Best of 2001: Best Hidden Historic Tijuana

Old Tijuana Train Station

"Cuidado Con El Tren," says the X-shaped sign where a dusty road crosses Tijuana's only railroad tracks. If you cut over to the left, just south of the US Port of Entry building, and head for Avenida Ferrocarril, in Colonia Libertad, keep looking left. You'll spot the tracks. Walk up through the dust till you come to a long-unused station built in the style of '20s Tijuana. "Tijuana, BC," says its old flaking sign. As early as 1909, trains used to come through the border bringing freight and passengers bound for the racetracks. Some would continue on through to Tecate. This is where they would have stopped for customs. Now, each afternoon the depot is eerily crowded once again, not with passengers, but with border fence-jumpers waiting for the night.