crossing the border

the border fence
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well now.

crossing the border was nothing if not easy -- at least if you are headed south. the trolly from san diego was slow yet effecient, and generally one just needs to follow the herd of humans as they pass through gates, stiles, tunnels, overpasses, walkways, and so on. no-one at the mexican border really cares that you are coming in. it´s that easy.

one just needs to follow the herd of humans as they pass through gates, stiles, tunnels, overpasses, walkways, & so on.

sal, right before the point of no return
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if you do plan on traveling further south in mexico than ensenada, or if you are staying longer than a week or two, you really want to get a tourist card stamped. you can do that here at the border but we found it easier to get it in ensenada, although they will charge you an extra us$5 late fee on top of the us$21 card fee, plus the us$2.50 for the form itself.

one on the other side of the border you are in tijana. well, not tijana proper, but the part of the city that is there to fleece the casual border crosser. it looks like a bunch of concrete shells of buildings with a thousand people wanting to sell you everything. it´s felt bombed-out and rather frightening. we skipped it as soon as possible and high-tailed it out of there. we found the bus station -- the locals in the actual town were very helpful -- and caught the bus to ensenada just down the coast.