Tijuana walking tour

Attention all Baja Nomads:
I am starting my new day time job, fully escorted "safe" Tijuana Walking Tours. With the blessings of the Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau, we have put together a 6 hour visit to some of the most popular and historic places in the downtown Tijuana area.
The tour starts litteraly on the moment you set on foot in México, right there at the gate is were I will be greetting you and will stay with you until your return bus trip to the USA.
Tour includes welcome margarita, authentic mexican meal, entrance to the wax museum, wine tasting, return bus transportation and of course, me
Here is the lik with all the details, as always thanks in advance for your support.

http://ultimatebaja.com/html/walkingtours.html

[Edited on 5-15-2007 by fdt]

That would be a night time job

How about a picture of you in your website, you handsome devil !!!
Go for the female tourists !!!

.

Quote:

Originally posted by Diver How about a picture of you in your website, you handsome devil !!! Go for the female tourists !!! .

Good idea, but I think this would be the winning photo---it is beautiful and says a lot.



Diane

And the Handsome guy

San Diego side trip

Thanks everyone. Ill look into the reader to.

If you look on the left side, there are 3 link butons(I call them clickers:lol and one has the detail tour description and the other has the itinerary and pricing.
I've asked Simone to make them a little more visible, I did'nt see them the first time either.
In any case, there is no minimum number of persons needed for the tour.
saludos

Quote:

Originally posted by fdt Attention all Baja Nomads: I am starting my new day time job, fully escorted "safe" Tijuana Walking Tours. With the blessings of the Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau, we have put together a 6 hour visit to some of the most popular and historic places in the downtown Tijuana area. The tour starts litteraly on the moment you set on foot in México, right there at the gate is were I will be greetting you and will stay with you until your return bus trip to the USA. Tour includes welcome margarita, authentic mexican meal, entrance to the wax museum, wine tasting, return bus transportation and of course, me Here is the lik with all the details, as always thanks in advance for your support. http://ultimatebaja.com/html/walkingtours.html

Yes, very authentic at Cafe La Especial
Mexican Combo plate from Cafe La Especial that we picked for this tour



Kids 2 taco combo plate for the tour

Anything for you Oso.

fdt

I'm looking forward to it.

me too

from ensenada, would love to join a walking tour with you. we could drive up on the abc and meet at the frontera terminal and you could take us from there. sound good?

Quote:

Originally posted by sylens from ensenada, would love to join a walking tour with you. we could drive up on the abc and meet at the frontera terminal and you could take us from there. sound good?

Ferna is a great talker

Did you get a steeker?

Quote:

Originally posted by elgatoloco Quote: Originally posted by fishbuck Good luck with it! I hope you are better at it than you were at trying to sell me one of your stickers at the book signing. Did you get a steeker?

Quote:

Originally posted by elgatoloco Quote: Originally posted by fishbuck Good luck with it! I hope you are better at it than you were at trying to sell me one of your stickers at the book signing. Did you get a steeker?

Thanks for your comments Natalie Ann, as for the candies they are called "cacahuates garapiñados", I love them, they are peanuts with a hard sugar coating and usualy colored red and we can find those and other mexican candy items at the Mercado el Popo wich is one of the tour highlights

Don't worry, it's not a marathon , Avenida Revolucion is only 11 blocks plus the walk across the bridge, most of the time is pretty relaxed with all the stops we make at the historical landmarks, lunch and wine tasting, and remember the return trip is on tour bus.

ok, Fernando... you've got my attention with that photo of the dulces in the market. So I could get the cacahuates garapiñados and also some more Glorias to replace my dwindling stock. I think we're about ready to strike a deal....

Continuing historical research

I found this today in my digging thru historical stuff from Tijuana, turns out that back in the late 1800's early 1900's there was a tourist guide named "Rueben the Guide" and I found reference of him on the San Diego Historical Society site.
quote
"THE CASE OF THE OLD SPANISH LIGHTHOUSE" is one of the more puzzling whodunnits in local history: why should a lighthouse built in 1854-55 by the U. S. government be called "Spanish" when Spanish rule ended in 1822? Around the turn of the century, San Diegans called it merely "The Old Lighthouse."

Efforts to identify the source of the fiction of "The Old Spanish Lighthouse" have not been too succesful, but the best available information points to a jovial old negro who was widely known, half a century ago, as "Reuben the Guide." Reuben - today no one can even recall his last name - conducted tourist parties around San Diego and Tijuana. And Reuben was never one to let historical facts get in the way of giving the tourists a good time. Anything with "Spanish" in it was sure-fire stuff. Calling the building "Spanish" made the visitors happy, and kindly old Reuben believed in happiness.

This is a picture of Reuben in his sombrero in 1897


This man had a good sense of humor, here is another note I found on him:

The early 1900s produced a number of colorful personalities. For example Reuben Williams (a.k.a. Reuben the Guide), who wore a Mexican sombrero, a serape, and a sheriff's star on his vest when he gave his guided tours. It was said that he always got top price for his tour of Tijuana because when he approached the Tijuana River he would stop his mules and tell his passengers: "Dollar tickets keep your seats, 75-cent tickets walk and 50-cent tickets push."

Here is an old post card with Reuben


And another


Gonna be one tough act to follow.

There are several theories as for the name and you've probably heard a few; Tia Juana (Aunt Jane), Tijuan, Ticuan.
It is also thought that the first settlers did'nt undrestand the indians language and they called it Tia Juana. The first official documents that say Tijuana are in reference to a judicial agreement between Santiago Arguello and Agustin Olvera in wich the basis for the future development of Tijuana were set. That was on July 11 1889, date that is considered the official founding date for Tijuana.
Something I learned on the last Viva Baja Cactus Baja Nomad gettogether was at the Tijuana Historical Society, were I met Mr. Gilberto Rios, who told us that Tia Juana was what is now San Ysidro, this is Mr. Rios that day
[img]http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?action=attachment&tid=20656&pid=182981[/img]
He has been learning about Tijuana's history since 1929, and he showed us a picture of a trolley that whent from San Diego to national City and to Tia Juana, but that train never came to Tijuana, just to San Ysidro and it was advertised as Tia Juana. Here is something I found, it's called "Let's Ride the Dam Train!"
A sketch from the pen of Hiram H. Bice, Editor of the National City Record, edition of May 5, 1892, with technical interfusions by Richard V. Dodge.
Sweetwater Dam that is! The steam motor road, named National City & Otay Railway, began operating 60-Mile Excursions for a fare of One Dollar over its entire system in 1888 and they became very popular attractions for many years.
"One of the pleasantest jaunts I ever enjoyed in Southern California was a trip to the sleepy old Mexican town of Tia Juana (now spelled Tijuana). The day was bright and cloudless."
"We left at 9 o'clock in the morning on the excursion train which was filled with sightseers."

The train probably backed to the Junction and headed for Tia Juana, "the last town in Southern California (18.5 miles). The boundary line passes through it and cuts it in two, the American half consisting of a single street of frame buildings and a few scattered houses. The American part has a live air but the Mexican part is the deadest place imaginable." (Note: Probably the California town would have looked just as dead except that, due to the floods in 1891, the old town was washed out and the remaining buildings were moved to higher ground near the border.)
"We join a file of tourists and put ourselves in a foreign country as soon as possible. The houses here are made of mud and most of the residents look as if they were. The only respectable persons seem to be the Custom Officers and the proprietor of a curio shop, who we fancy, must live on the American side and go down to the town when he knows the tourists are coming."



Here is another picture of Mr. Rios during our Baja Nomad toy drive on Dia de Reyes talkin to us about some historical facts

Quote:

Originally posted by sylens from ensenada, would love to join a walking tour with you. we could drive up on the abc and meet at the frontera terminal and you could take us from there. sound good?

For those that do not need transportation back to the USA there would be a $5 dollar discount

I changed the title of this thread

Quote:

Originally posted by fdt Gonna be one tough act to follow.