CNN reports positive news on Tijuana
Tijuana has had quite a reputation for a very long time. Even Europeans have an impression of the city that very few of them have ever seen.
But what is the reality of life on the streets of Tijuana from the perspective of a travel writer published in CNN?
As published by CNN on November 3, Rick Steves discovers "it's a fun visit as a side trip from San Diego." Yes, he saw the seedier side with hucksters and street walkers. Yet it was by visiting a cathedral that he discovered "the hardworking citizens of their world' and concluded that he "had been wrong about Tijuana."
Here's Rick's travel report:
Does Tijuana deserve the bad rap?
By Rick Steves
A year ago I was excited about Tangier in Morocco and wrote in my blog, "It's no longer the Tijuana of Africa." I didn't realize my comments would understandably touch a nerve with people who like Tijuana.
As locals know, Tijuana is more than cheap sombreros.
So recently I went to Tijuana -- a Mexican town just across the U.S. border from San Diego -- to give it a second look. OK, I admit, I'd never been there ... so I gave it a first look. Working on my upcoming book on the value of travel as a political act, I also wanted to visit a rough border town where the First World meets the Developing World.
I had a great time. While Tijuana isn't a main destination town, it's fun to visit as a side trip from San Diego or a stop while heading south. And if you want to observe the cultural and economic riptides created when two worlds collide, it's a fascinating case study.
At what locals claim is the busiest international border in the world, 24 lanes are busy with traffic -- 24/7. It's easy to get out of the United States -- and tough to get back in. A handy trolley zips tourists from San Diego right to the border for $3. It also brings Mexican workers into San Diego on a daily commute that thousands make.
Drivers can park within 100 yards of the border for $8 a day. Pedestrians step right in without showing a passport, power past the trinket stalls and aggressive cabbies, and head for the towering arch that marks the start of Revolution Avenue and all the fun.
Getting out of Mexico is different. Pedestrians shuffle fairly quickly through an officious passport check. Cars are generally stacked up for a several-hour wait. As taxis are dirt cheap, there's no reason to drive if you're just visiting Tijuana.
Tijuana, barely a century old, thrives today with 1.5 million people. A local explained to me that there's a big funnel from Mexico to the United States, and Tijuana is the little hole through which everything flows.
While there's the cross-border business -- legal and illegal -- there's also a thriving industry stoked by 650 maquiladoras -- assembly factories for First World manufacturers, located here for the cheap labor. With plants for Samsung, Sony and Hitachi, locals claim that more TVs are assembled here than anywhere else.
Throughout Mexico, Tijuana is considered a place of opportunity. With this thriving economy comes a thriving culture: music, arts and an impressive cultural center. The city, while architecturally dilapidated, is extremely clean. The streets were free of litter. Locals thank their new government that "gets things done."
Tijuana's tiny old town, which radiates from the arch on Revolution Avenue, feels like a ramshackle version of the 1950s. You can't miss all the things people come to a border town for: plastic surgery, dentistry, pharmaceuticals without prescriptions, cheap haircuts, Cuban cigars and, of course, jumping beans.
The kitsch is riveting -- glow-in-the-dark tattoos and hucksters hollering "Hello, 100 percent off today!" On nearly every street corner is a vendor with a donkey painted like a zebra, ready for you to don a sombrero and pose for a photo.
Bars that feel like saloons come with cheap prostitutes wearing down their stiletto heels at their doors. Apparently the siesta is alive and well, as these places rent rooms by the hour. (There are also plenty of decent places -- without company for hire in the lobbies -- renting $40 rooms on or near Revolution Avenue.)
After a salesman promised me that the two-hour, $10 bus tour came with a fine guided narration in English, I hopped on the bus. It was a great tour -- but with no guide. I chatted the best I could with the driver. He said the United States and Mexico are brothers, stuck together. If the U.S. gets the flu, Mexico gets pneumonia.
Hopping off the bus at the cathedral, I grabbed a pew and joined a Mass. Sitting with hundreds of Mexicans, I enjoyed a vivid reminder that the gang that tourists see along Revolution Avenue and in front of the saloons is photogenic but not representative. This was the real Tijuana.
Surrounded by well-worn people, I pondered how they were all at various stages on the same ride up and down the parabolas of their respective lives. Taking an hour out of their Sundays to worship, these people -- wearing hooded sweatshirts, T-shirts and cheap shoes picked up for $3 at a street market -- were the hardworking citizens of their world.
And as I poured out of that church along with all those people, and bought a bag of fresh-baked churros crusted in sugar, it occurred to me how wrong I had been about Tijuana.
(Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio. E-mail him at rick@ricksteves.com, or write to him c/o P.O. Box 2009, Edmonds, Wash. 98020.)
The original article can be found HERE.