every Sunday at 3 o'clock there is a mass exodus from the country as tens of thousands of people make their way through Tijuana back across the boarder into San Diego. We sat for three hours in traffic and as we finally approached the San Ysidro border crossing we were waved on and had to make our way around a completely different route right back to that crossing again.
Once at customs our crossing was a cinch but I can't say the same for another car next to us and a few car lengths ahead. As we sat there cooking in the Mexican sun our interest was drawn as we witnessed a border crossing agent with guns-a-blazing yelling... no screaming at some woman to "get down! get down or I'll shoot!". YIKES. Well the girl got down all right and the man she was with was apprehended just as quickly. I'm not sure exactly what they did or didn't do but I can say I never want to piss those guys off. I've never before seen anyone so close to getting shot... not even living in DC where you could hear the gunfire at night. It was pretty freaky.
Well, that about sums up the trip. It was quite an adventure and I won't soon forget it.
