Tijuana, Mexico

- 31 March 2012 -

I had been wanting to go to Tijuana for a beer and some street tacos for a month or so, but couldn't find anyone to go with me. At work on Friday before leaving I did a little research and found out some people had taken a brewery tour through Tijuana earlier in the month. This led me to Turista Libre. Just out of curiosity I friended Turista Libre on facebook. Within 15 minutes they not only accepted my request, but sent me an invitation to Mundo Divertido a mall and amusement park in south Tijuana (I think). I was immediately in and signed me and my wife Charlene up and even invited a few friends. Aside from a couple of my buddies bailing on the trip it was amazing. The tour guide was very friendly and put Charlene’s nervous vibe at bay. Right before crossing the border our tour guide mentioned that a film crew from KPBS was coming along to film a segment for a locate travel show. At this point we knew we were in for a good time. Our group ended up being about 14 people I believe and we headed across the border and met up with an old school bus that would be our mode of transport for the day. The first thing you notice when crossing the border is the delicious smells. It almost instantly makes you hungry and I think our tour guide had planned on that. I thought we were headed straight for Mundo Divertido but no, our first stop was a market place with fresh fruit, vegetables, cheeses, and restaurants. It’s amazing how different life can be just 15 minutes south of my house. Half of the fruits and vegetables we saw there I’ve never seen before. After walking around a bit we followed a veteran tour traveler to a restaurant that he recommended and it was fantastic. Conservative on what to get and my lack of Spanish I ordered 6 carna asada tacos. Luckily my buddy Tim ordered a delicious soup with goat meat in it. The portion was a bit too big for me to order a whole one, but what he shared was incredible. After lunch we continued to walk around for a bit before the bus took us to our next place. Upon arriving at Mundo Divertido I began to get really excited. Our guide took care of organizing the tickets for us and we all continued as a group to the Galeon Pirata (pirate ship) ride. This ride reminded me of being a kid riding the battering ram at Busch Gardens. At this point the group began to thin out but most of us went straight to the Montãna Rusa which was the bigger of the two roller coasters. Being an engineer and dealing a lot with mechanical structures I knew this ride was going to beat the shit out of us. Luckily I had a few drinks before and was prepared for anything. Adrenaline, fear and pain are about as close as I can describe it, but it was extremely fun. After a jolt like that a few of us decided to go grab a drink at the bowling alley, but we didn’t quite make it that far. We saw the Mundo del Terror haunted house and decided to check it out. Holy shit was this place insane. Maybe I wasn’t prepared because it wasn’t Halloween, Maybe I wasn’t prepared because it was a child friendly place in a mall, but this was no joke. I’ll leave out any spoiler’s and any pictures we may have taken here, but trust me it’s worth checking out. After a trip like that we all needed a drink so we headed to the bowling alley. A couple of lukewarm tecates later and everyone wanted to drive. This led us to Chocones (bumper cars) to drive around buzzed and wreck into each other. Extremely therapeutic and again a bit painful. The alcohol buzz was kicking in for me at this point and driving go carts seemed like the most logical step. With time running out and a long go cart line we decided to take a quick detour into Lazer Runner which was a two floor laser tag room. It kind of looked like TRON a bit in there and I got destroyed. It’s debatable who won exactly, but I’ll say Charlene because I think Tim may have cheated. With just barely enough time left we hit the Go Kars (go carts) for a final WooRaaa. I had the slowest car on the track and got lapped twice by everyone. I think our new friend Jagjeet won the race. Charlene had a bumpy car and bruised every link in her spine, but all and all we had a blast. The ride home began to take its toll on the energy level and we split up from the group and went back to the border. We reminisced about the day and even went to Pizza Port with our new buddy Jagjeet. We will defiantly be on one of these tours again. Thanks Derrik and Thanks Tijuana we had a blast. See you all soon. Side note bring money because the ATM’s are scarce.