Saturday, February 24th - Living on the Edge...

the edge of the US - Mexico border, that is.

After a breakfast at Coco's, we drove across the border to Tijuana and I finished up with my dental work. It took only a few minutes and we headed SOUTH, not immediately back to the USA, as we usually did.

This is a pic of a "Mexican Zebra". It costs $5 to get your pic taken with "Barney". I took this from the Jeep while I waited at a stop light. Barney closely resembles a donkey. The street vendors were out is great numbers, this being a week-end day. The tourists also flooded into Tijuana today.

We drove west from Tijuana, thru a military checkpoint (complete with soldiers with assault rifles), and onto the toll road heading south, toward Ensenada, Baja, Mexico. We exited at "Rosarito Norte" and drove thru the VERY crowded town of Rosarito. About half way thru, the road (a boulevard with two lanes in each direction) closed one side of the boulevard with a carnival, extending about two miles. People were crossing the street ANYWHERE!

We drove the coastal scenic road further south, thru another military checkpoint, to the village of Puerto Nuevo, known for langosta, (lobster). We had learned that there are over 20 restaurants serving freshly caught lobster. Many of the restaurants have street hawkers trying to get you to eat at their place. "Park here, senor! Eat lobster for $10". It WAS very difficult to find a parking place but, we persisted and found one. We had also learned that one particular place, Puerto Nuevo #1, was thet best. They said you could spot it by the line of people waiting to get in. We found it and did wait for about 45 minutes to get in.

It was worth the wait for the experience and good food. We each had two half lobster tails with sides of spanish rice, refried beans, hot tortillas, melted butter, limes and several sauces. Washed down by a couple Tecate cervezas, and it was a very good meal!

We drove back to Tijuana and decided to try the border crossing at Otay, about 10 miles east of the usual San Ysidro crossing. San Ysidro is the busiest border crossing in the world! And, with this being a week-end day, we thought that Otay would be somewhat better. We spend about two hours in line to cross at Otay. Street vendors were selling everything imagineable, including "Corn Cups", a concoction of hot corn kernels, white cheese, a slab of butter and lime. We did not try it but it did sound intriguing. MA did get a blue cotton candy. This pic is the line of cars at Otay. At this point, we had about 40 minutes left to go. If you look closely, between the columns of cars, you can see the vendors and their carts.