Meghan은 간다, Meghan ya no esta aqui

Border Crossings

Well, we're all getting pretty used to the routine of crossing the U.S./Mexican border in Tijuana. We were there last weekend, and then Mom and I left early on Tuesday morning to pick up our new intern at the airport in San Diego. We left our town, Vicente G., at 6am, and got to the border at 9:50. I was really surprised by how many cars were there at mid-morning on a weekday. This picture is right after we got in line. Luckily for us, the policewoman didn't close these lanes until AFTER we were in line. For us, that means we don't have to try to navigate Tijuana to find the other border crossing. We were really happy.
So that was us in line. This picture is from the same place, but you can see (just a little) where the road goes and curves around.
After you go around that curve, you see this, and you're at the top of an overpass. There are a lot of vendors that walk around selling things, and this particular guy was selling Mexican wrestling masks.
After go over this overpass, you back down toward the actual gates. There are some lanes behind some shops that most people don't use, so we tend to go there. Once you pass by the shops, though, you end up stopping again. And this is where you sit for a long time.
Mom and I were lucky. We got in line at 9:50am, and were across the border at 10:40am. The last two times we've gone with groups, early in the afternoon, we've waited an hour and a half or so. But, our wait this time was a lot shorter. Usually the border inspection officer just looks at our identification, asks about what we're bringing back from Mexico, etc. There are drug sniffing dogs and other officers who stroll through the car. On Tuesday we saw someone get their car confiscated, a border officer drove it to secondary inspection, with a dog running behind it. Uh oh. But hey, that never happens to us. Then once we're through the border, it's onto the Five!
After picking up Peter, our intern, we turned around and headed back to Mexico (where there's really no wait at the border), and just drove south. We stopped at El Mirador, north of Ensenada, an abandoned (or not yet used) rest area with a lookout point.

posted by Meghan @ 8:35 AM