Saturday 19 January Day 37 - Guerrero *****, Mexico to Los Angeles, USA
Posted France ~ Thursday 27 June 2019
The ABC bus leaves Guerrero ***** promptly on Friday evening at 11pm, even though the reason for this journey isn't desirable it still feels like an adventure to both of us. We fall asleep easily, there is a blackness outside the bus windows that can only be found in wilderness places these days.
This bus heading north has a few more stops than the previous one, the towns are larger and better lit. Once we reach El Rosario we more or less follow the coast road, but still too dark to see anything. At Ensenada which is a city at least the size of La Paz as seen from a bus window, it's light and our dislike for the partition behind the driver is increased, not used to not being able to see out of the front windscreen, here's the ABC version of the partition
From Ensenada to Tijuana the road runs close along the coast, similar to some of California USA in places, very beautiful in parts as the US version. The big difference for us is we have never seen the Californian sea state so rough, or even very rough, huge waves are rolling in and breaking on the shore. We are sitting bus right heading north, the opposite side to the shore line so no photos I'm sorry to write, but very dramatic in places.
We arrive around 9am at the Tijuana Central Bus Station, we know it's Tijuana as the bus doesn't go any further, there are no announcements. This is possibly the largest bus station we have ever been in, it's huge, clean and works.
We take the opportunity to freshen up before finding the kiosk near the taxi stand where we book and pay for the taxi to PedWest. This bus station is a few miles from downtown, the border is on the northern side of downtown and a taxi is cheap and easy.
The kiosk works so well, a driver is called over, given a ticket with our destination and fare already paid on it then leads us to his car. Once loaded I sit next to the driver, I want to see it all, heard so much about Tijuana and this border I want to take it all in. Certainly even at the bus station the place feels like it has it's own energy, we are both really enjoying this part of the journey. I want to confirm with the driver that we are going to PedWest but get a shrug. The driver does smile, but is fairly elderly (I'm allowed to write this as I can't be called young either) and not so spritely to the extent that I load our bags in deference to his age.
After another couple of attempts of asking where we are going I go to get out to ask at the kiosk, he pulls me back in, I try again but he says it's ok that we will be going to the USA. Well we do like an adventure and this is the official taxi service so why not.
Tijuana looks like it's reputation, a lot going on in an atmosphere of it's own. It's busy, lots of building works, lots of people of all types, and colourful. About 10 or 15 minutes later after a commentary from the driver in Spanish we pull up. We have driven north through downtown that's obvious, what isn't obvious is where is PedWest. We stand on the edge of a modern plaza with our bags, and still can't see an obvious entry to the pedestrian bridge over the border. The driver takes my arm and points into the corner of the plaza, "United States", it's well hidden. I tip the driver as not only did he drive very well in city traffic he was friendly and knew exactly where we had to go, so much for my ageism. He wants to shake our hands before leaving, a good ol boy.
The atmosphere at this entrance/exit is lively, maybe because it's Saturday morning, interesting all the same
We walk a little to find the entrance to the fenced walkway to the overpass, then we've got it, it's been a long while since we have walked across a border.
There's the sign, not so easily seen from 150 yards away
Up the zig zags, a long walk through a glass sided tunnel and then a spiral footpath down to a heavily built full height turnstile, with two bags I get jammed in the turnstile... and get shouted at by a US border officer to get a move on.
Rosie thinks this is funny, this makes the two border guards less than happy.
They ask for something and I don't understand, it turns out to be our passports but they don't use the word passport, more barking than shouting but still loud. I catch a sight of Mexicans behind us who look terrified, I think it's an intimidation act deliberately used to make us compliant but then I'm not a Mexican so maybe can afford to be more relaxed.
Walk through to the immigration hall, short queue, which was very surprising, from the overpass we saw the long long lines for vehicles to cross the border and knew it was often a 2 or 3 hour wait to cross.
A pleasant border officer takes our passports, just a couple of questions where and how long do we stay in the US, and that's it apart from a smile and
"have a pleasant visit to the US". Just a few yards outside the immigration hall there are bus stops, this is to take us round to the bus and tram/trolley stations to get a ride into San Diego.
Short wait, bus takes 3 or 4 minutes arrive at the San Ysidro International Border station, this is so slick. $ 1.25 each for a ticket by tram into downtown San Diego, unbelievable value as it's about 18-20 miles. Even better it's the Blue Line tram which terminates opposite the Amtrak San Diego Santo Fe Deport station, the start of the Pacific Surfliner route.
Enjoyed the tram a lot, don't often get to ride them but wish there were more around the world. 60 seconds after leaving the tram we were at the ticket office in the Amtrak Station queuing to buy our Surfliner tickets for Chatsworth. Decided to treat ourselves by travelling in Business Class, an extra $ 30 for a beautiful ride up the southern Californian coast in great comfort, we felt we had earned it.
Typical view of San Diego Santa Fe Depot, it really feels part of the city around it, so open on all sides
A beautiful Saturday with people all the way up the coast out walking and playing on the beach, it looked idyllic. The Pacific Surfliner is definitely one of our favourite trains, it connects so many varied parts of California from end to end.
We love Amtrak
Bless him, Milton is at the station waiting for us, he is very concerned about Rosie as they are great buddies. It's now Saturday evening and we are back at his condo, we explain we need to make definite arrangements now and question him on local hospitals and eye clinics. On the way to Chatsworth we speak about an eye problem Rosie had had 30 years earlier, not connected (we think) but it was a major eye problem. Would this negate our travel insurance as it could be termed an 'existing condition' ? Add to which if Rosie has to have treatment she may not be able to fly for a long long while, how to get back to Europe except by ship.
Rosie and I have a great deal of regard for the London eye hospital, Moorfields. We are not saying they are the best in the world but they have a fabulous reputation in the UK. We each have a cousin who has had serious eye problems that local hospitals couldn't treat properly, they both had successful treatment at Moorfields. Rosie actually took her cousin to Moorfields A&E (accident and emergency) and stayed with her there over a day and night. Quite simply Rosie heavily preferred to return to London to have treatment close to home and a place she and I have great faith in, of course the reasons below only added to that decision.
Milton provided the answer, he mentioned that only emergency departments usually worked on Sunday's, and Monday was a public holiday Martin Luther King Day so it may be Tuesday morning before Rosie got to see the right person. I had seen taking the time difference into account that we could be in London an hour or 3 before the LA hospitals opened, it would solve two potential problems at once. Now I had a mission, book us the first available plane out...
So that was the end of our London to Baja California, we had achieved what is written in the title. Not exactly how we wanted it to be but other things made up for minor disappointments. Rosie had the best of the 3 possible outcomes for her eye and can now see normally, so normally in fact that we are already planning a very very long distance trip to places we have never been.
I'll add a small technical footnote later as to how we returned to London etc and sorry it's taken so long to write this down, but living in two countries that are splitting up (Brexit) is taking a lot of energy from us to re-arrange our lives.
We both hope most got something from this journey, our big plus was to reinforce that people matter more than anything else.
