Border crossing

We got in easy , now let’s get out …..easy ? The Tijuana to SanDiego entry back into the US was pretty much the last obstacle in our Mexico adventure . We got into Tijuana by 830am Monday morning ,rounding a long left hand bend that pointed us towards the border crossing …..and then we saw it , cars , shitloads of cars ,4 lanes wide snaking around a corner with no sign of a border gate . ” Hay it’s alright boys , I think the border entry point is just over that dip .” We look over at a young girl in a car next to us and intend to ask her if she has done this before ,but on closer inspection we notice she’s distraught and crying .Oh oh . Ok ,no big deal we’ll get there soon enough ,maybe . The next clue that this is not so easy is the appearance of women , men ,kids and baby’s walking between the lanes asking for money . Then there’s the sellers of drinks , chips ,candy , tacos , toys ,kids juggling and just about everything else . Shiyat !! They must know something . Tim jumps out of the car to wander down to take photos , I buy a coke and donate a dollar to a begging woman with a young baby on her shoulder . Tim comes back and declares ..” We’re here for hours boys , thousands of cars snake all the way down the hill and I can’t even see the border .” Fuck ! And I just sculled that coke , I’ll end up needing that bottle to relieve myself. I have never seen a moving market place weave between the traffic of a major road before and what baffles me more is why have I not seen this on some reality tv show or documentary ? Why is this event not common knowledge ? Eventually Tim comes up with a devious plan . We are to push 4 lanes to our right onto the emergency shoulder and then barge down the hill and push back in . I am to fake that I am sick . Geezus … here we go , We stop traffic from crawling forward and get out wide , shoot past traffic and then push in , the dude in his pickup truck is pissed . The boys plead their apology ,pointing to me as I fake illness with my head down resting on the open window of the back seat. We’ve saved at least half an hour and can now see the gates some 400m away . We also see the most bizarre sight yet …. a group of shanty shops selling clothing ,pottery ,kites ,toys , tacos ,juices ,margaritas and even make shift toilets attached to the side of a concrete wall that adjoins an overpass .We are all laughing …. is this real ? We buy 3 burritos , I pay 75 cents to use a toilet and a Tim is approached by a guy selling Australian shepherd puppies …true . Even Uber eats arrives through a side passage on a motorbike to pick up food from the vendors here …..and all on the side of a road . 2 and a bit hours later we get through with ease …… that was an experience ..Mexico to USA .