Tijuana Off The Beaten Path Tips by unigirl Top 5 Page for this destination

Better life? Residential Areas Review

I remember someone telling me this was the maestro for Sanchez, and that he was planning to try and get across the US border for a better life. I know a lot is made of the immigration 'problem' around the world, but I'm sure people would have a harder time judging those desperate to flee if they only saw the kind of life those trying to flee are leading.

The Hill Residential Areas Review

There were a few plateaus of unstaired dusty hills to climb before reaching this point. The background shows a pretty good view of the houses where the locals lived.

Florez Group Shot Residential Areas Review

Another shot of the group. We built 57 concrete steps in our 5 working days. Therefore, we called ourselves the '57-Step Gang'. In our group was myself, Tina R., Tina T., Elena W., Dawn O., Christian P., Sandra M., Roberta R., Lydia D., Bob 'Corky' C., Anthony 'the Big O' C., and our trip leader Michelle J.

Florez Project.... Residential Areas Review

When it came to working at the actual sites, our large group was split into two. Each group worked on different projects, miles apart. This picture shows the site at Florez, where I worked. Our job was to build stairs up a steep hill. We only managed to do one out of the three needed sets! Let me just say, the climb to the top, where the schoolhouse would be, was enormous. We avoided the bathroom--not because it was gross, we got used to that--because the climb was awful!

Rest Stop Residential Areas Review

A word about the bathrooms at this site--they were right near to the work area.....although for the first day they were REALLY bad. Not long after, they were cleaned up. But we tried to remember that for some people, a ramshackle hut with a hole in chipboard for a toilet seat and excrement in the corner of the floor was reality.

More of Sanchez Residential Areas Review

This next group of 'off the beaten path' pictures are from the site at Sanchez. The second group made the foundations for a schoolhouse. At Sanchez, there was Dawn P., Andrea N., George O., Lisa A., Amanda R., Marianne C., Melissa M., Keith B., Kenric Y., Lannon D., Natalee C., Andrea M., and my other best friend in the world, Dorothy W.

Flying buckets Residential Areas Review

Another view of our stairs. This truck brought in the somewhat ancient cement mixer everyday for us. (we had to be very careful with the tools--we even had some stuff stolen one day by a gang of glue-sniffing teenagers) Once mixed, we then passed the fresh cement up the hill, bucket by bucket like an old fashioned fire brigade. The maestro, the leader of the site, would then tell us where and how to place it. A job I often did was to catch the buckets that were thrown down from the top when they were emptied. In fact, I still have faint scars from the buckets cutting into my forearms!

Sanchez Project... Residential Areas Review

The finished Sanchez project, waiting for the next group to continue on with building the school....

Climbing trees! Residential Areas Review

This beautiful tree was in the courtyard of the mission we were staying in. It was the perfect climbing tree!! Therefore, myself and a few friends would climb it everyday and just chat. In fact, we were there so much we ended up being called the 'Tree Climbers of Tijuana'....