Beer man and food guy explore EnsenadaTen years ago, someone snagged me a ticket to the Ensenada Beer Fest, and I attended, boldly resolving to sample every brew being poured. It didn’t take long for …

“Lo más seguro mataron a alguien” ("probably someone got shot"), I exclaimed to my girlfriend as I was driving down Calle Cuarta (4th Street) in downtown Tijuana on the afternoon of February 15. Yellow tape …

The message arrived via my Tijuana Adventure Instagram on a Friday afternoon: “Any chance of a tour tomorrow?” A bit short notice, but I was free and quoted the fellow my price, which proved acceptable.“I’m …

I went back to hell, but not for the bewitching Little Satan. The Chicali Brewers Association read my Reader cover story on Mexicali beer and invited me to the city’s Beer Week as a “beerfluencer.” …

9/11 could have been stopped in San DiegoFormer FBI agent Mark Rossini, who was assigned to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, said CIA officials blocked the memo to the FBI because the agency was complicit with …

A flight to Mexico City from Tijuana can be cheap. I found a round flight for $12 through the Volaris website. With airport fees included, the total cost was $72. No bags were needed, I …

In 2014, Reader beer writer Brandon Hernández visited Mexicali, and wrote: “Our driver, whose humor was as dry as the Baja desert, jestingly told us he was taking us to ‘Hell.’” Brandon suffered temperatures of …

I had taken Derek to Mariscos el Güero on a Sunday morning. It is one of my favorite seafood street carts in Ensenada. We had both gotten the special tostada “La Güerita” for 135 pesos …

Except for the World Series, I never cared much for baseball besides the World Series. That is, until September 15, 2016, when I discovered béisbol in Tijuana. I was with writer Justin O’Connell, Tijuana pseudo-celebrity …

I’ve been doing tours in Tijuana for more than 11 years. I remember my first client well. Back then, I announced my tours on Craigslist. Back then, my tours and Tijuana were much different than …

“I’m doing this guerrilla-style!” shouts Antonio Ley, also known as El Tony Tee, as I approach his taco truck. “We got kicked out because of the stupid bike lane last week, and I have to …

I moved into my first apartment in Tijuana in March of 2012. It was a nice one-bedroom place on the top floor of a three-story building in Colonia Cacho. It came unfurnished, except for a …

In Tijuana, you ride the rollercoaster that is the city and then you wait in line to leave. The journey out of one of the most chaotic cities in the world culminates in an equally …

“I always say that Mexicali is hell, Tijuana is purgatory, and Ensenada... well, Ensenada is paradise!” says Jesús “El Chino” Hernández, who runs Trophy Tacos, an experimental seafood tacos cart in a corner of Colonia …

Baja’s beer scene has grown exponentially since I first wrote about it for the Reader six years ago, and I’ve been obsessing over it ever since. Back in October of this year, at the most …

I met “Border Chef” Andrea Aguari — the title is her own — a decade ago when she was cooking for the short-lived Taberna Etxeverri on Calle Sexta. We hadn’t spoken in years when I …

We arrived at Punta Final Saturday at dawn after an arduous seven-hour trip. We left Tecate before midnight after packing the green Durango with camping gear and a shit ton of beer. The driver, a …

“I don’t think we’ll be opening the bar until September or until there is a vaccine,” says Dany aka ‘Drago,’ founder of Dragon Rojo Rockbar and a hospital worker by trade. “I keep the bar …

“You know my brother and I got it, right?” My friend Mariana texted me a few weeks ago after I posted the story about the coronavirus piñatas. Mariana’s brother, Juan, is my private doctor in …

As soon as the news hit, we received ten orders,” says Carlos Macklis owner of Norte Brewing Co. “We stopped producing but we are still selling our beer. I’m acting as the delivery boy driving …

“It’s a huge mess of disinformation,” says the co-owner of one of the new trendy restaurants in downtown Tijuana (we talked online, she prefers to remain anonymous). “My dad is over at city hall right …

A Michael Jackson impersonator dances on the streets of Tijuana to the rhythm of idling motors and honking cars in heavy traffic areas around the city. People crossing the street shuffle around his act and …

Tijuana destroys Spanish and English “Tengo que ir hacer laundry, then I have to study en la biblioteca,” I’m paraphrasing what the Latina students in my college sounded like. My first real encounter with Spanglish …

“You look like a meme,” I told my friend Beto when I spotted him at the checkout line of my local Calimax with a cart full of toilet paper and paper towels on Friday the …

High on fitness Patrick Henderson Pyles Peak Corner of Golfcrest and Navajo Drives Mission Trails Cowles Mountain is a very popular, very crowded hike — especially if you’re taking it from the Golfcrest/Navajo staging area. …

Las Pulgas is “el mejor lugar para bailar (the best place to dance),” according to their slogan. It is known as one of the bars that sell the most beer in all of Latin America; …

“¡Dame un peso!” frantically demands a homeless woman by aggressively knocking on car windows that stop in one of Tijuana’s busiest corners on Calle Segunda. Most drivers ignore her, shake their heads nervously, or move …

“Human rights are for humans who do right” became the catchphrase of Tijuana’s mayor, Juan Manuel “El Patas” (The Feet) Gastélum Buenrostro, referring to the caravan of migrants. The news anchor for Univision, Jorge Ramos, …

Chingue su madre todos esos Hondureños.” those were the first words I heard spoken over a loud speaking as I approached the area where the caravan of migrants arrived, Sunday, November 18th. The source of …

“That was the scariest part, I walked by and didn’t even feel a thing,” commented my friend Luisa, after posting that there was a shooting in Calle Sexta in front of a popular bar on …

“Tijuana is much more than the cliches repeated by those that, carrying their prejudice, come and try to decipher it.” Those words of the late Rafa Saavedra (2013), one of Tijuana’s favorite writers, struck a …

Ahh, Houston! As soon as I landed, my shirt got stuck to my body as I breathed in that humid thick air. Siri told me that my week visiting Texas for my cousin’s wedding was …

How embarrassing! I just looked out my balcony, all hungover and disheveled, to find un chingo de gente afuera,” (an f--- of a lot of people outside), comments Lalo, my neighbor from the building in …

I remember the first time I crossed the border as a pedestrian from San Ysidro to Tijuana. It was early 2010, the pedestrian entry lay on the west side of the 5. It was a …

“The violence and crime in Tijuana has exceeded its own records and has imbued terror in a society, in which authorities have been surpassed and lack any leadership.” That’s how an extensive report of the …

I met a 62-year-old man at Nelson Bar in Tijuana today. He said, “I like talking to white people, you white?” Sort of, I responded. “You look white! I know everything. Ask me anything. No. …

“Estoy muy triste,” said my friend Joey in his poor Spanish after Mexico got eliminated from the World Cup. Joey (with his date) drove at dawn from Little Italy to downtown Tijuana to live the …

“It started to rain!” commented Andrés “el Andy” Rodríguez, beertender and brewer at Madueño Brewing Co. I was perplexed. It didn’t rain in Tijuana or Playas the night before. “Not real rain, it started to …

Yes, I’m one of those people — when presented with an amazing plate, I’ll take out my cell phone. Hell, I’ll even take out my DSLR and take dozens of photos before having a bite. …

There are neighborhoods in the hills of Tijuana that always seem to be on the verge of collapse. Narrow streets that lead up steep hills give you a sense of vertigo as you’re riding a …

Tijuana’s National Chamber of Commerce has unveiled its plan to build a Tijuana sign on the hill of Cerro Colorado similar to the famed Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. The proposed sign will be similar …

“I’ve been crossing weed [into Tijuana] since before it went [fully] legal,” says Jorge Fierro, a 23-year-old Mexican-American who resides in Tijuana. “Marijuana in Mexico is sh*tty and you don’t know what quality or how …

Homeless Tijuana icon, Maria Luisa Castro, also known as “La Maguana,” passed away on March 21 at the age of 61. Ladened with mental diseases and infections like HIV and schizophrenia, Maria Luisa died in …

‘The smell doesn’t reach all the way to my house,” comments Diego Silverio, a writer and high school teacher who lives a couple blocks uphill from Tijuana’s morgue. “But [the smell] is unbearable when I …

“In Europe, all we hear is about Trump’s wall,” commented Eimear Lowe, an Irish reporter for RTÉ. “We came to Mexico to find out what people here have to say.” Lowe and Ken (her cameraman) …

I never had a meal at the famed Tijuana restaurant Chiki Jai, and now I never will. The restaurant burned down on January 19th. Founded in 1947, Chiki Jai (“little party” in Basque) was a …

My friend Jaime crossed the border illegally in late 2015. He didn’t climb the fence, sneak through a tunnel, or swim around the wall. He walked up to the Otay gate and told a Customs …

Many Tijuana residents woke up on Wednesday (January 10th) to find garbage in the streets and no running water in their homes. The state’s water utility, known by its initials CESPT, had planned to suspend …

When the clock struck midnight on December 31st, Calle Sexta in Tijuana still resembled a war zone, with half-dug trenches and seemingly abandoned equipment. Partygoers didn’t seem to mind as they stumbled from bar to …

“There’s an Arco by my house. It’s the same thing, just with more people in line because the gasoline is supposedly gabacha,” says Linda Goodman, a Tijuana local. “The gasoline liberation allowed foreign business to …