The Wall

Our living room, and Freestone's sleeping quarters.  So here's the story.  Our three-bedroom area of the mansion opened up to a back patio and a casita, under which was the koi pond.  The casit had three bunk beds stacked to the ceiling.  Cool!  The first night, Araceli and Freestone slept out there.  Jimmy appeared to have reservations about them sleeping there, but wouldn't come out and say they couldn't.  He just said, "Well, you know, it's OK.  Tomorrow is another day..."  The next day, instead of relying on his English or my Spanish, he relayed to Victor that another group was coming to stay in the casita.  He was so relaxed about it, like, "Sure, go ahead, but other people will be sleeping there too."
This time, we drove to the beach instead of riding the bikes, so we wouldn't have to watch the bikes all day on the beach.  We parked in Ivan's yard and gave his daughter five dollars.  It was perfect because Ivan is right next to the beach.

This is Ivan's parking area, complete with chickens.

And here is the beach.  It's called Playas de Tijuana, and it's right next to the border.  Our spot near Ivan's was maybe a 15-minute walk along the beach to the wall.  I walked up there with Freestone.  Peering through the metal bars, we could see the Imperial Beach pier.  It was surreal to see it from that vantage point.  So many times, we have gazed across the border at Mexico, wondering what life is like over there.  Being there, looking around and seeing people enjoying their lives is comforting, but knowing I can cross the border and they can't is sad.  There is a place called Friendship Park, where every Saturday and Sunday for 4 hours, people can come and talk to their loved ones on the other side of the wall.  The mesh is thick and security is tight, but that's all they have.  People drive for hours and hours from both sides to have that opportunity.  Surely we can do better?  Could the governments not set up a room where families could meet face to face for these visits?  It would only take a passport to get into the room, where families could have some dignity instead of reaching their fingers through a wall to touch their husband or wife or child.  It makes me sick that this wall exists.  Humankind can do better.  That's all.  We're not trying hard enough to come up with more humane solutions.  Does anyone think the Berlin Wall was a good idea?  It came down because it wasn't.

I don't know what the answer is, but standing next to that wall, I know it's not this.

I don't know what Freestone was thinking about the wall, but he was pretty sobered.  I didn't want to ruin it by grilling him on his feelings, so we just walked.

The names of people who had served in the United States armed forces and then been deported to Mexico.  Chills.

You can literally feel the heartache here.  On the other hand, people are having a good time, enjoying the beach, happy.  People live.  Not everyone in Mexico wants to go to the United States, obviously.  That made me happy, that life on the south side of the border was beautiful too, economic disparities notwithstanding.

Freestone and I got some mangoes with that red stuff on it.  Tamarind?  It was very tart!

For lunch: tacos on the street.  Panchito had delicious tacos with fresh toppings and a nice, shady table.

This area has a fun boardwalk with shops and restaurants which we would discover later.  Compared to some of the places we explored down the coast, "Playas" is better by far, for one reason: it doesn't cater to the American/cruiseline/San Diego day tripper demographic.  Thus, everything is much cheaper.  Tacos in a nice seaside restaurant, 70 cents.  And you don't have to deal with crowds of tourists. We loved it.

One thing I noticed in Tijuana was that people were extremely friendly.  And relaxed, so that they'd just act like you'd been friends forever.  As we sat on the beach, a guy came and sat by us.  Maybe it was me who was friendly.  I just like to get people's stories.  This guy was Mexican, but had been living in California, working construction.  He knew all the swear words in all the languages. :)  Anyway, we were shooting the breeze when a couple of guys came up and offered us a song.  We were fully prepared to pay for their music, but afterwards, they declined our dinero.  Our friend Manuel offered to film it all for me when I pulled out my phone.  The music was great, and the boys playing it were cute and polite.  I wish they could've stayed and told us their story, too.  Here's the video.