A Journey Across the US/Mexico Border into Tijuana 🇺🇸 🇲🇽

A day trip on foot across the border from San Diego into Tijuana, Mexico, with Cameron Mofid — Harry’s first time in the country, in a city that has been ranked the most dangerous in the world.

The useful half of the video is the border economy: who crosses, in which direction, and why. The other half is two taxi drivers.

Obs: the video carries a read-aloud DNA-testing sponsorship at [03:45] with an extended segment on Harry’s own results. It contains no travel information and the provider is not recorded here.

Key moments

• [00:00] The reputation: consistently named the most dangerous city in the world, with 1,844 murders the previous year (from video – unverified). His stated reason for going is the tacos.
• [00:30] The border economy, from Cameron: fly out of Tijuana’s airport — which sits on the border — and domestic Mexican flights are far cheaper. There is a $35 crossing fee for the bridge into the terminal.
• [01:04] The commute runs both ways. Mexicans cross daily for work; American citizens live in Tijuana because San Diego is among the most expensive cities in the United States, and cross every day for work or school.
• [01:04] Cameron has been to 174 countries, against his claim that around half of Americans don’t hold a passport (from video – unverified).
• [01:34] His risk assessment, which the day bears out: a normal city, where you can find trouble if you go looking for it — filming alone in the wrong neighbourhood in good clothes. The risk of petty crime is almost zero; nobody will put a knife to your throat for a phone. A different kind of danger from Afghanistan.
• [02:40] Sunday is empty. On a weekday afternoon the crossing can take hours.
• [03:10] Cameras everywhere on the approach, and he films carefully.
• [03:45] Crossing takes five to ten minutes and a security form. There is no US exit stamp, which leaves him unsure he can get back in.
• [05:34] First impressions: obviously different from San Diego, and not bad at all.
• [05:55] The pharmacies. Americans cross for medicine at roughly half the US price, and for dental work — a direct consequence of US healthcare costs. He checks a painkiller and the figure holds.
• [07:33] A convoy of military vehicles down the main tourist street.
• [08:00] The taxi drivers, and the best surprise of the day: friendly, talkative, and — his words — the opposite of an American rideshare, where you say hello and nothing else.
• [08:41] On the cartels: they don’t bother tourists, because it isn’t worth their time.
• [09:12] The red light district in daylight, which he films carefully and briefly.
• [10:53] Why the violence is here, as the driver explains it: the territory is valuable for moving drugs into the US, so cartels from across Mexico compete for it. The violence is between them, and people minding their own business are fine.
• [11:33] The driver on his own life: he has never crossed to the US and has never wanted to, because everything he wants — family, work — is here.
• [12:38] People ask him for life advice in the car, and he gives it. Harry asks for some.
• [13:10] San Diego visible across two walls and a strip of empty ground.
• [13:36] Playas de Tijuana on a Sunday: families everywhere.
• [13:43] Mango with chilli, which he expects not to like and does.
• [14:59] The wall at the beach, with a soldier watching it, rifle visible. He asks for a conversation and is refused, and says he’d have refused too.
• [15:29] The part of the wall where families used to meet. People split across the border — some of whom will never get into the US — could come and speak and touch hands here. He is told that may have stopped.
• [16:33] Local women’s view of the city: many people arrive in Tijuana hoping to reach America, but Tijuana itself is comparatively well off by Mexican standards, and people from here are broadly happy and not desperate to leave.
• [17:10] His own reflection: a few kilometres decides which side you were born on, and there is a wall in between.
• [17:46] A bracelet seller from a Muslim background who, asked his religion, answers humanity — which Harry says he is going to start using.
• [19:14] The fridge magnet is blessed before being handed over, and is warm.
• [19:46] The bullring, which he believes is no longer used, on animal-cruelty grounds.
• [19:54] Murals along the wall, degraded by the sea — including a Free Palestine piece and a Trump-and-Biden cartoon.
• [20:26] The line he stops the video for: we call people illegal immigrants, which makes them sound like animals, and they are people working harder than most of us.
• [20:58] Tacos at 40 pesos, around $2.30, at a touristy beach restaurant he expects to be the most expensive he’ll find in Mexico. Soft, fried corn, and very good.

Extracted pages

• Countries: Mexico, United States
• Place: Tijuana
• Person: Cameron Mofid