Welcome to 2025!
Laura and I took last week off and wandered down to the Baja Peninsula. After years of talk about how bad the border was and how thousands of people were camped out on the Mexican side of the border, I had no idea what to expect. Both Laura and I have adventurous souls.
We took a Lyft from the San Diego airport to the San Ysidro border crossing. We walked less than a quarter mile through razor-wire fencing and waited in line to go through customs. Neither of us speak much Spanish but we managed to get through after they went through my suitcase only to find tighty- whities and other clothing.
Then, we entered Mexico and walked down a walkway for a few hundred yards until we reached Ave. Frontera where a line of cabs and vendors waited. After negotiating the rate to take us to Puerto Nuevo, we jumped in the cab with a man who didn’t speak English at all. Thankfully I had an app on my phone that enabled us to communicate.
I need a banjo and tacos in that order. He drove what seemed to be in circles through what looked to be sketchy neighborhoods. He stopped at a Chevron where bathroom cleanliness rivaled Jeff Stiles’ Chevron here in CJ, not at all what I expected.
We then drove in more circles and pulled up to some random taco stand where again, no one spoke English and somehow, I managed to procure three carne asada tacos for the price of 35 pesos each which equates to around $1.75 per taco. They were at least three times the size of the ones we get here in town.
We then spent the next 25 minutes eating our tacos on our way to our hotel.
I’ll skip the part about how great the area was and that the food was out of this world. One night I spent 1,500 pesos, about $75, for four cocktails, a fresh octopus appetizer and two large lobsters and plenty of other stuff. Are you jealous yet?
On the way home again, we had no idea what to expect. We saw no tents and no homeless people. There weren’t hordes of scary brown people waiting to get into the states. We waited about 1 ½ hours in line to go through the port of entry and then we were in the states.
On the Mexico side there was no shortage of armed border agents, but we did not see any on the U.S. side.
Upon reentering the U.S., when it was our turn to approach a Customs and Border agent, he didn’t say one word to us. We had our passport cards out and put them on his counter. He picked up Laura’s and pointed to a camera implying she should stand in front of it. He then put her card down and pointed to the exit. The same went for me. No questions about if I had anything to declare. I had six bottles of wine that I should have paid a fee for, but hey, ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies. We then walked past a suitcase scanner that wasn’t being operated and out the door we went. Welcome to America!
I ordered a Lyft and we were on our way to the airport. At the airport we discussed the border while eating our two hamburgers, one cocktail and a water which cost $107. Yes, no lobster, just a crappy hamburger. What we concluded was that the border is not even close to what you see on cable news and commentary shows. We were highly scrutinized when going into Mexico, yet I could have had a suitcase full of Columbian bam-bam (a slang term for cocaine) when coming into the states without a word.
Looking forward, I plan to apply for Commissioner John West’s seat. I am way more qualified than any of the others who ran in 2024. I have spent 14 years covering the county news. I have attended, viewed or listened to more than 2,000 county meetings. I serve on the county budget committee, I.V. Airport Advisory Board and vice chair of the Collaborative Economic Development Advisory Board. I am not a liberal Democrat as some say; I am a centrist commonsense informed citizen who wants to serve the people of Josephine County. My knowledge will help keep the two newly elected commissioners from stepping on public meeting and records laws. For these reasons, I am certain they won’t select me.
Thank you for picking up this week’s paper, enjoy! ~ djm
