Tijuana

While in Mozambique, I was warned about the Tijuana border crossing by the project leader who had spent quite a lot of time in Mexico. He said that Mexico is beautiful and that all places could be visited. There was only one rule; avoid the Tijuana border crossing. This is the place where all dreg hang around; all from people smugglers, drug dealers, drug smugglers, hijackers, robbers, rapists, pimps and everything else you can think of. If crossing the border on foot you may be assaulted if unlucky and you should by no means buy something from anyone.

If you would be stupid enough to buy illegal drugs on the Mexican side, you are in deep trouble as the drug dealer may (after having sold it to you) tip the police that you are carrying drugs and he will earn some extra money on the reward.

Tijuana is the cheapest place to cross as it’s the closest crossing from Los Angeles and it is also the most busy border crossing in the world. Lot’s of people make it across the border without trouble by using normal precautions but if you are looking for trouble, any kind of trouble can easily be found. While on the other side you can get buses to almost anywhere in Mexico.

With this in mind, I purchased a through-ticket (probably more expensive) from Los Angeles to Mexican Los Mochis, which should save me from all the hassle at the border. Los Mochis is also located a bit more to the east so I though the bus should use another border crossing (Nogales cross looked more direct). I could however not stop smiling when I looked down on my ticket and it said I had two hours transit in Tijuana Central.