The "elegant" bus

That is what some of the local cruisers called the bus to the border: it has movies, comfortable seats and loos. Comfortable seats, yes - but you had to have your own tp and the movies were in Spanish. The other drawback was the ambitious searching of the bus, at least 7 - 8 times all night long when we were trying sleep, by the Federales, looking for the drugs and guns all of us were hiding on board. They would come aboard, turn on the lights, say good evening very politely and then tell everyone to get off the bus. I didn't understand and would just sit there and watch pretty pathetic searches and have some nice conversations with the guys who were bored out of their mind. Our governments are working overtime and giving employment to many in Mexico to stamp out the drug trade so the guys have jobs and uniforms.

The violence that "seems" to be so exaggerated by the media between the druggies is minor in light of the violence that is happening in any of our US cities at any given time. In fact, the tourism numbers for Mexico have increased in spite of the media reports and the US economy, but things are still a little slow. We see just calm, good people who are warm, helpful and accomodating...and most of all, extremely polite.

The road from Mexicali to Tijuana was heartstopping up into mountains, curling around sheer cliffs and the driver seemed to take it as carefully as if he was carrying a cargo of eggs. I still wasn't able to look very often as at one time in the middle of the night I looked out the driver's window and saw that we were going 70 mph down the middle of the road. This was a head down, tighten the seat belt and pray some more while waiting for the next Federale "raid".

The border was 4 1/2 hours of lines to walk over, so I was suckered into taking a special bus that would get me across in 15 minutes. They lied - more like an hour plus, but at least I wasn't hauling my luggage in that long line. Just stuck in the heat with two squalling kids in the bus - I gave them fruit, candy and finally told them to be quiet, in Spanish. The others on the bus agreed.....except for the mom. The drug dog at immigration was a golden retriever who kept nudging my bag- the handler took it an put it on the floor where the dog went nuts pushing it around. Two chicken burritos drove it crazy. So, the moral of the story is, if you are going to push AK 47s, hide drugs, don't eat the chicken burritos and you will be either allowed entry to the US without a search or arrested. I was embarrassed for the dog.

I checked into a Point Loma motel and slept for eleven hours and found a secret. You can drive through the crazy LA traffic calmly if you have slept that much. Am in foggy Santa Barbara, missing the warmth of Mazatlan and looking forward to getting back down there and more of the cruise south. But I am with dear friends and that counts more than anything.

What was fascinating was the difference in the small Mexican towns: the growth of the middle class is Mexico is astonishing. The towns are growing, cleaner and more commercial activity than in the past is apparent. Our economy, drug trade, whatever, may have impacted on Mexico, but it appears they are in good shape and doing very well. Hard workers, those Mexicans and perhaps a lesson for all the whining that is going on here in the US. Get to work, people - it is what made the country great.