Day 7: Left lane must turn left
Dec. 22nd, 2012 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
noddeatOur hotel in El Paso was just 100 meters from the border, we even heard the sounds of diskatieka from Mexico at night. So this morning I headed towards Ciudad Juarez, which has a reputation of being one of the world's most criminal cities and a city with a highest murder rate per capita in Mexico. Are you shitting in your pants while reading this now? Well, Juarez is actually a nice and quiet city, which even has a decent tourist navigation. Well, maybe it is not that safe at night but the reality is very far from that bullshit you read in media.
So, I went to Mexico and still on American side there was a budka with baryga sitting there, and near the budka there were turnstiles. The guy in the budka told me that an air tax of 50 cents is charged from everyone entering Mexico. I tried to argue with him, but finally American cop told me that I should pay this charge which I did. The charge of 25 cents is also applied when you leave Mexico. So, the people of Ciudad Juarez working in El Paso pay 1 dollar a day to the Mexican mafia.
Mexicans do not check passports as Juarez is in border zone and eveyone can enter it even without documents. On the was back there was a huge line on pedestrian border crossing, although it was moving quickly. I spent half an hour there and then was asked by the US border officers what the hell I had been doing in Mexico. And then they asked what the hell I was doing in El Paso. After my answers they understood that I'm just another cranky tourist and let me go.
At 13 pm we got a key from our rental car and headed for New Mexico. Well, it was not easy as El Paso has crap road signs and poor road marking. That's why when we reached White Sands National Monument, it was fucking closed. So, we proceeded further north and stopped in a typical American motel at the village of Carrizozo, in the middle of the desert. The wife of the owner is from Erlangen. So you see that the world is so small.
So, I went to Mexico and still on American side there was a budka with baryga sitting there, and near the budka there were turnstiles. The guy in the budka told me that an air tax of 50 cents is charged from everyone entering Mexico. I tried to argue with him, but finally American cop told me that I should pay this charge which I did. The charge of 25 cents is also applied when you leave Mexico. So, the people of Ciudad Juarez working in El Paso pay 1 dollar a day to the Mexican mafia.
Mexicans do not check passports as Juarez is in border zone and eveyone can enter it even without documents. On the was back there was a huge line on pedestrian border crossing, although it was moving quickly. I spent half an hour there and then was asked by the US border officers what the hell I had been doing in Mexico. And then they asked what the hell I was doing in El Paso. After my answers they understood that I'm just another cranky tourist and let me go.
At 13 pm we got a key from our rental car and headed for New Mexico. Well, it was not easy as El Paso has crap road signs and poor road marking. That's why when we reached White Sands National Monument, it was fucking closed. So, we proceeded further north and stopped in a typical American motel at the village of Carrizozo, in the middle of the desert. The wife of the owner is from Erlangen. So you see that the world is so small.
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