Never again!
Written: Nov 14 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Shopkeepers and passersby were helpful.
Cons: Crime!
The Bottom Line: After my attack, the locals that helped me and my sister were wonderful...but I could never feel safe there. I wouldn't recommend visiting Tijuana.
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| jules55's Full Review: Tijuana |
After what happened to me while on a half-day tour to Tijuana, I could never recommend a trip there to anyone.
We started our tour at 9:30 in the morning when the tour guide that had picked us up at our San Diego hotel dropped us off on the main strip, Avenida Revolucion. I was surprised at the size of the city - I guess I was expecting a dusty little border town. My sister and I walked down the avenue browsing in the various shops. Neither of us felt very comfortable despite the fact that we were well within the "safe zone" - the range of streets the tour guide had told us not to wander outside of. We stuck to the main avenue and didn't venture down any side streets. I lived in Manhattan for several years and have traveled all over the world - I never expected to feel so unsafe.
Around 10am we had both had about enough of Tijuana. It seemed very unclean, the people, though mostly friendly, were a little too pushy and touchy/feely. My sister and I stopped to chat with the tour guide before he entered a store then, we had turned to look in another store window when my sister heard a loud pop. She turned to see me laying on the sidewalk, with a pained look on my face and blood pouring out of my head. I was unconscious and my sister had no idea what happened - as far as she knew I could be dying.
Turns out that I got "popped". Apparently this is a popular way to mug people in Mexico - hit the victim with some kind of device to stun them, then rob them. I had been stunned somehow, hit the sidewalk in a dead fall, and split my scalp open on the sidewalk. I was taken by ambulance to the border (at my sister's insistence) and then transferred to another ambulance and taken to a hospital in San Diego. In the Mexican ambulance I wasn't strapped down or secured in any way and there was no ventilation on a very hot day. My sister had to lay across me on the gurney to keep me from falling off.
I spent the next week in the hospital before I was approved to fly home to Boston. I had a serious laceration to the head, a severe concussion to the brain and an inner ear concussion. I was barely able to walk on my own, couldn't chew solid food, couldn't hold my head up on my own and had dizziness when I stood up or sat up. It has been two months since the assault and I just returned to work this week. I still have neck pain and occasional vertigo but have been told those will both go away eventually.
On the positive side, when my sister started yelling for help and screaming the tour guide's name, shopkeepers and strangers came running. One shop keeper brought a blanket from his display rack to put over me and a towel to stop the bleeding from my head. Someone saw the man that attacked me and he was apprehended and taken into police custody. My sister was told that she would either have to go to the police station right then or come back within 48 to press charges. I spent the next week in the hospital and there was no way she was going back by herself - so more than likely the guy walked free. From what I have heard since - it is common for criminals in Mexico to remain free.
I had heard that Tijuana wasn't the nicest place and that crime was rampant in Mexico. We thought we'd be fine though - we were going with a group in the middle of the day, we wouldn't wander off the beaten path and we were dressed in shorts, tshirts and sneakers with no jewelery. It wasn't until after the trip that I learned how often things like this happen. A friend of my brother's is a pilot for a major shipping company - employees are no longer allowed to leave hotel property while on business trips to Mexico because of crime. After my experience, I don't think that a visit to Tijuana is worth the risk.
Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Never
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Epinions.com ID:
jules55
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Member: Julie Swanson
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 1 member
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