# an afternoon in Tijuana - suggestions



## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

Buenos tardes, Expats. 

A few months back I asked about protecting my casa ( in the early event of my passing ), and having a document recognized in Mexico ( under Mexican law ) with my wishes. I am finalizing this now, and with the assist of an attorney practicing law in Mexico I will be down in Tijuana for a full day - with a morning meeting and afternoon meeting with Notario Publico in Mexico. 

During the "between meetings" I would like to enjoy a few recommendations on what to do or see in Tijuana. ( I will not have a car, but can take a taxi ). Any ideas from restaurants ( maybe where the original Ceasar Salad was served), cafes, bars, museo & art galleries, shopping in local businesses . . . or a combination of the above in a neighborhood that reflects this city are welcomed. 

It has been over 30 years since I last crossed the border into Tijuana, so I have no idea what to do or go. 

BTW, my casa is in the mountain city San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas . . . and I plan on traveling down beginning next January ( with my 2 Siberian Forest cats ) to live half the year there, and return to the Sierra here in California for the other half the year . . . and continue this for as long as my good fortune permits.

Muchos gracias, con una sonrisa . . .


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

Aaah, Tijuana! My first experience of Mexico. Thirty years ago we parked on the U.S. side and walked from the safe, antiseptic, rather beige First World of Southern California into a new world of noise, vibrant colours, chaos and overpowering odours.....Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana. People alive! Hundreds of touts flogging their wares, burros painted in zebra stripes, dogs running loose in the Denny's, (yes, Denny's: we were so gobsmacked, we had to search for something familiar. But Tijuana's Denny's was like no other we'd ever been in). 
My introduction to Tijuana had an unnerving beginning. Just as we arrived at the turnstile to enter Mexico, (what kind of country is this, I thought, when you can enter unchallenged through an unmanned turnstile?), a U.S. Immigration Service bus pulled up to the turnstile and disgorged 30 or 40 
"illegals" who had been apprehended days earlier in the Yakima, WA area. We, (me, my wife and our 15 year old daughter) joined that tired, depressed, downtrodden group to walk the 1/2 mile or so into downtown Tijuana....sticking out like sore thumbs.
From that first visit, I knew this was a country I wanted to experience. Thirty years later, I still feel the same.

Sorry [email protected], that doesn't answer your question at all, does it?


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

Colorful, though . . . :clap2::clap2:



HolyMole said:


> Aaah, Tijuana! My first experience of Mexico. Thirty years ago we parked on the U.S. side and walked from the safe, antiseptic, rather beige First World of Southern California into a new world of noise, vibrant colours, chaos and overpowering odours.....Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana. People alive! Hundreds of touts flogging their wares, burros painted in zebra stripes, dogs running loose in the Denny's, (yes, Denny's: we were so gobsmacked, we had to search for something familiar. But Tijuana's Denny's was like no other we'd ever been in).
> My introduction to Tijuana had an unnerving beginning. Just as we arrived at the turnstile to enter Mexico, (what kind of country is this, I thought, when you can enter unchallenged through an unmanned turnstile?), a U.S. Immigration Service bus pulled up to the turnstile and disgorged 30 or 40
> "illegals" who had been apprehended days earlier in the Yakima, WA area. We, (me, my wife and our 15 year old daughter) joined that tired, depressed, downtrodden group to walk the 1/2 mile or so into downtown Tijuana....sticking out like sore thumbs.
> From that first visit, I knew this was a country I wanted to experience. Thirty years later, I still feel the same.
> ...


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## Stevenjb (Dec 10, 2017)

I would love to go to the restaurant where the Cesar salad was born. Saw someone's YouTube vid featuring a visit to the restaurant - salad looked yummy. Dressing made at the table.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

[email protected] said:


> Buenos tardes, Expats.
> 
> A few months back I asked about protecting my casa ( in the early event of my passing ), and having a document recognized in Mexico ( under Mexican law ) with my wishes. I am finalizing this now, and with the assist of an attorney practicing law in Mexico I will be down in Tijuana for a full day - with a morning meeting and afternoon meeting with Notario Publico in Mexico.
> 
> ...


Hmmm. As you probably know, Tijuana is a new city that wasn't even established til nearly 1900, so you're not going to see anything like pyramids or classic colonial buildings. Nor was it noteworthy til U.S. prohibition provided a tourism niche for Americans to wet their whistle, play the horses, and enjoy other services that were available. So scratch through the veneer of TJ trying to spiff up a little to have the dignity worthy of what is now the nation's 4th or 5th largest city, but it's still (literally) a frontier town, and the Revo along with the even more prurient Calle Coahuila, on the other side of that new monument that looks like half of a gigantic bicycle wheel, remain a major attraction. 

TJ is also great for people-watching, like a big social experiment of a rather diverse conglomeration of folks: most Mexicans here come from somewhere else, so mix that with immigrants from everywhere (most recently Haitians) who failed in trying to cross into the U.S. Then there are the newly deported including a goodly number of 20-somethings born in Mexico but brought as infants and raised in SoCal, and who speak no Spanish. Add lots of retired Americans (particularly military) who are priced out of the S.D. housing market but enjoy the services offered just a trolley ride away, and an increasing number of telecommuters with a job a far away as L.A. that they need to report to only a couple of times a month. 
For something more relaxed than margaritas, nightclubs, and striped donkeys of the Revo, try Playas, a neighborhood that was clearly in deterioration two decades ago, but now seems to be heading towards gentrification. The _Chicharrón de Pescado_ at the big seafood joint closest to the bullring is excellent.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

My suggestion is take care of business and watch out for stray bullets......The following 3 sentences are from this mornings Mexico Daily News about the crime rate raising in Mexico and mentions Tijuana....The article follows.

""Baja California was also the most violent state in June, recording 219 homicides.

Eight out of 10 murders recorded in the northern border state in the first half of the year occurred in Tijuana, statistics show.

On average, almost six people died every day to the end of June in the border city, adding up to a total of 1,054 intentional homicides.""

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/six-month-homicide-figures-up-15/


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

> My suggestion is take care of business and watch out for stray bullets......


 Good idea anywhere. I survived 25 years working in a pretty violent hood in South Central, and that experience brings a different perspective and may have installed behavior patterns that are second nature. Always live with a base of common sense, a good layer of precaution, and top with just a dash of paranoia. People who invert those proportions have more of a risk of dying from a stroke than a bullet, and live a miserable existence even if neither happens. As expats here, we've heard from the worry-warts who thought we had a crazy death wish. By all means take care of business and be aware, but have some fun. Just don't buy, sell, import or otherwise get involved with the illegal drug industry, avoid those that do, and the odds of getting shot will be reduced substantially.


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## xolo (May 25, 2014)

Tijuana has some great restaurants that are very reasonably priced by US standards. You could also uber down to Rosarito beach, maybe the Rosarito Beach Hotel. It's OK to not have a car, Tijuana is rather difficult to drive due to poor infrastructure and lots of traffic. Also, getting back across the border can be a nightmare. You might be able to find a winery tour, but that's a little further down in the direction of Ensenada. There's some very active TJ Facebook groups if you speak Spanish.


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

. . . definately taking care of my business . . . and from a quick Google search of Playas near the ocean . . . seems like a nice mini break away . . . and Avenida Revolución for that Ceasar salad @ Ceasar's Hotel . . . 
Thanks for the heads up on current events . . .


chicois8 said:


> My suggestion is take care of business and watch out for stray bullets......The following 3 sentences are from this mornings Mexico Daily News about the crime rate raising in Mexico and mentions Tijuana....The article follows.
> 
> ""Baja California was also the most violent state in June, recording 219 homicides.
> 
> ...


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

chicois8 said:


> My suggestion is take care of business and watch out for stray bullets......The following 3 sentences are from this mornings Mexico Daily News about the crime rate raising in Mexico and mentions Tijuana....The article follows.
> 
> ""Baja California was also the most violent state in June, recording 219 homicides.
> 
> ...


 To put that in perspective, for Tijuana's 1.8 million population, 1054 homicides in six months is a rate of 117 per 100 thousand. This is about double the rate of the most dangerous cities in the US, Baltimore, St Louis, and Detroit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

TundraGreen said:


> To put that in perspective, for Tijuana's 1.8 million population, 1054 homicides in six months is a rate of 117 per 100 thousand. This is about double the rate of the most dangerous cities in the US, Baltimore, St Louis, and Detroit.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate


I'm on my phone and in s rush, so i can't look up stats.

How would TJ compare to Oakland?



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## yamabob (May 23, 2018)

Oakland seems to fall in the 17-20 per 100k depending on where you read it


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

yamabob said:


> Oakland seems to fall in the 17-20 per 100k depending on where you read it


So TJ is 6x OAK.
They have some catching up, to do in OAK.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I lived in Oakland and there are very nice neighborhood there.


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> Buenos tardes, Expats.
> 
> A few months back I asked about protecting my casa ( in the early event of my passing ), and having a document recognized in Mexico ( under Mexican law ) with my wishes. I am finalizing this now, and with the assist of an attorney practicing law in Mexico I will be down in Tijuana for a full day - with a morning meeting and afternoon meeting with Notario Publico in Mexico.
> 
> ...


How about a drive down the coast, to La Bufadora? I can't recall just how far south of Tijuana, but probably not much more than an hour or so. Well worth the drive.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

citlali said:


> I lived in Oakland and there are very nice neighborhood there.


Oakland has both socioeconomic extremes, and that doesn't even include the rather well-off burg of Piedmont, which it entirely surrounds. As a rule, the higher the elevation, the higher the property values and the lower the crime rate


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I worked in downtown Oakland when the Black Panthers were around and one of them lived in a nice building on Lake Merrit.. I know about the extremes.. East Oakland was the Hells Angels territories and the hills were supernice.. There are lots of towns that are a whole lot worse tan Oakland which also has a great climate, a whole lot better than Walnut creek the white burb..


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## Tye 1on (Jun 2, 2018)

The cantina Dandy del Sur is awesome. Get the hot beef jerky snack. 60 years there, must be doing something right!


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Tye 1on said:


> The cantina Dandy del Sur is awesome. Get the hot beef jerky snack. 60 years there, must be doing something right!


Probably passed by it hundreds of times, but still can't quite place it. What ever happened to the Long Bar that I remember from the 80's, and was this the prostíbulo in _La Bamba_? I returned '94 and was horrified to see that the iconic establishment had been turned into..... a Kentucky Fried Chicken, even that's not there anymore. I've heard the location eventually became a pricey micro-brewery and sports bar. TJ has a constant cycle of doing image makeovers. It appears the city is attempting to clean up a couple of blocks of Calle Coahuila, the traditional red-light district, and integrate it into the more general use tourist zone.


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## Tye 1on (Jun 2, 2018)

perropedorro said:


> Probably passed by it hundreds of times, but still can't quite place it. What ever happened to the Long Bar that I remember from the 80's, and was this the prostíbulo in _La Bamba_? I returned '94 and was horrified to see that the iconic establishment had been turned into..... a Kentucky Fried Chicken, even that's not there anymore. I've heard the location eventually became a pricey micro-brewery and sports bar. TJ has a constant cycle of doing image makeovers. It appears the city is attempting to clean up a couple of blocks of Calle Coahuila, the traditional red-light district, and integrate it into the more general use tourist zone.


Dandy is on Flor Magon, a half block east of Revo. Caesar's has done quite a makeover, and is now owned by the Plascencia Group. I had a magnificent 'BajaMed' dinner at La Querencia.


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

citlali said:


> I worked in downtown Oakland when the Black Panthers were around and one of them lived in a nice building on Lake Merrit.. I know about the extremes.. East Oakland was the Hells Angels territories and the hills were supernice.. There are lots of towns that are a whole lot worse tan Oakland which also has a great climate, a whole lot better than Walnut creek the white burb..


WC Is not that white anymore.
It's a good place to raise kids.
Concord was a short drive away, the best tacos, and tortilla factories.

Danville or Alamo are more white.

I picked Oakland because 
1- im not afraid of going there 
2- i heard stories from OPD friends
3- " " African American friends
4- a co-worker was shot dead there
5- they have one of the highest murder rates in the country

Oakland is being gentrified.





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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Oakland is number 17 and Salinas believe it or not number 9..I did not know about Salinas.. when I was living in Santa Cruz Salinas was not that bad, but things change, it is hard to believe it is that high on the crime list.


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## Stevenjb (Dec 10, 2017)

I grew up in Oakland some 5 decades ago. The city has always suffered from socio-economic issues.


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

citlali said:


> Oakland is number 17 and Salinas believe it or not number 9..I did not know about Salinas.. when I was living in Santa Cruz Salinas was not that bad, but things change, it is hard to believe it is that high on the crime list.


After I wrote I remembered my buddy Sal. He grew up in Oakland.
His nephew was driving home with his 9 year old daughter in the back seat.
As he arrived home a car pulled up, at least one guy got out, emptied a 9 mm into his nephew.
He had been in gangs, but quit 9 years ago. 
Nobody knew why he got clipped.
December 2016

Another time at a soccer game, i noticed one of the parents who had been OPD, (her husband still was) become disturbed, somebody had just shot two OPD motorcycle cops dead.






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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I worked downtown Oakland and sawsome guy stabbing people right and left on the street my black froend used to say that Ratto the specialty food store downton was real a bargain because you could get a free rape every time you went there.. That was downtown The Lake Merrit area in those days was ok East Oakland was bad and the jills were nice, it all depended on your neighborhood. I walked back and forth to work when I lived and I lived through it...


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## ElPocho (Aug 25, 2017)

citlali said:


> I worked downtown Oakland and sawsome guy stabbing people right and left on the street my black froend used to say that Ratto the specialty food store downton was real a bargain because you could get a free rape every time you went there.. That was downtown The Lake Merrit area in those days was ok East Oakland was bad and the jills were nice, it all depended on your neighborhood. I walked back and forth to work when I lived and I lived through it...


I miss the dim sum in Chinatown.

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## Tye 1on (Jun 2, 2018)

I miss the advice about Tijuana


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

*Ceasar Salad @ Hotel Ceasas*









Tye 1on said:


> I miss the advice about Tijuana


 Participated in a productive business meeting at Notario Publica, and then enjoyed a "table side" Ceasar Salad . . . @ Hotel Ceasars . . . window / sidewalk side table view out to Avenida Revolucion . . . recommend dinner at this establishment . . . con una sonrisa . . .


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## Tye 1on (Jun 2, 2018)

[email protected] said:


> View attachment 89136
> Participated in a productive business meeting at Notario Publica, and then enjoyed a "table side" Ceasar Salad . . . @ Hotel Ceasars . . . window / sidewalk side table view out to Avenida Revolucion . . . recommend dinner at this establishment . . . con una sonrisa . . .


Yes, they've done a nice job w/Ceasar's. When I first started going there 15-20 years ago they had let the restaurant slide a bunch, they were probably making more revenue from the strip club in the back. It was a great sign when the Plascencia family took it over. I had dinner at another of their restaurants, La Quarencia, and enjoyed some really good 'Baja-Med' cuisine- duck tostadas, grilled shrimp, etc...


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## lbs_momma (Mar 18, 2015)

I personally really love the food courts...gastro parks they call them. Usually there are 6-10 vendors of all different types of food so you can sample a lot of different Mexican, and many fusion variations.

Good food, cold beer and a patio....might as well call me home.

Personal favorite is the Telefonica Gastro Park 
https://www.yelp.com/biz/telefónica-gastro-park-tijuana-2

Plasencia also opened the one at the Plaza Rio mall:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/food-garden-tijuana-3?osq=food+garden


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## canyonbreeze (Sep 5, 2018)

You've already made your trip apparently. I know Tijuana very well, both the good and the bad. I don't care for Cesar's Restaurant nor their version of the salad. Very tourist oriented = Overpriced and bland. If you're looking for family activities then tourist strolling on Revolucion and the malecon in Playas are recommended.


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

. . . did both the strolling on & off Revolucion, and I did enjoy my table side ceasar . . . 
( some thirty years ago I worked for an upscale restaurant & restaurantor prepaing caesars table side . . . Tijuana was memorable for me in this light ) . . . muchos gracias for posting your insights . . . 
.


canyonbreeze said:


> You've already made your trip apparently. I know Tijuana very well, both the good and the bad. I don't care for Cesar's Restaurant nor their version of the salad. Very tourist oriented = Overpriced and bland. If you're looking for family activities then tourist strolling on Revolucion and the malecon in Playas are recommended.


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