I haven't done very much of Mexico at all, & what I have done was probably one of the worst & most touristy parts around. We took the bus from San Diego early in the morning. As we neared the boarder we made a sharp right turn into a big car park full of blue buses. These blue buses would carry across the boarder with the least amount of hassle & it was definitely the quickest way to do it.
As we approached the boarder we were warned to make sure that we had our passport with our green visa slip inside because if we didn't we would not get back into the "Land of the free & the home of the brave" (apparently). Our bus pulled up inches from the yellow line & we were inspected very quickly with not much attention given to anything we had on us or with us. This was quite possibly the easiest entry into any country I have ever had.
We drove through the dusty rundown streets of Tijuana heading for the only touristy street in existence. It's amazing how much the landscape & scenery can change either side of that yellow line. San Diego is nice & clean, well laid out & has quite a bit of money behind it. Where as Tijuana Mexico was just the opposite. The buildings were run down, it was quite a bit dirtier & the people were obviously a lot poorer.
Our bus pulled up at a small depot on the back side of a small shopping mall. We all filled off & made our way through the colourful Pinatas & Sombrero for sale before reaching the main street. It was lunch time & after being a long time fan of Australian Mexican food I couldn't wait to sample some of the local flavour. A few hundred meters down the street we had arrived for our feast. We made our way up the colourful stairs & past the brightly coloured bar to the veranda that overlooked the road. Out came our Mexican waiters & oh boy did that have some energy which probably came from the half drunk Tequila bottle that was in tow. One of the lively man began to take our drink & food orders whilst the other decided to blow his whistle offering up shot from his bottle that you really weren't allowed to say no to.
I decided to go with one of my long standing favourites, hot Chicken Enchiladas with extra hot. I then tried my first Dos Equis which I don't mind saying I have fallen in love with ever since. I was going to have a Corona but apparently that is the equivalent of our Fosters. We export the crap & no one would dare drink it in Australia
After being entertained by the man with the whistle with ridiculously loud music belting from the bar dinner was served. The food was quite nice but tasted nothing like the Mexican I was expecting or had ever had before. It was quite plain & seemed to lack any spice which I thought Mexican was known for. Apparently not in Mexico though, who would of thought.
After lunch we made our way through a few of the shops to look at the crazy crap for sale & buy some very cheap beer. Two bottles of Dos Equis were only 99c. Pretty good compared to its rich neighbour where the same thing would cost about $4-$5. Time flew while we were south of the boarder & before too long it was time to take the bus back to the US of A.
We approached the boarder in the bus lane which thank god for us was a lot shorter than the car lane. The cars were lined up for about 2 klms & they said it could sometimes take about 5 hours in line before it would be your turn to be ruthlessly searched. We were questioned repeatedly before being allowed to enter back in to the US.
I look forward to the time that I get to see more of Mexico, especially the pyramids.