What is Tijuana?
1.
Located in Mexico, right next to the border to the US, it is the single most visited border city in the world. Also, it's not as shitty as those cheap, stereotyping American films would have you believe (read: it's not composed of a bunch of dodgy bars and whorehouses and a tiny police office).
Rather than have a long central vein and then nothing around it, as another poster described, it is a diverse, large city; and like every other city of its size, it has its good and bad neighbourhoods.
Sure there are parts of the city where crime is high as fuck and the conditions are practically unfit for human life, but hey, Mexico is considered a third-world country for a reason. Besides, there are also the "nicer" neighbourhoods, which pretty much look like a first-world suburb (and no, it's not just the narcos that live there).
I'm not surprised the other posters are entirely unfamiliar with that last part of the city, as they probably only visit or know of the first one; which is, sadly, the one that draws the tourists in.
Today I found out that Tijuana isn't just some fucking crime spot.
See
2.
Mexican town that shares the border with the US. Scary ass ghetto place. When you get through, you see 'welcome to Mexico' and tons of homeless kids playing miniature guitars for money. You basically walk around, looking for bottled water (since you can't drink the faucet water in TJ), hoping not to encoutner a gang of muggers or organ-thieves, and especially not the cops who will kidnap and rape you and then steal your money. A bunch of cheap ass trinkety stores with Mexican guys yelling at you in Spanish or some kind of English and grabbing you, trying to force you into their store. Lots of cheap alcohol and tourist bars, which are dangerous bcuz you NEVER wanna get drunk in TJ! You'll get killed. When you drive back out again you have to yell "American Citizen" in an American accent so you can drive out. If you sound Mexican, they keep your ass in Mexico Basically, not a good place to go.
John: I went to Tijuana last weekend.
Bob: Yeah I can tell by your ripped clothes and bottles of cheap tequila.
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3.
the funnest place on earth.
also, the best place for a southern california teenager to go for a saturday afternoon, to get hammered for cheap, if your under 21.
$1 coronas and shots of tequilla.
the drinking age is 18 there, 5 minutes south of the U.S.'s drinking age of 21. but they dont card anyways, you can go get drunk when your 10 and all they would care about is if your a paying customer!!
make sure on the way back in the line, you help support the local economy and buy some churros or a cheap tourist trinket item :)
friend 1: lets go get hammered!
friend 2: but were not 21 yet...
friend 1: then lets drive down to tijuana!
friend 2: okay, i want a bag of churros on the way back!
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4.
A microcosm of American empire building in Baja California - the part of Mexico they forgot to steal way back when.
Apart from the main drag that lasts about 200 yards, filled with bars, strip clubs and pharmacies (children selling chewing gum on the streets optional), there is literally nothing there. Walk one block either side, and it's like stepping into the Third World, before returning to $1 bottles of Dos Equis in chintzy bars set up for American tourists, students, and people that can't afford a trip to Mexico City or Cancun.
Still, it's the shortest border check on the planet - they don't bother checking, as they know you aren't smuggling anything into the country. It's returning to the US that has the usual body cavity searches...
"Let's got to Tijuana, where it's twenty cents for a shot of tequila!"
