"Afternoon in Mexico..." Juárez by Shihar

Down town El Paso has a foot bridge that will take you to the Mercado area of Juarez. There is busy foot traffic during the day because people are going to and from work.

Many people have preconceived notions when traveling to US/Mexico border cities. Many of the notions are truly justified (especially in Tijuana) however I did not find this as must the case in Juarez.

When we were here, there were no other Americans in sight (Tuesday afternoon), which was not a problem at all! There was minimal haggling from locals and the most cat calls we got were from a few taxi drivers wanting to drive us to the Mercado.

City Scene

All things considered, Juarez is a busy city with action and commerce going on all around. It was interesting to see what a Mexican city looks without the overwhelming American tourism push. Granted, Juarez is not known as hot spot for tourism anyway.

Mercado

As I understood it, El Paso has 2 foot bridges into Juarez. We took the one less traveled to visit the Mercado (Market Area) of the city. Since we arrived late in the day, many of the vendors had closed shop. Therefore we were not able to do much shopping.

• Pros:Not infested with American tourists!
• Cons:Not the cleanest city..but I've seen worst