sciman - 9-16-2006 at 02:11 PM
I bet somebody's got some good tips on crossing the border back toward San Diego. What a mess we found ourselves in the other day! I'm not sure quite
what we should have known.
We headed north about 10:00 am from Ensenada and came into TJ on the toll road. Our thought was to follow signs, and we did find a couple to "San
Diego". At one point though, there was a left turn to be made into an avenue at a light, with traffic backed up who knows how many miles to the right.
Nobody of course would budge to let us into the lane, though various people started shouting -- "go down to the first exit", or "go to the third
exit". We took the second right up a small street to find another pack of lines with 1" between bumpers. That obviously didn't work, so we headed to
the 3rd right and found the same thing. Packing it further down the road we saw signs to Otay Mesa, so thought "what the heck".. though we never saw
another sign to San Diego.
Thoroughly lost, we had some fun checking out a bunch of stores and gas stations where there was no help to be had in our halting Spanish. We did
encounter one helpful soul at a grocery store who wanted to go across the border with us, though we weren't sure how to negotiate that one;-) After an
hour or so, we hitched up with a taxi and asked him to show us the way. He did a nice job of ignoring all kinds of signs that we'd have followed to
find his way to leave us off at a line that was only a 2 hour wait;-)
I understand that there are long waits. The challenge we found was in figuring out where to link up with the lines to wait in. I'm glad that we
thought to hire a cab, but there must be more sensible ways of going about this. Or do you just have to know somehow the way those many lines are
threaded throughout the city to crawl through those check-points? Any tips for future reference would be much appreciated. In fact, knowing where one
might get a good map of TJ would be helpful, though I think next time we'll probably park and the border and walk across for some local shopping;-)
DENNIS - 9-16-2006 at 02:38 PM
The San Ysidro border crossing brings out the worst in people. Very few will tolerate a car breaking into the line. There used to be predictable
time slots when traffic was lite or heavy. That seems to have changed. It's most always heavy to heavier now. This trend seems to have started
around six months ago, at least for me it did.
If you dont know your way around TJ, an easy way to get into the rear of a line would be down Second Avenue. Going north on the toll road, ignore the
signs directing you to San Diego. Stay on the toll, up and over the hill until the toll road runs into the downtown road, Second Avenue. It's like
the end extension of the toll road. [ have I lost you yet? ]
Second Avenue changes from a two way road to one way, four lanes heading toward the border. Look ahead for what seems to be a traffic jam.. It is
one. They're all waiting to cross the border. This could start back in what seems like the middle of town. If it doesn't, or if the line isn't
even there, well, its your lucky day. Continue on till you find the back of the line. You'll find it.
Doing all that only assures you that you will get into the line without a problem. That's all but, thats good.
Now, if you are coming north at
that time in the future, go through Tecate. You wont regret it ..... unlesss you pick a high volume day like Sunday.
Anyway, the border as we knew it doesn't exist anymore.
After a while, you will find your own "best time" and direction. That's the best you can hope for.
Good luck
Dennis
Bob and Susan - 9-16-2006 at 02:50 PM
we crossed 4PM sunday Sept 10 ...
45 minute wait...
just had to hold out my hand to stop intruders one time
Bob and Susan - 9-16-2006 at 02:51 PM
oh yea
the police were standing on the concrete dividers watching for seatbelt violations...
one had a ticket book out
Thanks Dennis..
sciman - 9-16-2006 at 03:02 PM
Perfect, Dennis. Thanks so very much. That's easy to remember and very clear. I'm supposing that the general rule for shoppers would be the same. If
one was on Revolution, for instance, just head north the 2nd, hang a right, and be patiently aimed forward.
You seem to know the mistake we made trying to follow those signs to San Diego. A part of the story I didn't get into; -- we'd paused for a minute or
so to hope somebody would let us in, and we weren't macho enough to make it happen. And as we headed to that exit further up, a TJ motorcycle cop
pulled us over and did a number about how trying to cut into line was illegal and how we were going to pay for it. I really couldn't understand him,
though the more I suggested that I could only get maybe uno en vente palabras, the faster he ran off his totally unintelligible explanations of my
grave errors. He was ready to write me up until I handed him the weak little map of downtown we had so that i could verify where the police station
was that I was going to have to go to before heading home. I figured, and perhaps wrongly, that I was just experiencing a shake-down and I didn't feel
like laying out a lot of cash. I told him I wasn't doing any mordida, but needed to make sure I knew where we were to go. It took a good 5 minutes --
maybe 10 before he seemed surprised that we seemed to be tourists and waved us on our way;-)
Second street will be easy to remember because this was the first time I ever visited that artisan's market across from Smart & Final. What a
great place to shop! We liked that this was a manufacturing center for some of the stuff too. Far better collection of pottery (garden pots) than I've
ever seen in Mexico. We found a gal there with great ironwork. Sandra, with Bernard's Galleries struck us as having great design sensibility, and
having tons of craftsmen that she works with. She even travels across the border to bid on granite kitchens. All of the cabinetry in her upstairs
showroom demonstrated very high quality work.
Tecate seems out of the way, but I bet your recommendation is right, and hey.. as long as we're there, we might as well see Mexico. There's a great
panadaria in Tecate too, and so that should be on our stopping list. Heading in that direction though, makes me wish Mexicali was closer. It's been a
long time since I've had Chinese food that's as good as one can get there;-) Am I wrong? Anyone know of really great Chinese food at moderate prices
in TJ or Tecate?
DENNIS - 9-16-2006 at 03:21 PM
Theres a restaurant review site here which talks about Chinese restaurants ..... at least I think that's were I saw it. Scroll down the site map,
you'll see it.
You might want to be careful in the future with the words you use with the police. Although you know that they are traditionally dishonest and thrive
on mordida, you really shouldn't say it to them. Mordida, the word, can be referred to as "paying the fine" or something else politically correct.
They may be no-good thieves but they do have their pride.
4PM --- Sunday ---- 45 min.? There is a border god, isn't there.
Dennis
Bob and Susan - 9-16-2006 at 03:25 PM
yes there is...
and always wait till you get to the churro guy to get the HOT churros
bajabound2005 - 9-16-2006 at 06:19 PM
sciman: what day/time were you trying to cross?
hour of day
sciman - 9-16-2006 at 07:35 PM
Bajabound asked about the hour of the day. We thought to come back Friday AM rather than to hang around for the weekend and got started a little
earlier than perhaps we should have. We came up the toll road and missed the turn to "San Diego" at about 10:00 am before the round trip to oblivion.
It was probably a little after 1:00 that we were watching the guys in the next line hand pushing their Celica to get started as they entered the booth
and dealt with the border services.
bajaguy - 9-18-2006 at 06:41 AM
Crossed at Tecate on Saturday 9-17 at 10:30 am....took one hour.
From TJ I usually turn right at the Fire Dept, then the first left. That gets me positioned for the crossing.
vandenberg - 9-18-2006 at 07:02 AM
bajaguy.
Aren't you confused with the Otay Mesa crossing?
bajaguy - 9-18-2006 at 09:23 AM
No. Actually, I knew that I was in Tecate.......