Tijuana

Tijuana is the most well-known border town of Mexico. You can't just find sexs, drugs and marihuana here but also the most-crossed border of the world and according to various webpages Tijuana is rated as the most dangerous town worldwide. I stayed for round about two weeks with Oscar and Robbie in Tijuana and made a lot of new experiences, including a little bit of dog rescue across the border and my first scooter and motorcycle tours.

When I arrived in Tijuana the first thing I did after I had stowed my things away was going to baseball match of the Toros, the team of Tijuana. The match wasn't that interesting though, but baseball is more about the atmosphere and food and drinks anyway. My Couchsurfing friends Jin, Jason, Oscar and Robbie and I didn't stay until the end but went home to Oscar's place instead before the traffic around the stadium got worse.

The next day I met up with some more Couchsurfers in Telefónica, a very hip beer garden, framed by numerous converted trucks that offer different types of street food.

There are two main points within Tijuana where a crossing to the USA is possible, the most frequented one is the San Ysidro point of entrance. This was also the first point I got to know as I went there with Jin to come with him to San Diego. There are thousands of people crossing here everyday, Jin already crossed here every single day within the last ten days.

Another point where you can "visit" the border but don't have a chance to cross it legally is in Playas, the westernmost neighbourhood Tijuana's at the frontier. This place is a symbolic location with many sayings and stories. As there is a second fence some meters behind the first one, people can't reach each other but definitely you can see each other and have a loud conversation. Every now and then a kind of friendship-meeting takes place, with which families, who must live separated by the border, may approach each other up to few meters, in order to talk to each other. In the past, it was still permitted for them to get so close to each other in order to be able to touch each other. After this led to a lively exchange of drugs, weapons and other problematic items, it was abolished, however.

Downtown Tijuana, unlike most other Mexican cities, does not have a main square around which everything is concentrated. Instead the street Revolución is where most of the life takes place. I went there several times to meet with other Couchsurfers and to explore the city centre. The historical Hotel Caesars, where the Caesar's salad was invented, can also be found in this street. A small covered side street of the Revolución is Pasaje Rodríguez, a pedestrian promenade with lots of small shops.

It is up to each Mexican state to decide whether it wishes to allow prostitution or not. In Tijuana there is a red-light district, designated a Zona de tolerancia, or "tolerance zone", which is among the largest in North America. One of the best-known brothels is Hongkong, another one very close to the border to the USA is the Deja Vu, which advertises with the slogan "1,000 beautiful girls and 3 ugly ones".

Another interesting thing I've seen for the first time in Tijuana are gas stations of the chain Rendichicas. This chain was founded in 2010 in Tijuana and has established itself in the north of Mexico. In comparison to all the other gas stations in Mexico it only employs women.

One evening we went to Republica Malta, also a beer garden in another part of Tijuana, where we could listen to two bands this evening. One of them came from Ensenada, the other one from Los Angeles and both were playing their own style of music which were a kind of electronic Cumbia sounds. Many different local breweries sell their craft beers here. On the way back Jason and I stopped at a Taco restaurant and next to some delicious tacos and quesadillas I had frijoles preparados (prepared beans, served in a cup with cheese, sauce and spices).

As Robbie and Oscar rescued five little dogs some months ago they're starting a dog rescue right now. During my stay with them we went over to San Diego one day to hand them over to their new owners. Pepper, Dobbie, Goldie and Cali were picked up by Oscar and Robbie, nearly starved to death. The two have given them a new chance in life and have provided this now playful, happy and well fed puppies a new home from this day on. The fourth puppy of the dog gang Cali, who is by far the cutest one, stayed with them and I was very grateful to have her and Poco, their first dog, around me and the couch I was sleeping on during my stay with them.

One day we decided that all three of us need a haircut and Poco as well. First we brought Poco to the dog hairdresser, Cali got a dog bath in the time, and later it was our turn. The French toast with peanut butter, bananas and nuts has nothing to do with the hairdresser and the dogs, but I mention it here anyway, because since my stay at Robbie's and Oscar's place it belongs to my favourite recipes in the category "quickly prepared".

Oscar was not only my host for two weeks but also my driving instructor. We started our program with some scooter lessons during the first days. I had mastered that quickly and I drove through the whole city with the Scooter. So the proper motorcycle followed. Whilst I was going up and down the street, just shifting between the first gear and neutral so far, Gonzalo, a Mexican guy came out of his house on his motorcycle and as he saw us he immediately offered me to try out his bike as well. In short, it was done, and I immediately shifted up a gear, because this motorcycle was much easier to ride. After that I switched back to Oscar's motorcycle and we were going to take a few street blocks. In the next training session we drove across Tijuana.

All in all I had an amazing time with Robbie, Oscar, all their dogs and also the other Couchsurfers around Tijuana. I'm really glad that I got to know my two hosts by chance on my first day in Tijuana and that they have not only welcomed me joyfully for so long, but have provided me with a wonderful place to edit videos and write blogs, as well as joint ventures that are hard to top.

Oh yes, and by the way, Tijuana is a dangerous city, even if I didn't I have fortunately not witnessed this with my own eyes and body. Tijuana is stained with blood, there were 18 homicides recorded in 24 hours on one of the days I stayed there. In total, more than 1,000 people were killed in the first half of 2019 already.