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Baja California appears to be a territory of transition between the United States and the Mexican States. Even if I crossed the border in Tijuana, USA does not seem to end. The peninsula still has a lot of people and products from the north. Prices are often in dollars, TV is often broadcasted from the states and menus are often in english. I luckily manage to get by on spanglish until the mobile language course on my mp3-player improves my language skills.

Most people that I encounter along the road have some kind of connection to the country above the border. A baker in a small town ran across the line on young legs in search of the American dream and walked back a bit older to the Mexican life that he preferred. A few Mexican students were born on the other side where they still see a land of opportunities, but on this side they see the life of their choice. Still hundreds of people die each year while trying to cross a manmade construction of steel and brick. The border has grown taller and wider through out years of tightened border controls, but the gaps of the wall only move to different locations as long as the gaps between the rich and the poor remain. The socio-economic contrasts are visible within as well as between the countries. The land border draws a line between USA and Mexico, while gated communities on both sides draws a line between their citizens.

In this borderland of Baja I see Mexican workers attend the gardens of foreign owned houses and the vegetable fields of export corporations, which already became a familiar sight from the bicycle saddle in the United States. And even if I as a western tourist represent the richer part of the world, the fieldworkers continues to give me fresh vegetables for the road without expecting anything in return. There is so much generosity. Local Mexicans as well as American expatriates have invited me in to their hospitable houses. In Tijuana I was partying in a palace with ambitious and artistic Mexicans, in Ensenada I enjoyed a friendly american-mexican home and in Primo Tapia I stepped into the household of an American retieree.

The US-presence on the peninsula has also been cycling by my side the past couple of weeks. I am sharing the road with an American accountant and we have been pedalling over sand, slipping through mud and shaking along rocky roads. The one paved road that leads south started in a chaotic city and has led us down by surfing spots, tiny towns and in to the delightful desert. Cycling through a landscape of sand and mountains has been simply serene. With days of isolation and nights of silence. It feels as if the borderland of Baja is transforming into a no-man’s-land that I do not want to leave.

Peace

/Hanna

Comments

  1. Marius Wednesday, January 6, 2010, at 3:13 PM

    Good luck Hanna! We met briefly on PCH more than a month ago and kept reading your blog every now and then ever since. It’s amazing what you are doing! Again, good luck!

  2. *darryl Thursday, January 7, 2010, at 4:08 PM

    Hi hanna met u in guadalupe ca, goodluck luv u miss u.

  3. hanna Saturday, January 9, 2010, at 2:08 AM

    Marius and Darryl, I am glad to have both of you with me. Good luck with your 2010.

  4. Focklie Roastello Saturday, January 9, 2010, at 10:12 PM

    “without excepting anything in return”

    no no no…. the phrase is “without ACCEPTING anything in return”

    I know you don’t need an English lesson in Mexico, but there you have it. The sentence doesn’t make any sense with “excepting” in there.

    – Focklie

  5. Focklie Roastello Saturday, January 9, 2010, at 10:13 PM

    And to be honest, it’s probably best to say “without EXPECTING anything in return” … since why would they accept anything they weren’t expecting? You dig?

  6. hanna Sunday, January 10, 2010, at 12:14 PM

    Apparently I need a spelling lesson in Mexico. Cheers Focklie.

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