Bienvenidos a Mexico!

On Monday, we arrived in Mexico! The border crossing in Tijuana was surprisingly anticlimatic. We walked up a few flights of stairs, down a few more, through a series of doors, and popped out on the other side: No search, no questioning, not even an ID check. Really?

Based on previous travelling experiences, I searched for the distinguishing smells of a new place. But as we biked through rush hour traffic, the only real difference I felt was a huge cloud of exhaust in my lungs. Besides some goods being slightly cheaper and everyone speaking Spanish, Tijuana didn't seem very different from San Diego. Of course, 20 miles can't create a change as drastic as my heart desired.

The next day, we biked around town to check it out more. Again, I was pretty disapointed. The border area is all bars, pharmacies, and dentists' offices. Downtown was even worse, mostly chain stores and restaurants. By lunch time I was feeling disheartened about this whole Mexico experience, but I tried to remind myself that this was just a border town and everywhere else would be different.

In San Diego, we met a guy named Forrest who has a house in Tijuana. Having met him for all of 10 minutes, he gave us detailed directions to his house to stay at. In our 3 days there, we never saw him. However, his house is on a lot with several other houses, all Mexican punks who work on old cars. They all turned out to be really awesome guys. After our ride in town, they invited us to their part of the lot for a bonfire, where we drank cowamas (liters of beer) and learned more about Mexico and Tijuana.

The next day, they took us to the nearby flea market. A maze of several blocks was lined with people selling second hand clothes, kitchenware, tools, etc, as well as a few produce vendors and some food stalls. Finally I felt like I was in Mexico! The idea of a flea market in a third world country was completely foreign to me: In Asia and the Middle East, the policy was pretty consistently to use it til it broke. But I enjoyed checking out all the trinkets, and I got myself a little leather coin purse. When we got back, Josh and I relaxed for a while, then joined the gang by the bonfire again. They convinced us to stay another day so that one of them, Wason, could give us free tattoos the next night (How could we go to Tijuana without getting tattoos?)

So we stayed the next day too! We fixed up Wason's old bike as a thank you for the tattoos. Actually, he turned out to be an incredibly talented artist. I got a little bicycle, and Josh got a chain ring with a heart in the middle (pictures eventually).

The next day, freshly inked, we hit the road for Ensenada. Biking into the suburbs of Tijuana, I finally noticed a distinct difference in the look of Mexico. We biked on a highway through a winding valley to the shore. The hills were lined with colorful simple buildings precariously balanced on landslides. All of the roads leading off the main highway were dirt or gravel. The riding was surpisingly easy; the shoulder was huge and most cars passed pretty wide. We found a beautiful abandoned cottage on the beach to sleep in.

Today we pounded out the rest of the miles to Ensenada. Most of our ride was inland up in the hills. Some of the climbs were pretty gnarly, but we were surrounded by beautiful ranches the whole time.

Enseneda is pretty nondescript so far. We met up with Josh's friend Ana, whose house we are staying at. She prepared us a really delicious dinner, and they headed out to some bars while I stay here and relax. Our plan after this is uncertain. Josh wants to head West to San Felipe, then North to Mexicali to catch a train south. I would like to go South as soon as possible. Either way, I'm excited to be in a new country!