Tijuana, Aquí venimos!

On Wednesday the 5th, the Heppner's piled into the big white van and headed south. There's not much left of California past San Diego, but we were headed for Mexico! It was very exciting. We parked the van and took a shuttle across the border. You can see the arch in Tijuana from San Diego, that's how close the cities are from each other. There was no issue going into Mexico at all, no security check, no passports to show. Once we arrived in the bus terminal, there was so much to buy, but it was only the beginning.

The vendors in Tijuana depend heavily on tourists coming and buying something Mexican. Every shopkeeper was out soliciting us to come into their store. I couldn't even make eye contact before they yelled, "C'mon in! Free parking! Free Childcare, Everything almost free!". After a while I was getting tired of it, but I really wanted to shop! And then there was Dad conversing in Spanish (he was so thrilled), but it made it really hard to keep walking without getting corralled into their shop. Well, I ended up going into a store because I saw some pretty things and I ended up buying two dresses, one for Asha and one for Kezia. I managed to get the price down by $15 in my broken Spanish. Yeah!

Carl bought himself a Mexican shirt (for $10 less than the asking price) and Joel a soccer shirt and jersey (at a Canadian discount of $15). Mom found some really nice sandals, vanilla, and a purse while Dad found a great belt. While we all had a wonderful time shopping, that was only part of why we came down to Mexico.
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We came to Mexico for authentic Mexican food...Yum! For lunch we went to a great little place that served awesome salsa, frijoles, enchiladas, tacos, and rice. It was so good! Dad paid a group to sing two songs for us while we ate our meal.

By mid afternoon we were getting tired and Mom and Dad had had good opportunities to practice their Spanish, so we headed back to the bus depot to catch the shuttle back to the US. We got on the bus and drove to the border. This time however, security was pretty tight. There was a line about 2 miles long of people walking across the border (lots of day tourists like us and probably many Mexicans), but thankfully we didn't have to wait at the end of the line. We got in a line right in the building, one of about 12 and waited for the border guards to check our passports; after, we had our bags x-rayed and searched. We had brought a few apples and oranges in from San Diego, but because of agricultural regulations, we couldn't bring them back across the border! How sad it was to see our oranges taken away, their fate, the trash can.

Once we got back to the hotel, we had a rest before we went for supper at this tasty little pizza place. It was located right near the water, and so after supper, even though it was dark, we walked along the beach boardwalk a bit before heading back and into our beds. It was a very nice day, it couldn't have been better. Well, the pillows could have been a bit more comfortable, eh Dad?!