My apologies for not posting anything in awhile. I have been doing a lot of job searching over the past week. It's going well so far.
Recently, Jose, Luis, and I went to Centro, which is downtown Tijuana. Jose doesn't really know that much about Tijuana. So the only place he really knew to go was Avenida Revolucion. It's very touristy and it didn't take long to see all of it. I'm hoping we'll explore more interesting parts of the city in the future. But it was still a fun day and I wanted to share my pictures. There was some sort of beer fest street festival going on with live music. We didn't go into that part or stick around too long. Just long enough to realize that Mexican ska a lot better than US ska.
This is the entrance to Avenida Revolucion (although we actually started from the other end). I guess that sign in the middle says Welcome to Tijuana, or something like that, if you look at it from the other side. I didn't know that at the time though.
I thought these were pretty neat. Jose says that are aqueducts. I'm assuming he is right since that is what they look like. I wonder how old they are though. When did people stop using those? And did the technology come from Europe or did two separate people groups come up with the same idea on opposite ends of the earth? I guess they don't look quite as old as the Roman ones.
This was the beginning of a stretch of restaurants and people with carts selling touristy trinkets. Jose made us turn down that way because he said the other way only had prostitutes, drug dealers, and people that will help you cross the border. Although I'm sure those things do exist in Tijuana, Jose may have been exaggerating to say they were right on the other side of that yellow building.
These are some sculptures that were on the sidewalk along the avenue. I don't know the story behind any of them. I guess this trip my have been more interesting with a tour guide of some sort. But I thought the sculptures were cool regardless.
I love the show House. In Mexico, it is called Dr. House. I guess this pharmacy wanted to capitalize on the show's success. I thought it was funny.
Some of the architecture was kinda cool. I liked this first building. Although it's a little disappointing that it doesn't have anything more exciting in it than a Carl's Jr. I guess the hotel might be nice. Here is an example of where the use of the dollar sign is confusing. 360 pesos is just more than $30 US. Which seems kinda cheap for a hotel in downtown of any city. But $360 US is absolutely ludicrous. Especially if they have to advertise the free parking and internet like that. So I guess common sense says it is in pesos.
I took a picture of this building because I thought it was pretty and it had a big T on the front of it. It may have been some sort of bus terminal at one point. But I think it is just touristy shops now.
There were a lot of shops along the avenue. They all pretty much had the same type of touristy stuff. Sombreros, ponchos, and t-shirts. However, there were some really cool pieces of art and sculptures. I loved looking at the jewelry. There was so much turquoise! And I saw some really cool old coins. I thought about buying a coin. I was looking at one that commemorated the 1968 Olympics that were in Mexico City. It was about $30 US. I don't know if that is a good price or not, but I thought it would be better to wait until I have a job. I guess I should have tried to take a picture of it. I didn't think about it at the time.
Jose says that there aren't nearly as many tourists in Tijuana as there were 10 years ago. I think Mexico is feeling the effects of the recession a lot more than the US. The shop-owners were really aggressive trying to get us into the shops. They kept yelling "Pasale, senorita! Pasale, guerita!" (Basically, "come on in, white lady," but it sound better in spanish than english.) I saw them yelling it at some asians too. So I guess we looked like the tourists.
I did fall prey to one guy though. He spoke english, so I'm sure that helped him. I ended up buying this bracelet from him. I think it is beautiful, so I'm not really upset about it. He originally told me it was $45 US, but he would sell it to me for $25. I told him that was too much because I didn't have a job. So he went down to $22. I told him that was still too much. So he asked me how much I was willing to pay. I said $10, thinking he would kick me out of his shop. He actually ended up going down to $12, so I bought it. I'm sure it's not actually silver like he said it was when he said it was worth $45. There is no 925 stamp on it anywhere. But I like it. And I'm learning to bargain!
After we got done looking at all the shops, we went into Sanborns to look around. It is a big department store and restaurant. There are a lot in Mexico City. Evidently, they are owned by Carlos Slim, the richest person in the world. We tried on hats and sunglasses and looked at the books. They were also having a sale on DVDs. They had Forrest Gump, which Jose and Luis had never seen. I thought we just had to get it so that they could watch it. When we got home, it wouldn't play in my DVD player. It is a region 4 DVD and my DVD player is a region 1 DVD player. I guess I saw signs on some of the DVD racks indicating region 1, but I didn't even think to look at the DVD we were actually buying. How annoying. I wouldn't even have known there were different regions if I hadn't seen that Simpsons episode where they went to Europe. Oh well. I might try to sell it on Ebay.
Overall, it was a fun day.
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