Night Walk

It was like the good old days when I used to be at work: Rusty waking me up at 4:30 ready for a walk. 

Except after he peed on a patch of grass outside the Hotel California Comfort and Suites he dug his paws in and refused to come with me.  So I said fine, I’m awake so I’ll go for a walk alone. Apparently that didn’t go over too well and he sat by the hotel room door pining for me. 

It was too bad because I had a great walk wandering Los Algodones in the dark for a couple of hours just as I used to in Key West all those years ago. 

The sun was just starting to come up and to the north I could barely see California outlined through the border fences that comprise the wall here: 

In town the wall very tall, maybe thirty feet and there are two parallel lines of steel posts creating a dusty track between the fences where you can see Border Patrol pick ups rushing back and forth. Retirement is so worth it as I just stood there and watched nothing happening. 

Along some parts of the Wall Mexicans paint graffiti or pastoral scenes but here in Los Algodones it’s just plain rusty metal facing south. With some advertising: 

Sunrise, looking east toward Arizona and the Colorado River which flows left to right in the picture below near where the sky is painted red. 

When we drove into town on Tuesday we stopped just south of Los Algodones to stretch our legs. I saw a Border Patrol boat carving donuts in the green waters of the Colorado which is the border at this point: 

It’s a busy business keeping people out but on the Mexican side of the line there was no one about in town at dawn. Except one older man in a California registered pick up. He stopped next to me on the street and asked in Spanish if I knew where “la linea” was, because there are no signs in the Mexican way of not signposting things. We were a block away and the gate was invisible! 

There were half a dozen cars lined up to cross into the US even before the Andrade Port of Entry opens at 6 am. The gates in the picture are the Mexican entry lines for cars coming into the country from California on the right side, outside the frame.

This was the line at eight o’clock outside our hotel three blocks from the border: 

In the meantime the town of Los Algodones was mine.

The wall through the northern edge of town deteriorated in some areas into older small fencing. The lights below mark the edge of the Indian parking lot used by pedestrians coming to Los Algodones. Oddly enough I stood there in January waiting for Layne.  

Through the Mexican gates you can see the US side which is basically a parking lot where the pedestrians leave their cars. On the Mexican side businesses butt right up to the very border as if crammed in to catch the first unwary customers stepping  into Mexico to buy services. By opening time the sidewalks are packed with people touting for business. “Need a hat..? A pharmacy..? An optician..? A dentist..? They crowd you making you feel like the most needy human in the world. 

I’d say sure I need something a thousand bucks! And they would recoil. But not for long. You need a woman..? Nah I’d reply, I’m older than I look. How about some heroin I’d ask provocatively and they’d smile. You can get anything in Los Algodones they’d say and I’d settle for a fish taco. It must be exhausting selling all the time. I avoided them only by being out here before they got on the scene. 

The monument on the plinth marks the actual line. 

There are rough hewn stone steps on the American face, like the huge ungainly steps on the Maya pyramids at Caracol in Belize. 

A Mexican returning from an unauthorized visit to California. Scofflaw! 

And another one! They ran off before I could apprehend them.  

The views from the border monument. You can’t see the empty beer bottles strewn around the base. 

Time to get back down into it and walk back to the room. We had work to do. Which included getting a car wash. One sparkling van. 

They are rebuilding the pool at the hotel. We had hoped to use it. 

Rather him than me in the desert heat: 

Laynes teeth fit splendidly and are unnoticeable. I got new lenses ordered for my glasses to be shipped to a friend in California. Lightweight progressive lenses for $130. It will be interesting to see how they are. We hope to be in California soon on our way to Santa Cruz and cool coastal air for a while. 

Memories of Mexico!

We asked Teo to make a van sized tree sculpture and he obliged. He said it was harder to make a four inch tall wire sculpture than to make the large ones. 

Need a dentist? He’ll look up from his phone and ask in a minute. These sidewalks are packed in winter and people are looking for just that.  

Need a pharmacy? 

We bought a big cup of corn with cheese from this guy and his food motorcycle:

It is permitted to be young and have fun in Los Algodones. 

The Colorado River 





Negative stereotype? 

Illegal immigrant? 

Fish tacos are actually pretty good even here inland. 

I like Mexico but I’m looking forward to smooth roads and no topes. Not looking forward to no roadside food sellers, no magic third lanes and no full serve gas pumps.