Cheap travel advisory: Stay away from Tijuana!

I'm a bit of a contrarian traveler. I've been to Cape Cod in December, Washington D.C. in August and Poland in January. I like going to out of the way places at times when only the most dedicated travelers would bother to visit. Even more, I've always wanted to visit a place at the exact perfect time in history.

I should probably explain myself. I believe that there are times when particular places perfectly demonstrate a certain attitude or event. They become forever linked in our minds with that era. Think Philadelphia in 1776, New York in 1976, Berlin in 1961, or Prague in 1989. These places were the epicenters of huge historical forces, physical representations of major political struggles. I imagined that Tijuana in 2008 might be such a place.

Once a sleepy little town in the northern end of the Baja peninsula, Tijuana experienced its first major bout of growth during Prohibition, when it became a handy spot for wealthy Californians to travel for alcohol. Over the years, it's retained its reputation as a party town, even as its become a haven for rich Yanquís looking for deals on bangles, bracelets, piñatas and other consumer goods. With the rising costs of prescription pharmaceuticals and medical procedures, Tijuana has also become a handy source for cheap drugs and dental work. Of course, it's also a major way-station for illegal immigrants seeking to travel to the United States. Perhaps this final group is the reason that, according to some estimates, Tijuana's population hovers near the two million mark.