Línea en la arena

Sunrise over West Texas on the way to El Paso. The storm you can see in the picture was just clearing. I happened apon the region when it was raining - their first rain in 100 consequtive days. When it started raining I was coming down I-25 in southern New Mexico. It might not have rained for 100 days, but when it did rain, it rained hard! That smell of rain hitting dry asphalt when it hasn't rained in a while? That smell is magnified a hundred million times when it rains in the desert. The car was filled with its refreshing aroma.


This photo was taken from the car while i was driving towards downtown El Paso on the I-10 freeway. It is this close to the border. As El Paso's commuters drive to work they can look across into another world. Well actually its only another country, but look at the dwelings - its another world.



This is the border, taken from one of the two main bridges which link downtown El Paso with Juarez.







This photo marks ther first time I have ever stood in two countries at once. It appealed to my ego.

Along the border there are some fantastically provocotive political scrawlings. Most are in Spanish which i'm not terribly good at (though have improved some in the last couple of days!). If you run them through the google translator you can make sense of some of them.

By far my favortite statement, not for its message but for its clarity and harshness, i didn't even see when i was there. You can just read it in the top left of this photo. It reads 'DEATH TO AMERICA, KILL WHITEY'. It was lucky i didn't see this when i was there because it would have made me more uneasy than i already was at first - I was the only such whitey that i saw until two hours after i crossed the border.

I took this photo thinking that the enourmous writing on the hill would be another message to America. In fact loosely translated it says 'CITY OF JUAREZ, THE BIBLE IS THE TRUTH - LEELA'. I don't know if Leela is a person or what.

If you look very carefully at the foreground you should be able to make out a sign for a dentist's office. As soon as i crossed the border what immediately became obvious was that dentistry is a major part of Juarez's economy. It seems thousands of Americans find it cheaper to cross the border for dental work than pay for it or get insurance in the US. Down just one street right near the border, i must have seen 20 - 30 dentist practices. Also common are drug stores. One hawker outside one such drug store tried to lure me in: "no prescription needed, we've got what you need!"

There are some nice things in Juarez. It is a huge culture shock - just walking across the border into a different world - but once you get used to it you can find some nice places. I found a nice resturant that served up delicious Mexican fare. I ordered the most expensive meal on the menu and stayed to enjoy 3 beers. I was left with the hideous bill of $14. I was thinking of making a run for the border, but in the end i just paid the man. But i didn't go there to see nice places.... i just thought i should put this photo on here because most of the rest of my photos from south of the border will show the not so nice things.

There is an intimitant stench of sewrage around the streets; the infrastructure is crumbling.

It took me a good couple of hours to kind of get my bearings and feel comfortable - at first i didn't even take my camera out of my pocket because it just seemed wrong. This crossing is apparently more dangerous and not as tourist-ee as say Tijuana, and i didn't want to look like a tourist.

There are street vendors and huge markets and some outregeously good prices on clothes.... not the best clothes or anything, but still, the equivelent of $1 for a warm sweater is pretty good. I got me a bottle of Tequilla for $5.30.

Ok, another nice place :)

I see alot of panhandling in Denver, but somehow it seems so much more desperate here. One came up to me and walked with me a short distance while he asked if I might like to marry his sister so she could move to the US. The same guy appproached me again wondering if I might like to buy some drugs. This woman was sitting just across the street from the port of entry.

And the man in the foreground of this photo was standing underneath the international bridge, calling up to people to throw him some money down.

This is what people in Juarez see when they look across the border. What a difference from what people in El Paso see when they look across in the other direction.

It is easy to see why someone would want to cross over into the US.

And here, you see a US Border Patrol car waiting for them to try.

I saw on the news in El Paso this morning that there was a 'hit' on a lawyer in Juarez yesterday afternoon. Two people were shot as they drove past in a car. The car came to a holt with the two fatally woudned occupants just a few buildings down from the restaurant i had lunch at, a little over 15 minutes after i had crossed safely back into the United States of America.

I apologize for writing a novel, due to this post and all the uploading of pictures taking me so long, and it now being 12.35 am, the photos i took in New Mexico on the way back today will have to wait til tomorrow's post.