Back to Baja: Growing Up Next to the Border and Revisiting Years Later Part 2

 California, Mexico, North America  6 Responses »
Jan 152013
 

The border between California and Mexico is a unique place. After living in Korea, and next to the most heavily militarized border in the world (the DMZ), just being able to walk or drive into another country without showing any papers, is just strange. And that’s what we did to get into Mexico. On December 28th, my Mom, Dad and I hopped in the car and made the hour’s drive to Mexico, a place I hadn’t had the chance to visit since 2009, and the place my family and I spent so many vacations.

Nowadays with the presence (now declining presence) of the cartels, was it going to seem dangerous and sketchy? Or were things back to normal? Would there be many tourists around? Would it be just like it used to? Continue reading »

Growing Up Next to the Border and Revisiting Years Later: Part 1

 California, Mexico, North America  5 Responses »
Jan 092013
 

While I was home, I did something I hadn’t done in years— drove across the border with my family to spend some time in Mexico.

Growing up, we often went south of the border. Whether it was just driving down for an afternoon of $10 lobsters and tortillas in Puerto Nuevo, or a vacation farther south to Mazatlan or Cabo, going to Mexico was nothing strange or scary to me. We also did family road trips through Baja, camping on the beach as we drove down.  Even greasing the hands of a Mexican police officer after getting pulled over for no apparent reason (well, it wasn’t apparent to me) didn’t seem to faze me. In my head, it was all just pretty normal. Continue reading »