First Stop Tijuana

My sabbatical will end soon enough.  It's time to shake the sand out of my hair and see more of Mexico.

That is Tijuana down below. 

Within 15 minutes of exiting the airport, I was sitting with Isaac at the smoking section of his apartment building.  His good friend, Rafael, offered to pick me up at the airport when he heard I was coming.  I'd just taken the last haul of a post flight cigarette and they pulled in to the curb.  Now that is VIP treatment.

I found Tijuana surprisingly cold.  Isaac and Raphael informed me this was one of the warmer days.  Yikes.  Who knew?  It's certainly further south than my hometown and at sea level too.

There was still time for a quick tour.  Off we went for a quick peek at Cecut and a quick walk to Avenida Revolucion.

Isaac spotted a little market street.  Easy to walk by.

The Coffee Witch I think they called this place.

There is a groovy economical hotel down there.  Clean, reasonable, safe.  What more could you ask for?

What really sells the place is the interior bridge overlooking the rest of the market.

Next day, enormous shrimp tacos with cool friends of Isaac's from the university.  This place is well off the  tourist beat but people manage to find it.  There is nothing extravagant about the place, just your typical plastic tables and chairs.  It's the food and word of mouth that keeps it packed on a week day.

That's Rafael, the man who volunteered to pick me up at the airport, on my immediate right.  

Back to CECUT for real this time.  

We saw deep scary underwater caves at the Omni-max theater. Without those big heavy glasses!  The claustrophobia was tangible, watching these guys swim through narrow caverns 300 feet deep.  That is as close as I want to get to the real experience.  

The projection room where the magic happens.

The museum.

It's pretty clear from these photos who's the better photographer.

There were so many cool things, and very tempting to touch but security watched us closely all the time so i kept my hands clasped behind myself..

A photo from opening night of one of the first casinos.  Does it remind anyone else of The Shining?  

There was no sign of Moon Knight but Khonshu was there.

The mega cinema after that.  While not a huge Transformers fan, I appre3ciate giant diorama cinema displays.  They have become rare.

Las Playas Tijuana  We missed our intended convi stop but the ocean is always easy to find and entry points are everywhere.

While new high rises and luxury hotels continue to rise, we found a lot of decay and destruction from the salty wind and hurricanes.

The entire concrete pool fallen from the bank was the most dramatic feature.

There were several tents and homeless shelters along the way and I believe a lot more hidden in the dunes of undeveloped lots.  Someone had constructed a shelter with old black tarp and found materials in the old pool for a little more privacy.

We should probably keep moving along before the tide comes in.

Shotgun shell.  Odd debris for a Mexican beach.  Perhaps due to our proximity to those northern neighbors. 

Even by the boardwalk, 

       

                                             

There it is.

This is as far as we can go.

Isaac knows someone from his university nearly everywhere we go.  

I am the only one in the room not currently working on a doctorate.

Great people.  Good times.