For people who live around/have traveled to U.S.-Mexican border

[La literatura]

Is it safe to say that, from the perspective of a Midwesterner or a New York/East Coaster, it does not look like America?

I've never been there. But that's my impression.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by La literatura

I'm thinking of the culture, architecture, commerce, and not so much the geography variance between El Paso and Cuidad Juarez. Suppose I've lived in New York City, Des Moines, IA, and Seattle Washington all my life, and I've never watched anything about the border. Now suppose that I get on a plane and travel to El Paso/Cuidad Juarez. How shocked am I going to be?

If you want to visit Mexico, get as far away from the border as possible. Border towns are really nothing like the country itself in my experience. You might as well just go into the shittier parts of any large American city. All of the same crap is there, they just primarily speak a different language. Once you get into the country itself I don't think you will be shocked but you will notice a cultural difference. I found it to be pleasant and enjoyable. This was decades ago though. It's my understanding that crime and violence are skyrocketing and have been for some time.

[Fish]

The bathrooms look a little different....

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by Fish

The bathrooms look a little different....

A lot like streets

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

I've been to Tiajuana. Helen Keller would never confuse it for the US.

The phrase "third world hell hole" springs to mind when I think of TJ.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by La literatura

Good, that's helpful information. So I take it you would say El Paso "looks like America." My idea was that El Paso would look more like Juarez than the rest of America.

Look:

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by loochy

Look:

Which side is which?

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Which side is which?

Seriously? You can't tell the difference between shanty town and US buildings?

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Which side is which?

Just a guess, but I'd say the side with actual standing structures and paved roads is the US side and the side that looks like the aftermath of Hiroshima is the Mexico side. Just a guess though.

[frazod]

Tuscon is as close to that ****ing pisshole as I ever intend to get.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Which side is which?

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by loochy

There’s a stretch of highway that connects El Paso, TX to Las Cruces, NM and parallels the Rio Grande for several miles. As you’re driving that highway you can look across the border into Juarez and it looks just like that. Almost as if that is exactly where this picture was taken.

[Saul Good]

Still unclear...

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

There’s a stretch of highway that connects El Paso, TX to Las Cruces, NM and parallels the Rio Grande for several miles. As you’re driving that highway you can look across the border into Juarez and it looks just like that. Almost as if that is exactly where this picture was taken.

They come over here, to bring us down to that level—eventually.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by BucEyedPea

They come over here, to bring us down to that level—eventually.

Only difference is the Escalade parked in front here

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by listopencil

The phrase "third world hell hole" springs to mind when I think of TJ.

Well, yes...but it's so much more than that. It's just surreal.

In the district where the bus drops you off, there is literally a donkey spray painted with stripes to look like a zebra on every single street corner, and the handler tries to get people to pay to take their picture with it. We're talking about little gray or brown with a few krylon stripes on the sides. This is so common that the little bus depot actually has a stained glass picture of a striped donkey in it.

Every 50 feet, someone is standing on the side of the road blowing a whistle trying to get people into their shops. Every street has the same thing...a bar...a strip club (think YOUNG girls and donkey shows), a trinket shop with fake garbage, and a "pharmacy" full of whatever the **** you want. Some of the pharmacies are just little shit shacks, and some actually look pretty legit. All of them have a dude with a whistle outside offering to sell you whatever pills your little heart desires.

It's like an acid trip come to life.