2/27/2024
As I was making my way to San Diego, CA I stopped at the Center of the World in Felicity, AZ. According to some guy, the center of the world/universe is here. He started his own town and made a monument and museum. It’s really interesting and a little silly. There are a bunch of huge stone tablets with the history of man, California, Arizona, and some others. There is also a pyramid that stands at the “center of the world” and a church on top of a man made hill.
Today I decided to go to Tijuana, Mexico to see what that place is all about and pick up some vanilla for my mom. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and I didn’t want to deal with taking the van though customs twice so I parked on the US side of the border and walked across. At first I missed the border crossing by a couple blocks, but I ended up finding it. I was able to walk through without anyone really saying anything to me. I was able to just walk through.
Once I got there, it wasn’t what I expected. There was a sculpture, a bunch of taxi drivers, and then empty buildings. There were so many empty buildings. I got through there and into the medical center and again there wasn’t anything to see. I had to google where to go to find the interesting part. After a 20 minute walk I got downtown. This is where all the action is. When I was crossing the bridge over the border highway there was a great view of the city. Once I actually got downtown there was a big sculpture and the main street.
The main street was about a mile or so long with shops and restaurants on both sides. I walked all the way until there wasn’t really anything else to see then headed back. I went over a block and found where all the markets were. I walked through one of them looking for vanilla and couldn’t find any. What I did find were dentists and pharmacies. So many places to buy cheap drugs. The spot I was parked at was only two hour parking so I was trying to get through the city as quickly as I could. I had to go to a liquor store to find the vanilla and it was fairly expensive.
I booked it back to the border crossing and struggled to find my way to the American side. First, I walked the wrong way through the entrance, then back up the stairs the correct way only to find that the doors were locked. I walked all the way back to the other side of the exit and into some medical office. A guy in there tried to help me and pointed the direction that I came from. I told him it was locked and he told me that I had to go to the other border crossing. I didn’t even know there was another one.
The same taxi drivers were still at the first crossing and really trying to get me to take their ride. I successfully refused and found my way the mile or so to the other crossing. This was the main crossing it seemed, at least to the US. On my way into the building there were a bunch of tiny shops with all of the vanilla that I could want to buy. I didn’t look at the prices, but I imagine that they were way cheaper than the liquor store.
By they time I got to customs I was way past my two hours of parking and was fully expecting a ticket. Customs was way busier than I expected. There were five lines that were all 20 people deep. The line went surprisingly fast. When it was my turn I gave my passport to the customs lady, she scanned it, looked at it for longer than I expected, then asked me where I was from. I told her and she sounded surprised by my answer and then checked my waistband and looked in the bag I was carrying. I don’t think she believed that I mainly went to TJ to buy vanilla. She let me pass and the scanner guy didn’t even care to scan my bag.
It was dark by the time I got back to the van and thankfully it was still there with all of its windows and no tickets. I looked at the parking sign and it was 2 hours until 6PM and I had gotten there at 3:30PM. I must have been close enough that they didn’t check. Overall, it was a fun trip down Mexico way. I only saw two ladyboys, got offered drugs four times, and was propositioned by a prostitute once.
