After our usual lack of sleep from about 1am-5am, we woke up at around 11ish, then walked down to Little Italy.
I grabbed us a coffee while Darren went to buy a sticker for the guitar case, then we walked down to America plaza, where we jumped straight on the trolley which we rode about 30mins to arrive at the Mexican border crossing at San Ysidro. We walked around to the pedestrian crossing where we were able to just walk straight through the doors into Mexico. There were no customs officials or police officers or anything, apart from a couple of guys with machine guns randomly searching bags.
We walked straight down and past the long line of people waiting to cross into the US, then went to the cab rank and got a cab to the main tourist area, Avenida Revolucion.
We walked along the street having a quick look over the markets and stalls, and walked past the donkeys painted to look like zebras (zonkeys).
The feel of the place was so much different to what I was expecting.
I was anticipating having to be a bit more cautious of where we went and who we talked to and I thought we would be hassled by market holders left, right and center, but it actually felt really safe and chilled. Only a few restaurant people tried to get us inside, but weren't overly pushy, or even a little bit aggressive. It was really nice.
After walking up and down this street (it was a much smaller section than I expected) we jumped into another cab to take us to Mercado Hidalgo which is another market, but more of a locals food market.
It was also very small, and smelt amazing. Almost every stall had a good selection of fresh and dried chillies out the front which gave the incredible aroma and there was lots of dried pulses and seeds and fresh delicious looking fruits.
There was a guy with a huge pile of coconuts and a big machete type of knife, who was chopping up coconuts for customers. I ordered one and watched him chop the top off, pour the water into a plastic bag which he passed to me with a straw in it, then he hacked the rest of the coconut up and scooped the flesh into another bag for me. Yum!
We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant where a man with a guitar was playing some Spanish style music, and Darren got a combination and I got a Gordita, which was pretty much a thick tortilla stuffed with cheese.
Both meals were a bit average unfortunately. We might have wasted our food time in Mexico!
After lunch we wandered around a little longer then stopped in for a coffee at a little shop called Mexico Te Despierta el Hidalgo.
The girl there gave us a tiny sample of a Mexican style coffee (which we didn't even ask for) which was actually quite tasty. It was served black and slightly sweet, but the roast was nice.
I ordered a latte and we had a chat with the girls who recommended some places for us to go for a drink.
So we left there and walked down in the direction they had suggested (it was a bit vague with the language barrier) until we came across a bar.
As we walked down the alley towards it we noticed the whole area was filled with bars. (Later I learned the area was called Plaza Fiesta)
The first place we went was called El Tigre and they had a tastings menu that consisted of 11 different local Mexican craft beers.
We ordered a tasting of each of them and chatted with the bartender as we made our way through them.
There were some people making some kind of TV show about craft beer beside us, so we may be in the background of some Mexican TV somewhere!
When we were done with the beers we headed to a place the bartender recommended that was in the same group of shops called Fauna.
We went up the stairs to get in there, and ordered a drink from the guy at the bar, Effren, who was a full punk rocker, piercings, tatts and all.
We had a couple more nice craft beers there with him, and shared some music and bands. We played him one of Darren's songs which I think he liked, and had a chat for a while.
It was pretty quiet as it was still early in the day so he just chilled at the bar and had a beer with us.
After a while he told another staff member to look after the bar for a bit and took us down to another bar in the plaza called Mamut where he ordered us a shot of 'Mezcal' each, which is a spirit that Mexicans drink more than tequila. Apparently tequila is for girls and mezcal is for real men!
Effren took his shot to go and headed back to work at the bar and we stayed at Mamut and slowly sipped on our mezcal.
When we got through it (it was a little tough!) we went for another walk through the alleys to find some food.
But after wandering for a while (and with my indecisiveness) we ended up going back up to our friend at Fauna.
We got another beer and ordered some food. Darren's meal was like a pulled pork sandwich kind of thing which was pretty nice, but I got these mushroom tacos which were the best tacos ever!
It was so simple but so damn delicious!
Definitely going to have to reproduce that at home!
When we were done eating we went to head off and almost forgot to pay! Oops!
Remembered at the last minute though, so all good!
We hailed a cab and went back to Avenida Revolucion where we went through some of the market stalls that were still open.
We almost bought a few things at a couple of stores, but then realised we needed cash, so thought we'd keep wandering around a bit before deciding.
As we walked further on, there wasn't many stands left open and we eventually just jumped in a cab without getting anything and went back to the border.
There were heaps of police around when we got in the cab, and the driver was telling us that it was the jail, and he usually wouldn't pick anyone up from that area! So we got lucky with that I guess!
We lined up for the border crossing back to the US and realised we didn't get a sticker for the guitar case while we were there!
It wasn't a long wait in line, as it was already around 11pm, so it was an easy run back into the US.
We waited for the next tram back to San Diego and went back to the city, then walked to the hotel for a quick shower before bed.