The 15th of September marks the Day of the Mexican Independence which is celebrated all over the country. In Monterrey, Nuevo León, the local Couchsurfing community organized a huge Couchsurfer gathering for the extended weekend. As I wanted to make my way eastwards anyways and I've never been to Monterrey before, I decided to make my way there. I had to cover more than 2,500 kilometers within a couple of days to get there which I adventurously completed in the twinkling of an eye.
After spending more than a month in and around San Diego I finally left this city which I have grown fond of in many aspects. I enjoyed every second on Brian's boat in the Coronado Yacht Club jumping into the water, swimming in San Diego Bay and diving hundreds of golf balls from the ground. The last days in San Diego and Tijuana were marked by numerous impressions: Surfing lessons with Brian and Pat, a "booze cruise" with Pat, Briana and their friends, Keira's birthday party in Mission Bay, jumpstarting a sea plane which got stuck in the mud and ran out of battery, a funny visit in a gay bar in Hillcrest (hip neighbourhood of San Diego), reading the book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" in a mall in La Jolla, watching two complete seasons of "Stranger Things" and almost completely "One Strange Rock" on Netflix and finally the long-awaited birth of little Elara Joy Potter, the daughter of Oscar and Robbey.
On Sunday, 8th of September I packed my things and took the next bus and made my way to a petrol station on the outskirts of Tijuana. At this point I had no exact travel route planned apart from the destination Monterrey to reach at the latest next weekend. Since this was more than 2,000 kilometres away even on an optimal route from Tijuana I tried to make as much progress as possible.
After fooling around with the gas station employees for one hour I was lucky as Corayma was heading home to her parent's place in Tecate. She took me there and dropped me at the toll station for the road further east. The fact that the officers at this toll station didn't tolerate any people in their vicinity made it a little more difficult to get ahead, as I had to position myself at a point on the highway where the cars usually didn't stop but just rush past.
After an hour and a half I was finally successful as uber driver Luis who made a long-distance trip from Ensenada to Mexicali, which was not fully booked, however, picked me up. On the way from Tecate to Mexicali along the US-Mexican border we passed "La Rumorosa", a scenic part of the road with an elevation of more than 1,000 meters above sea level. After crossing this chain of hills the outside temperature rose by at least ten degrees. Mexicali, the capital of Baja California, is known as an incredibly hot desert city.
To stay cool we went to a shopping mall where I invited Luis for a lunch in a Chinese restaurant, the most typical food in town. This is due to the fact that in the early 20th century a lot of Chinese immigrants moved here to work in the agricultural development of the region. Instead of going to a gas or a toll station as usual, I decided to try my luck in the mall because of the inhuman heat outside. So I wrote a note with San Luis (Río Colorado), the next larger city to the east, and talked to all the people who left the mall. After a while I met Fernando and his wife Maria who were looking for a drilling machine in the mall. As they didn't find anything in this mall they had to go to another mall in Mexicali but I told them I wouldn't mind accompanying them if they are going to San Luis Río Colorado afterwards. We found some drills in a Home Depot store but as the prices were many times higher than for the same product just a few kilometers across the border in a US store Fernando decided against buying one here. So we set off for San Luis Río Colorado, named after the Colorado River, which flows across the US-Mexican border here, but almost completely dried up. How I had to find out on the way there, Fernando and Maria actually didn't have to go to San Luis but rather to Ciudad Morelos which lies further north. So I felt bad that they took a detour just because they wanted to help me. But the whole thing got worse - bad not in the sense that it ended badly for me, but that this friendly couple was much too good-natured. I told them that it would be fine for me to just drop me off at any gas or toll station to make my way further via hitchhiking. Fernando, however, insisted on going to the bus station and looking for the prices for a ride for me. So we did and afterwards he insisted on withdrawing 2,000 Pesos (~100€) for me at the ATM. For a long time I talked to him about how much money this must be for him and what he could buy for himself or his wife, that I didn't need the money, because I could afford the bus ride if I only wanted to, but I chose the adventurous way of travelling via hitchhiking of my own free will. Nothing helped, he finally put the money in my hand and wouldn't let me go without it. He finally dropped me off at a gas station and I promised him to return to the bus stop and buy a ticket if I didn't find a ride.
After a few hours of talking to all the employees at the gas station and various clients I was successful after all. It was already dusk but a truck driver had to make his way to Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, approx. 630 kilometers south-east of San Luis Río Colorado. I hopped on, we talked for a while and then I had a good sleep in the cabin behind the driver's seat before arriving the next morning in Hermosillo.
The next day I spent exploring Hermosillo on foot, walking to the dam which holds the water reservoir for the city and climbing the Cerro de la Campana, a hill in the middle of the city. On the top I met Orlando from Puebla who was spending a few days in the state of Sonora and we talked about some crazy ideas how life in cities could be revolutionized for example by creating a transport system that mostly uses the difference in altitude between two points for moving people around.
As I've already toured most of the city during the day I decided to try hitchhiking further east the same day instead of staying a night with a Couchsurfer in Hermosillo. I visited three different points in the city before finally finding a strategic gas station. The first hours I spent searching on the southern outskirts of town for the most concenient starting place to go to Chihuahua, my expected next stop. What I didn't know at the time was that the most direct road was a toll-free route, which was said to be pretty dangerous and therefore not very busy. In the late afternoon I finally found myself at a gas station in the north-east of Hermosillo and after walking and asking around for another hour or two a young truck driver approached me where I was going. At this point an extraordinary experience began again with many impressions into the life on road in Mexico. I decided to dedicate an extra article to this story: The Daily Life of a Truck Driver in Mexico
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