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Tijuana shows real Mexico
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_283062...
06/29/2005
WHY TIJUANA?
It is the most visited border city in the world. It is the city that produces the most televisions in the world. Another of its claims to fame is that
it was the home of Carlos Santana for a couple of years, before he came to the Bay Area.
But I want to introduce the Mexican Tijuana to you, and this is because many people tell me that Tijuana is not Mexico. It is, believe me.
It dates back to 1830, as the humble El Rancho de Tia Juana. It then made its name during Prohibition, when folks from the United States would cross
the border to drink. It was one huge bar, but now it's different.
My recommendation is to drive there, for at least a five-day trip. Leave at 6 a.m. on a Thursday or a Friday, fully gassed. Refuel in San Luis Obispo.
There, admire the Madonna Inn and look for her (the Madonna). Grab an espresso for the road at Starbucks.
Lunch in Santa Barbara. Either stop at Trader Joe's (Fairview Avenue) or at the Yellow House Restaurant, on the left as you are leaving Santa Barbara.
Spend your first night in San Diego's Old Town, at the Best Western Hacienda Inn, with time for walking around Old Town. Dine at El Agave Restaurant
to marvel at the more than 400 different tequilas.
Next morning, on the way to Tijuana, stop in San Isidro and buy some extra insurance for your car. One never knows, and it is better to be safe than
sorry, if something were to happen. Knock on wood, but after so many visits, I have never had any problems.
In Tijuana, stay at the Fiesta Inn (follow directions toward the Rio Plaza Center and keep going for a mile). Check in, go to the pool, use their gym,
take care of any business in their business center and check out the historical photos of Tijuana.
Lunch at Super Antojitos in Rio Plaza Shopping Center (right across from the CeCuT Cultural Center, with an IMAX theater) for a huge combination plate
for only $85 pesos ($8).
Walk to the shopping center and shop where tourists don't shop for untouristy type items at Commercial Mexicana, the biggest chain of Mexican
supermarkets. Buy things like cajeta (milk caramel sauce), tequila, books, magazines, CDs, candy, Cuban cigars. Then take in a movie.
Then, walk across the street for some good old-fashioned shopping at the Mercado Hidalgo, where many of the Tijuanenses shop and where I find Mother's
goodies. You may want to have dinner at the bright yellow Cantina de los Remedios.
For downtown, park your car on Juarez and Revolucion, behind the Gigante supermarket. It is safe there ? but never park on a city street, please.
From there, walk to Revolucion, stop at La Villa del Tabaco (Rev. No. 868) for espresso. Remember, you are in no hurry whatsoever. If you are so
inclined, have one of their fine Cuban cigars, sip your espresso and people-watch, which is most exciting in Tijuana.
After your relaxing caffeine, walk north one block to the new steel arch, the official gateway to Tijuana. At the corner, cross the street into
Mariachi Plaza. You might want to hire a mariachi for a song or two.
Keep going to the corner, which is Juarez, make a right, go a block, and you will see three of my favorite places in Tijuana: the cathedral in front,
the mercado to the left and, to the right of the cathedral, the Lazaro Card##as School, which is where I went to school for a year, way back in 1961.
If you are so inclined, visit the cathedral. It is not an architectural marvel, but it does have its memories.
Now, if you were to continue west on that street, Juarez, you would eventually reach Tijuana Beach. If it is a Sunday, the bullring is right there.
After you have seen the Tijuana the ordinary U.S. tourist never sees, you have two choices: Walk south around a couple of blocks ? don't go north of
Juarez because you'll head into the red-light district ? or go back east two blocks, to the center of Tijuana, Avenida Revolucion.
Once on Revolucion, you also may want to stop at Caesar's Hotel, which is where the world-famous Caesar salad was born, back in the 1950s. Legend has
it that Latina actress Margarita Carmen Dolores Cansino, better known as Rita Hayworth, was visiting Tijuana, staying at the hotel, and one night
after hours she became hungry. She went to the restaurant and found one of the waiters eating a salad. "What are you eating?" she asked.
"I just put something together," he answered. He shared some of it with her. She loved it. After she left Tijuana, she would insist on this type of
salad that had been made for her at Caesar's Hotel in Tijuana. The salad became famous, as did Tijuana, the hotel and Rita. Tijuana lore.
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Bruce R Leech
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isn't this a real piece of trash. it sounds like a Realtor wrote it. if you would want to see the real Mexico. don't listen to that Ca ca.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Sharksbaja
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I'm all excited
NOT!
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elgatoloco
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Last I checked Tijuana was still a part of Mexico.
The guy wrote about his experience in Tijuana. Maybe someone will read it and decide to explore some place they have not been before?
That is what travel is all about. Getting out there and seeing first hand. Life is short. It's a big world. Check it out. 
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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bajalou
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Earl S. Gardner, who explored and wrote about much of Baja California, wrote MEXICO'S MAGIC SQUARE, in 1968 about a part of Baja, including a bit
about Tijuana, that is often overlooked in the rush to see "the REAL Baja". Tijuana, Mexicali and other cities are as much of Baja as is Picacho del
Diablo or the Sierra Gigantica. Just different but with much to be found if one takes the time to look.
No Bad Days
\"Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference\"
\"The trouble with doing nothing is - how do I know when I\'m done?\"
Nomad Baja Interactive map
And in the San Felipe area - check out Valle Chico area |
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Gypsy Jan
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All cities are full of people
who live, laugh, love, work, play and try to make their home a better place.
If you don't like Tijuana, you don't like it. Fine.
But this writer, a former resident, was attempting to tell a story about a side of the city that the average American knows nothing about.
Positive and deatailed infor about touring TJ are damned hard to find, this I know from experience, because we frequently meet with and take around
visitors to that area.
The observations, comments and advice offered in the story are pretty much dead on accurate. The article was a great how-to guide for an interested
novice visitor.
I just wish the writer had been more careful about the spelling of place names.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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pokey
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Well...... I've lived in Tijuana and quite frankly I thought it was a sh*it hole. It's overpriced, overcrowded, polluted to the extreme, crawling
with thieves, dirty, and corrupt. Honestly I'd rather sit outside of a coffee bar in San Diego and people watch then suffer through the legions of
beggars, con artist, hawkers and all around as$holes that are certain to approach me as I'm trying to enjoy a latte in Tijuana.
Keep Mexico weird
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El Camote
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| Quote: | Lunch in Santa Barbara. Either stop at Trader Joe's (Fairview Avenue) or at the Yellow House Restaurant, on the left as you are leaving Santa Barbara.
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Attention to detail is not this writers forte. The Trader Joe's they describe is not in Santa Barbara, it is in Goleta 9 miles north and not on
Fairview Ave. but that is the correct exit. There is an easier accessed Trader Joe's actually in Santa Barbara right off the Milpas St. exit. And
the Big Yellow house is also not in Santa Barbara but in Summerland; two communities south of Santa Barbara.
- El Camote, former Santa Barbara hotel concierge who took great pride in his accurate directions to tourists.  
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Desertbull
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Speaking of directions concierge...
Where can I get my Baja Bug painted? Oh...and I've heard about a Donkey Show somewhere?...
Miss ya Sweet Potato!
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Bruce R Leech
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Tijuana is a big city and has everything .I have spent a lot of time in the most visited border city in the world. and had many good experiences as
well as some bad. but I object to the authors clam.
the author wrote." But I want to introduce the Mexican Tijuana to you, and this is because many people tell me that Tijuana is not Mexico. It is,
believe me." and then proceeds to Gide you through all the tourist places in town while steering you away from the real Mexican
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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jrbaja
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Very true Bruce
That "advice" is about as touristy as you can get. All those places are exactly where the unknowing tourists go!
See what happens when foreign tourists try to pretend they actually know something. Bad info.
Reminds me of a good portion of the information posted on here by the coop groupers.
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Hook
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The author forgot to mention......
.....the other aspect of the REAL Tijuana. The one where journalists, police chiefs, Federal agents and even a shoo-in presidential candidate can be
gunned down with impunity.
As of last week, TJ had topped the 200 murder mark for the year while San Diego, virtually the same population, had only 26 for the same period.
This side of TJ is a little TOO real for the readers of travel articles, I suppose. 
I avoid the place, except for the occasional foray to La Costa restaurant (i know, I know, there was a very public murder there a couple years back)
or the Zona Rio.
I prefer my REAL Mexican experiences in communidads......but I guess those have all been written about many times over.
So, you make a silk purse out of a sow's ear when your editor demands "something fresh, some vibrant."
[Edited on 7-6-2005 by Hook]
[Edited on 7-6-2005 by Hook]
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Anonymous
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Tijuana offers warm welcome
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_285565...
07/13/2005
A COUPLE of weeks ago, I recommended Tijuana to you. I began telling you about the Tijuana I know, the real Mexican one, not the touristy one that no
one believes to be the real Mexico. Let's now finish our trip.
I left you in the middle of the main drag, the world's largest grand tourist trap, Avenida Revolucion. Now on Revolucion, walk south, on the west side
of the street, gawking at all the goodies for about four blocks until you get to the Jai Alai Palace (from 1940). It's one of the jewels of Northern
Mexico and sits on the east side of the street. A good restaurant there is Sanborn's, for lunch or dinner.
After visiting the Jai Alai Palace, walk back to your car on the east side of the street. Enjoy the newer, wider sidewalks, the pre-Colombian
sculptures as public art ? something we need in Hayward ? and savor them. Remember, this city receives more than 2 million visitors per year.
One of the government's objectives is to warmly welcome the visitors of one of the richest countries of the world, which is what they consider
California to be. They are also much into improving the streets, taking care of the many children and cleaning up corruption, which has long plagued
authorities.
Buy your vanilla and souvenirs anywhere. If you have not already, buy your two bottles of tequila (per person) at Leyva's Liquor, where you can find
more than 300 tequilas to choose from, at good prices, and even some of the best ones at a mere $200 per bottle. Hmmm.
Don't forget the Wax Museum, the House of Culture, the Museum of the Californias, Mexitlan Park with miniatures of many of Mexico's famous sites, the
newer attraction for kids and parents called Mundo Divertido (Fun World), and do take a photo with one of the unique Tijuana zebras.
Before returning home,maybe spend a day at the beach. It is a good thing that you bought some insurance. That would merit visiting the Rosarito Beach
Resort Hotel (from 1926), just 30 minutes away. On the way over, visit the Fox Studios where "Titanic" was filmed.
A short distance past Rosarito are two missions, one at Santa Teresita and the other at La Mision de San Miguel de la Frontera. Heck, if you went all
the way to La Mision, you might as well keep going to Ensenada. It is worth a visit.
Near Ensenada is one of the oldest wineries of the Americas, and the oldest in the Californias, the Bodegas del Valle de Guadalupe. Taste some good
wine and then visit the small but interesting Mision de Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe (1834). Another good winery is the L.A.Cetto Winery nearby. This is
one of the better wine regions of Mexico. Enjoy. But, please, moderation.
A short trip south of Ensenada definitely is worth it. It is called La Bufadora, a natural rock formation that, when hit by the ocean waves, makes a
huge sound and sends the water way up in the air.
What a refreshing sight and feeling!
Now, here are a few tips for a good journey. Just as we are advised to not walk around the downtown of many of our cities past 9 p.m., the same
applies to Tijuana ? with one big exception: Revolucion. The main drag is a safe walking area while the stores are open. Don't show off your money.
Better yet, carry little cash, pay with credit cards and pay off your bills once you are back home. Don't wear backpacks when there are a lot of
people around you. Guard your bags.
My No. 1 rule for you: If you don't do it at home, there is no reason for you to do it in Mexico ? or in any other country, for that matter.
And for a fun, cultural and stomach-pleasing trip: Don't eat with the street vendors. Try everything, but no oversizing or overeating. Only bottled
water, please. At the bars and discos, drink moderately. A yellow traffic light is a red light; don't floor it. Dirty words in Spanish are for parties
at your house, among friends, not in public places or other countries. People are normally nice and pleasant; be likewise. Try some of your Spanish.
Don't forget to send a postcard to your family and me.
Now you see what I meant when I stated that this would be a fine trip for you. There are many things on this trip into the real Mexico that are full
of the human element in Tijuana, a few hours' drive from downtown Hayward. The summer is well on its way ? give yourself a treat and take off. The
return trip can be a relaxing easy drive north on Interstate 5.
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