Tijuana Teeth

On Wednesday 14th July, Ellie and I decided to go to Mexico. We weren't sure whether we should buy sombreros and tequila, or guns and drugs, but in the end we bought an orthodontic retainer and a pair of silver bracelets. We started the day by catching the San Diego trolley, which Australians would call a tram, to the Mexican border. We then walked over a bridge into Mexico. The border is shown in the photo - the shot was taken from the bridge. When we got to the bottom there were large one-way metal revolving gates with interleaving prongs like they have at Luna Park. We walked through the gates and into Mexico, with no border control at all. It's harder to get into Luna Park than Mexico.

The Australian Government warns its citizens to avoid Tijuana because of the level of violent crime. We were prepared for that. What we weren't prepared for were the huge number of orthodontists in Tijuana. Even as we were waddling over the border we could see enormous posters advertising the services of orthodontists 'just 10 feet from the border'. And there were dozens of them. You might recall that Ellie lost her orthodontic retainer in a restaurant in San Diego, so we rapidly changed plans and walked into the offices of Dr Alphonso Lopez. He was great - much more gentle than Ellie's orthodontist in Canberra! In just over an hour, and for a fraction of the cost in Australia, he had made her a new retainer. So we are happy little campers, although still a little confused about an international border lined with orthodontists.

Further along, we found dozens and dozens of pharmacies, selling everything from Viagra to Prozac and everything in between. There was serious price competition. Is that what the Australian government meant by drug wars?

We eventually wandered into downtown Tijuana, which was almost bereft of tourists, and so we received the full attention of every shopkeeper and street seller for the entire length of Avenue Revolucion.

We then waddled back to a marguerita bar, from which I took the above photo. If you look carefully, you'll be able to see a dentist's office on the left, two pharmacies in the middle and a veterinarian's office on the right. Not a drug runner or gun to be seen anywhere! :-)