Some may think that a hot night in Tijuana sounds exciting. Others may think it sounds dangerous. Well, I am here to let you know ….It is a little bit of both!!!

Now I am not condoning underage drinking in any way…..But in my younger years it was obvious to the younger generation in Southern Cali that in Tijuana Mexico and pretty much any party city in Baja the legal drinking age is 18. So with all honesty…..Me and my compadres took our weekend missions south of the border!

I always drove across in my car. I would always get Mexican Insurance in San Ysidro before crossing the border. A lot of younger ones will take the one-way bus that picks you up on the US side (San Ysidro) and takes you over the border, dropping you off on Avenida Revolucion.

If you are driving across there is one bit of advice I offer, always steer towards the farthest left lane to go straight thru to MEXICO. If you stay in the right lane you may get pulled over by the federali’s who will look for any reason to keep you…TRUST ME I KNOW!!! And if that happens you better have a lot of cash on you, because you can always get out of a jam with some feria (money!)

I always knew my way around baja from Tijuas to Ensenada…..But for the inexperienced one it can be a danger for you!!! Especially if you are not fluent in en ESPANOL….Then you are pretty much screwed unless you have a fat wallet or mommy and daddy have cash to pay them off to get you out of JAIL !!! Back in the day one could pay off the cops…YES!! It’s true and probably still is. They are very crooked and people get picked up and thrown into the police wagon just for looking at a cop the wrong way. There has been many rapes and murders that were at the hands of a cop in TJ so you are better off staying away from them if you know what I mean.

I had an experience where a girl I had scrapped with (fought) in a club ended up getting arrested. I never was arrested thank GOD.  Back to the story- the girl that ended up getting caught by the policia had no money to pay them off so the cop told her that he would only let her go if she did certain sexual favors to him, his fellow police partner and all the dudes in the back that had been picked up to go to jail…..Sadly she did not want to go to jail so she did it. It is not right what goes on down there so really its “Play at your own risk”!

Once you hit Revolucion its crazy….Clubs everywhere. It’s like America except everyone is drunk off their butts and going from Club to Club. It is full of Americans and Tijuaneros. However the clubs I will mention are mainly for the group I ran with……the CHICANOS (Mexican-Americans).

But when we had fun, we really had a good time. I was always treated like a Queen at all the clubs. It didn't hurt that I knew alot of the Bouncers and some of the Owners of the Clubs. So when me and my entourage stepped foot at the club we were whisked away to the V.I.P. Section and given any drinks we wanted all night....FREE!!

That's right, we never had to pay for drinks, ever! So it helped us because we always had cash on us at all times in case of a sticky situation. In retrospect, I know I was risking my safety to have a good time, and I am very lucky not to end up hurt or worse like some girls who seek excitement down there. But all my memories are pretty good ones. Yes its a lot of drama down there and you just have to know where to go and not to go, and pretty much have some common sense.

In the clubs there is a few rules I always tell people to stick to,  after I learned the hard way- NO MIXED DRINKS! Why? Well because for One- someone could drug you, yes even the bartender! and Two- where do you think they get the ice? Their water system is worse than L.A. water so I don't think you want some of that!

Another one- Never leave your drink unattended, EVER! Take it with you to the dance floor. And always watch the bartender open your beer! You don't want them giving you watered down or half drank beer do you? Trust me, they will try anything if they can get away with it!

Also- if you are a female, always go to the restrooms with someone. Its just always a good idea! Other than that, I say have a good time and enjoy yourself!

One thing I like to point out as well is the getting home part. If you drive over the border back to the good ole U.S. expect to wait in the Linea forever. And if you had mixed drinks that night then that’s just about the time that Montezuma's revenge sets in. And you will be begging your buddy to jump in the drivers seat and take the wheel , while you run around dodging the “chiqlet” kids to try to find a bathroom anywhere.

There are some bathrooms over by where the Line to the border lines up with a ghetto drive-by swap meet selling stuff like: Tweety Bird Piggy Banks, BLANKETS, Glass Ships & Aztec Calendar statues. But you may just want to squat in a nearby bush since the bathrooms will literally make you throw up while you are trying to focus on going to the bathroom.

Once you make it to the Border Agent it’s a good idea if you remember to say :

“We went to eat taco’s”-    It works everytime!!

If you walk across the border then that’s on you. Once you get across there’s the trolley and the parking lots to get to the cars and hopefully you don’t get jumped on either side!

Once we had made it through back onto the U.S. side of the border, me and my friends would always be hungry and head to a late night or should I say early morning breakfast before we would head on home. We frequented the Denny’s off of Coronado Blvd in Imperial Beach off the I-5.

We would spend a good hour or two eating and laughing about the good times we had in Tijuana. We would always say “I am not going back..too much hassle and drama”. Yet it always seemed a few weekends would pass and we would get that urge to return for another crazy night of madness and chaos in the Streets of Tijuana!!!

Too many good memories…..so long ago. Damn I miss the good ole days!!

Pachuca213 (copyright) 2009