Mexico Forum

choctaw1997
Joined 2016
Posts: 13

6 years ago

Alone in Tijuana, Female...

6 years ago

I'm already in Tijuana, came in via Juarez by way of going to the Dentists there and promptly got my purse stolen out of while I was there. Made it to Tijuana by bus to be closer to the French Consulate - but only the ones in Mexico City can replace a passport anyway, so here I sit. I could teach English or French here, if it weren't so spread out and expensive to even get around anyplace. More recently my entire purse got snatched off my shoulder while I was walking down a busy street in broad daylight in the middle of the day; the police got it back but now they're holding it ransom for "evidence" so they say, first they said the weekend then another week, apparently "you know how that goes." I think they think they're holding my credit and debit cards and money in it but I managed to get that stuff out of it before I handed it back over to them at the police station out by the Camionera Centro, so, no, I have what's left of my debit cards and copies of IDs and birth certificate.

I wouldn't want to go to prison just for being here without ID, especially after it's been STOLEN from me which is ridiculous and stupid for a country to have as a policy. I"m now fed up with the entire North American continent. In one year all three of its countries have either kicked me out or thrown me in jail over "ID" both times for "not having any after it got stolen." I had to tell the Irish Embassy that's the third time this calendar year that that same purse has been either snatched off my shoulder (once by the US Border Patrol and once also by Canada Border Patrol, while attempting to cross the border from the US into Canada and then being thrown back into the US). It's not that "big" or "conspicuous" I've seen bigger, and right there in Juarez at the bus station, so get that thought out of your minds!

Now, to get down to Mexico City to the Embassies to deal with my passports, I'd have to somehow, what, get on a bus and hope beyond all hope that there are no "checkpoints" between TJ and Mexico City? The airport already denied me boarding with just my Driver's License.

What's with all the robbery of ME lately, anyway? Frankly, I look Mexican! Like Oaxaca or Guatemalan or Panamanian! Of course, I read that even the US embassy says that their Mexican employees get robbed more frequently than the "American" ones, meaning, I suppose, white-gringo-looking ones. So what the hell gives? Just because I'm female and traveling alone? I look like them, so that's not it. It's because I speak English so they think "American" and "walking ATM machine"??!

I'm basically sitting here, trapped in the Border Area because of the "freedom" by Mexico standards of not having to have a passport just to BE here, but I'm not sure about travel on a BUS. Down to Mexico City is out of the "Border Zone" and I'm worried about the "checkpoints." Don't want to go back to jail just because *I* got robbed. This country is beyond ridiculously stupid. Just as bad as the US and Canada. But then, why not, it does share the same continent.

Other than that, there was the possibility of living better with any job whatsoever since rents are in the $200 or less/month range for just a room somewhere with utilities and internet included. If I could even teach online via Skype from any of the other countries I've ever been legal to work in and get paid in, that would be in either dollars, Euros or Pound Sterling; I could break even here instead of drowning in more debt like in the US.

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