Our first day in Mexico:

"15 Sep 2006 --
Ciudad Juarez is a mess! All diesel fumes, dust and traffic. Pretty standard for a city of 1.7 million, I suppose. But the people are open and nice, a good change from our last place. The weather is good, not too hot, but the sun is pretty strong -- probably because we're at 4,300 feet in altitude."

The night before, in El Paso, TX:

"We arrived in EP this afternoon, to spend the night before crossing the border. We were really surprised by the scenery since Pecos, TX. It was all mountains west of there. Huge mountains, one peak 8,200 feet high. I never knew that West Texas was anything but flat & boring. We were in 2 spots in the mountains where there was only 1 station on the radio, near Van Horn, one town in the movie, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." Sadly, there are mosquitos in a place as empty and dry as that, as we discovered at one rest stop. (Texas has wireless internet at all its rest stops, and fire hydrants or posts for male dogs)

El Paso and Ciudad Juarez sit on a huge plateau ringed by tall mountains. The combined population is 2.5 million. Traffic was awful in EP where we spent the night, and there's no place to walk the dog. Hopefully, the rest of the city isn't as bad."

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/