Zona Rio, the heart of Tijuana culture

How many visitors to Tijuana have heard of the Zona Rio? Most Tijuana vetreans will remember Tijuana by the shops and honky-tonks that line the main drag, Av. Revolucion, but how many have actually visited Zona Rio, the cultural center of Tijuana? Oh sure, you catch a taxi at the border and asked to be whisked to "Senior Frog's " for a night of booze, over-priced women, and loud music, not really knowing where you're going or where your final destination is? Is that really a tour of Zona Rio? Really? I think not.

Photos: Beautiful Pueblo Amigo, in Tijuana's Zona Rio welcomes vistors. Just don't take photos, as the local police frown upon that.

In Tijuana, I'm a confirmed walker and if you've read any of the previous chapters published about my Tijuana article, you'll appreciate that fact. Yes, from the border, or Av. Revolucion all you would need to do is to drive or hop into a taxi and say "Sr. Frogs'," "Museo de las Californias," or whatever, and I'm sure you'd be whisked away in your taxi to your destination of choosing. But if it is daylight, and if you're in the right shape of mind and body and posses and adventurous spirit, why not walk to the Zona Rio? If you walk, you will see and experience things that you'd only dream about, or read about, if you were driving, or riding in that taxi libre.

How do you walk from the tourist mecca of Av. Revolucion to the cultural center of Tijuana, the Zona Rio? Well, it's a easy walk, yet a lot of it depends upon what you want to do.

I'm a big fan of local scenery and the local cultural, so I tend to avoid the areas where the gringos congregate. But if you're planning a hike to the Zona Rio from the tourist madness of Av. Revolucion, I'd suggest hiking along Revolucion to Calle 9, a.k.a. Av. Zaragoza about a half mile east until you come to the bust four-lane divided boulevard known as Av. Sanchez Tabuada. This street is busy, typically clogged with autos and busses, so be sure to make eye contact with the drivers before you attempt to cross. The drivers will not "run you down" but they may have a difficult time in spotting you if you attempt to dart in front of them, as like in any big city, they are in a hurry! So make eye contact with them, wave at them, and above all, don't become road kill!

However on my last trip to Zona Rio, on Thursday, August 25, 2005, I took a somewhat different route. After crossing the border and following the "red brick road" to Av. De La Amistad, I continued hiking through the popular Plaza de Tijuana, crossed over the river, and arrived at the corner of Calle Primera, a.k.a., Articulo 123 and Av. Negrete. After turning south on Ave. Negrete and leaving the tourist-sanitized walk to Av. Revolution I made a startling revelation: I WAS TRULY IN MEXICO. Sure, you can take that glace over your right shoulder and view the reassuring spectacle of the famous Tijuana Arch, only four blocks south of the border, but make no mistake about it, as you're in Mexico.

Left: Beautiful Pueblo Amigo. Right: Here's the famous place that caters to the frog.

Walking south on Av. Negrete, you leave all vestiges of tourism behind. You are waking through a real Mexican city, where real people work, live and play and their lives don't revolve around the whims of the tourists who populate Av. Revolucion. Immediately south of Calle Primera, you enter a neighborhood of small businesses, mostly oriented toward automotive services. If you need tires, your seat upholstery repaired or you need your hemi bored and blueprinted, this is the place to go. Outside of a few large shops, such as the Goodyear and Firestone stores, most of the business are small, family owned and operated, in the tradition of Mexico. By the way if you are an inspector from OSHA, tie a little string around your finger to allow your brain to process the data, and to advise you that you are in a foreign country. Looking into the dark, dingy, cramped conditions of most of these shops would cause a deceased OSHA inspector to turn over in his grave and cry for mercy. I really wonder how these folks can do their jobs in the conditions that they work in. Yet, they do their jobs, and they do them well.

So by now, it was around 0800 on a hot, humid Thursday morning, and after walking for the last half hour, food was starting to be a major concern. However, in the automotive district of Tijuana, on the way to Zona Rio, food is not an issue and tacos stands, puestos and taquerias are everywhere. However, as I reached the corner of Av. Negrete and Calle 4, a.k.a,, Salvador Miron, I could not pass up Autor Tortilleria La Mexicana, as they had a tortilla machine in full display and had a big sign that advertised that they specialize in birra and menudo. How can you pass up menudo on a hot, Thursday morning? Read about my dining experience at La Mexicana by clicking on this link...

I headed east on Calle 4, passing many automotive shops, machine shops, upholstery shops, convenience stores and small restaurants. Your walk is downhill all the way and it's a really easy walk, but you must be careful when you cross intersections and few of them are signed, and the vehicle "law of the jungle" prevails. I sort of zig-zagged to the southeast, block by block, until I came to the intersection of Pio Pico and Calle 9, where there are an especially large amount of small restaurants; I suppose most diners care on the west side, as they fear to tread the "fast street" of Av. Sanchez Taboada, just a couple of blocks to the east, which marks the unofficial gateway to the Zona Rio.

Left: Is this statue, located at the corner of Av. Centanrio and Av. Marquez de Leon politically correct? Right: This guy is taking a nap as I walk past him, as I cross the Tijuana River, on the pedestrian overpass, near Av. DeLeon.

So I crossed Av. Taboada and I found myself in Mercado Hidalgo, a huge, city-block-sized flea market consisting of produce stands, meat stands, mariscos stands, and vendors that are willing to sell just about any legal commodity available in Mexico. Not to mention that Mercado Hidalgo is surrounded by small taquerias, puestos and other street food vendors. I hiked around the edge of the market and cruised down the center of it and snapped a few photos as I was cruising the place. I could come back to this place and spend all day! Well, maybe next trip. But today's mission called to explore the "cultural" aspects of Tijuana's Zona Rio.

The plan was to cross the river and explore the east side before exploring the main part of the Zona Rio, near the cultural center. From Mercado Hidalgo, I continued walking east on Calle 8, a.k.a. Calle Hidalgo, past the huge produce market, until I came to a major street which I later found out happened to be Via Rapida Poniente, which is a four-lane expressway that parallels the Tijuana River. I had heard there was a pedestrian walkway across the river, but where? Which way to go, north or south to find it? I decided to head north and when I arrived in the vicinity of Calle 7, only a long city block from Calle 8, (I think it was Calle 7; it was unmarked) I found the pedestrian bridge.

The pedestrian bridge not only crosses the river, but it also crosses the busy expressways that parallel both sides of the river, just before the snarl of ramps and streets that lead to the border. You climb several flights of stairs, which are strewn with trash, discarded food, bird droppings, leaves and all sorts of other nasty stuff, until you reach the walkway, then it's about a 100-yard walk across the cement-lined Tijuana river to the other side. The river itself runs in a depressed channel in the middle of the canal, and the water is sort of a deep green-brown color, but not a sparkling deep green like you'd find in a Sierra lake. Right in the middle of the walkway, a homeless person was sleeping on the cement; he was in the same place when I came back from the other side an hour or so later.

Photos: The golf-ball shaped Tijuana Cultural Center. Unfortunately it was closed for repairs when I chose to visit, in August of 2005.

On the other side, I crossed a semi-busy 2-land street, Via Rapida Oriente, and hiked a block east on Ave. Marquez de Leon, which is easy to remember as there is a huge Ley store that marks the entrance to the pedestrian bridge. Ave. Marquez de Leon is a very pleasant tree-lined street with a well-kept grassy median strip; to my right I noticed a huge multi-story office building that housed government offices, and businesses of every description. I couldn't help to notice that the studios of radio station XEMO, 860 on the a.m. dial are located there; I have received their signal as a kid "dx-er" in Merced, California, in the late 1960's when KTRB in nearby Modesto dropped their power down to 1000 watts and went directional at night. So it was rather interesting to take a walk down Marquez de Leon.

At the corner of Av. Marquez de Leon and Paseo del Centenario, there is a grass-lined traffic circle with a somewhat unusual bronze statue of what appears to be an indian maiden ready to shoot an arrow from a bow. This statue is a work of art, and is best viewed from the south side, as the photo clearly illustrates. Also at this corner is a very prosperous shopping center, with the Ley store being the anchor. This shopping center is known as Centro Comercial Plaza Amigo, and contains lots of stores, but it is probably best known for Pueblo Amigo.

Pueblo Amigo is simply beautiful, as it is a reproduction of a Spanish pueblo, complete with attractive, old Spanish town styled buildings painted in bright, attractive colors, colorful decorations and perhaps the most beautiful landscaping in Tijuana. Pueblo Amigo features boutiques, pharmacies, medical and dental offices, small business of every genre, and many restaurants. It is shady, clean and a nice place to stroll or if you want to relax, sit on one of the many benches under a cool shade tree. The most notable business in this mall is Sr. Frog's, at the corner of Calle Tonala and Calle Santiago Tianguistenco, which is just off Paseo de Centenario. I have never been 'Frog's, nor do I plan to, as I have somewhat outgrown their form of entertainment. But I understand that things can get quite lively there. Anyway, Pueblo Amigo is a really pretty place.

I crossed over the river again, noticed that my homeless person was still asleep, and headed north on Paseo de los Heros. At Paseo de los Heros and Blvd. Independencia, there is the mother of all traffic circles and in the middle of it, is the "world's largest scissors" statue. This thing is impressionistic at best, and I'm sure it is supposed to represent something, but what I don't know. Progress? Independence? Upward mobility? I don't know, but I suppose it can represent what ever feels good to the beholder at the moment. Whatever it represents, it's an impressive structure. This traffic features the most concentrated cluster of traffic signals that I've seen in my travels to Tijuana, as several major avenues converge at this spot, including Federal Highway 2, which will take you east to Tecate or to the airport.

By now it was around 1100, the temperature was hovering near 90 degrees and the humidity was probably reaching that point as well, and I'd been hiking around the area for nearly four hours. Time to drink and relax, not to mention use the restroom. Now public restrooms are few and far between in Mexico, but if you see a franchise of an American restaurant, home in on the place, as you know they have restrooms that are clean, free and open to everyone. Bingo! There is an absolutely gigantic McDonald's on the west side of this intersection, so I used their restroom, purchased a large Coke for $18.00, and sat down on the shady patio for an half hour or so and relaxed.

Next, it was time to head south and explore the huge, golf ball-shaped Tijuana Cultural center. I've read where you can spend hours in the place, as they have many interesting exhibits and I'd planned to really check out the place but alas, at noon on Thursday, August 25, 2005 the center was closed for repairs. Such is my luck! I guess it will give me an excuse for another trip to Tijuana at some future date. In case you'd like a description of this building, think of it as a huge, brown, golf ball, surrounded by a parking lot.

Left: The monument that marks the traffic circle at Paseo de los Heros and Blvd. Independencia, where Federal Highway 2 takes off east to Tecate, is marked by a huge monument, which at times is called the world's largest scissors. Whatever you care to call it, it is BIG! Right: Looking across Blvd. Indenpendencia toward the huge shopping center. Huge shopping centers are quite rare in Mexico, except for large cities locate near the U.S. border.

Across the paseo from the cultural center and a bit south it is an absolutely gigantic shopping mall, which features a multi-plex theature, countless stores, and a huge Mexican discount store, that offers everything from groceries to hardware. By any standards, this shopping center is huge.

Zona Rio is the cultural heart of Tijuana. If you want to experience the best of Tijuana, a visit to the Zona Rio is a must.

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