The last time I stepped outside the United States was in March 2020. When I left for Africa all was calm. By the time I returned just a week later, everything had begun to change. I recently left the USA once again…but it was not a fancy vacation in a premium cabin. In fact, it did not even involve an airplane. Instead, I took a day trip to Tijuana in Baja California.
My First International Trip Wasn’t Sexy…
Prescription drug prices are outrageously high in the United States when compared to most of the world. Unless you have a very luxe health care plan, you’re going to be paying a lot for medicine deemed discretionary (and I’m not talking about the little blue pill…). But step outside U.S. borders and you can often find the same drugs for only a fraction of the cost. In fact, the importation of prescription drugs from Canada, though a legal gray area, is a blossoming industry.
Canada, however, is closed to U.S. travelers. But Mexico remains opens.
So my wife and I left my kids at my parent’s house and headed down to Mexico. Yes, our first international trip since COVID-19 was to buy drugs in Mexico…
Tijuana 2020 Trip
We parked our car in San Ysidro, CA and waked over the border. It had been 15 years since I crossed into Tijuana and I was surprised that it was a bit more formal this time around. Last time I just walked through the turnstile with no check on the Mexican side. This time we had to present our passports and were formally stamped in. The border agent was so kind, asking about how COVID-19 in Germany (I guess she was not used to German passports). But once past the checkpoint, it was business as usual, with aggressive taxi touts that we politely avoided.
We walked around for a bit, finding ourselves in a quiet business district before heading over to the touristic center of Tijuana on Avenida Revolución.
Street tacos in Tijuana? Of course. And they were not only cheap, but incredibly delicious.
We had no trouble finding the prescription drug we were looking and soon headed back to the border…where we found a huge pedestrian line to cross back into San Diego.
Some guy came up and claimed the line was three hours long and he could drive us over the border for $20 each in a special government lane. Since I had not seen the line move even once since we had arrived, I negotiated him down to $10 each and we took him up on his offer. That wasn’t very smart…as I’ll detail in a follow-up post specifically on the border formalities. Stupid me didn’t know that the SENTRI line is available for those with Global Entry.
One other note. Everyone was wearing a mask in Tijuana. Almost everyone. Restaurants like our taqueria were open for indoor dining, but our temperatures were checked as we entered and hand sanitizer was mandatory. This was at a hole-in-the-wall place.
CONCLUSION
We had a nice time in Tijuana and would return again. The food was amazing and yes, the sewer smells are annoying, but you sort of get used to it. It’s a fun cross-border trip and a vital lifeline for those who depend upon prescription drugs and cannot afford U.S. prices.
@ Matthew — “The whole town smells like a sewer” sounds like something DJT would say.
Well, that was not my intention. But sadly the sewers (or lack thereof) do leave a noticeable and pungent odor throughout much of the city.
Sorry, but sometimes the truth isn’t so nice. And as the cliche says: “Sometimes the truth hurts.”
I crossed the border into TJ for lunch at Caesars Restaurant for the original Caesars Salad, and I smelled the same thing last year.
Also last year, I traveled to Mexico City and inside of MEX Terminal 1 smelled like sewer as well, both arrival and departure. This was everywhere in the terminal except inside the Priority Pass Lounge and United Club which didn’t have this unpleasant aroma issue.
You crossed into Mexico with your German passport? Any reason you didn’t use a US passport? Wouldn’t that mean you have mismatched stamps or coming into the US the officer wouldn’t see any stamps (as you need to present your US passport)?
My wife only has a German passport and I only have a US passport. She used her green card crossing back over.
Did you and your wife become acquainted in Germany or in the US? Sorry for asking such a personal question, just interested since you mentioned you have German roots too
We met in Frankfurt when I was working for Star Alliance / Lufthansa.
I haven’t gone to TJ in years (20?) because of safety concerns. Maybe my concerns are overblown? How much time did all of this take (let’s say from parking your car to getting back to your car)
About 4.5 hours. Honestly, it felt safe enough. The touts, beyond the taxis, were not as bad as I thought they would be. There was no negotiating on the drugs…all prices fixed like a US or European drug store.
Out of curiosity, do they require a prescription in Mexico for your drugs?
Nope. Another beauty of Mexico.
Not sure what drugs you buy but I use a website called goodrx and it’s cheaper then using my Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance. Give it a try.
I do use GoodRX, but this was a drug that was not FDA approved.
Living in Canada, drugs are more expensive in Mexico than here after insurance, so I don’t have much experience, but isn’t it cheaper at Costco, Comercial Mexicana, and other big box stores than touristy Downtown? Costco is a short drive / bus ride from the border on Paseo de los Héroes, it seems like you actually went there and posted some photos of Zona Rio? Comercial Mexicana is also there.
In normal times, pedestrian line to US can be a few hours long, just like some theme parks at peak season, but it seems like you were already at the building, I’m guessing it shouldn’t take more than half an hour from that point on regular line.
This website used to show web cams, but it now shows wait times only:
https://www.sandiegored.com/es/services/border
For a great street food video in TJ (or many cities in the world), search Mark Wiens Tijuana on YouTube.
We only got to the building by paying a company to drive us past the huge line of people before the building. I’ll elaborate on that tomorrow.
I used to regularly visit Tijuana for shopping and dining when I lived in California. I love that town, especially when you get out of the most touristy areas. There are phenomenal fine dining opportunities and a couple of excellent golf courses.
We noticed several nice restaurants and coffee shops in the non-tourist business district. But I had my heart set on street tacos and they did not disappoint! We would have had a nice coffee but ran out of time.
It is a source of amazement to the rest of the world that Americans tolerate the ripoff drug prices imposed by BigPharma and sanctioned by govt. They are their own cartel, very similar in style and manner to drug lords.
This place sounds awful: aggressive touts, long queues, smells like a sewer, stinking hot.
Weather was actually pleasant…only about 80ºF / 27ºC.
Agreed on drug prices. Kudos to Trump for at least trying to attack that via his executive order last week. That should be a bi-partisan goal with little controversy that was addressed long ago…
Don’t they check for drugs on the way back? Do they ask you to show the prescription?
We declared the drugs and were not asked to provide proof of prescription.
I always hear “Tijuana is so dangerous” but looks fairly quaint in your pictures. This post also really reminds me of Arrested Development where G.O.B. keeps going down to the pharmacy in Tijuana 😀
Next time, try Los Algodones, near Yuma, AZ. Rarely ever a line to get back in. Very easy and quick. I’ve made the medicine trip in 20 minutes. Parking, walking, buying, going through US Customs and back to my car.
Good tip, though I expect it will go much quicker next time with my Global Entry Card.
Did you see the caravan migrant horde approaching? Cause a certain segment of people said it was the Biggest Deal Ever leading up to the Nov 2018 elections…haven’t heard a peep from them about the issue post-midterm day.
Bro, you got in a random dudes car in TJ with prescription drugs? I thought you have traveled to Iraq and sketchy places before. C’mon.
Been to TJ many times. Always carrying extra cash because of the federales especially when driving down the coast.
No, not at all. I’ll explain later this week.
Highly, highly recommend Tecate instead.
How were you able to do this? Isn’t the land border between the US and Mexico closed? I know Mexico has remained open, but I was under the impression that was for air travel, however land crossings were and have remained closed. Can you elaborate? Thank you!
They are open.
Good timing on your part, Matthew, as:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/10/politics/us-mexico-border-administration-coronavirus/index.html
There was a TV special showing a lot of these RX drugs in TJ are made “in house” at the pharmacy where you purchase them, typically containing a large percentage of cement. How do you ensure the store you buy from sells from the manufacturer?
Faith?
But you gotta think twice before you give your cash away.
And you know all the games they play because you played them, too.
I did buy from a pharmacy in a quiet business district rather than downtown tourist central. We’ll see. I paid by credit card as well.
Tijuana is a cool city — a nice hipster scene, great food, and the beach area is cool with some nice oceanfront cafes. I honestly think the downtown is cleaner and smells better than much of downtown San Diego. And, of course, good on you for not paying outrageous prices for prescription drugs.
Yeah, at least there were not homeless defecating on the street like San Diego…I didn’t even think about it until you brought it up, but you are right.
Buying prescription drugs in Mexico reminds me when Brazilians would cross the border with Paraguay to buy whisky and other spirits since back in the day Brazil was closed for any kind of imported goods. 90%% of the whisky, vodka, etc.. were all counterfeit and produced in a garage somewhere in Paraguay sometimes including methanol and other dangerous things.
Just out of curiosity, how much money did you save by buying the drugs in Mexico? I would never buy any drugs in Mexico mainly in a border town where they know there is demand. No thanks!!!!!
It was cheaper to buy online from Canada, which we have done, but shipping takes 2-3 weeks and we needed something immediately, so this is a just a stop-gap. Future supply will come directly from Canada.
First your article about your Balkans trip with your brother and now this. I also like to fly first class (I’m a lot older than you) but travel and explore locally at my destination. Despite your title to this article, I found Tijuana sexy enough in its own way when I was there late last year. I appreciate your street cred on your adventures and appreciate the reports of all the sides of travel.
Terry, thank you for your kind comment.
What was the savings? I’m genuinely curios, coz I think you killed the whole day, drove from LA to San Diego and back fighting traffic (which is totally exhausting by itself), so must be significant.
Denis, the only reason we went is because we needed the medication immediately. We had already ordered it from Canada but it was delayed a week. That said, we left at 11am and encountered little traffic going down. We encountered zero traffic returning. And that’s one of my favorite drives. We stopped for coffee on the way down and dinner on the way back. It was a fun day with my wife, which we don’t get very often anymore with a newborn in the house.
Hi Matthew ,
Do they have pres drug for Hep B ? thanx and what pharmacy store would you recommend when you go there ?
Hi Jimmy,
They should have it. Just head to Avenida Revolución in the center of town and the street will have no less than a dozen pharmacies in a two-block radius.
Good luck.
Great article! It helps us a log to explore Tijuana.
I along with my friends had already booked a return flight from Tijuana with Volaris however we wanted to stay there for a couple more days. So, I dialed the Volaris Reservation Number to speak to a representative. He comprehensively told me about how to cancel a Volaris flight? with ease, we are completely satisfied with their response.