October 14th - El Paso and Ciudad Juarez

The weather was awful this morning, stormy, rainy and cold. So Justin rode the less than 50 miles to El Paso. It was flat through pecan plantation and suburbs just like yesterday anyhow. I looked meanwhile at the little tourist town of Mesilla, where Billy the kid used to live and than I went to El Paso. the downtown consist of two hotels, two bank high rises, convention center, arts plaza and city hall and a lot of very trashy shops toward the border. I did not want to stay in a hotel with more than 2 stories so I backed several miles out of downtown and stopped at a motel, which was cheap and close to the U of T and a lot of restaurants. I took my bike and went along Paisano Road to the border. I had problems finding the right street for the crossing and hat to turn at the end, when a sudden wind blew a coke bottle onto my front tire and felt me. I did not hurt myself but was still pretty embarrassed. People were helpful and showed concern. I had to cross in the car lane and pay 35 cent bridge toll to enter Ciudad Juarez. There were even more people in the streets and if downtown El Paso looks already cheap and very shabby, Ciudad Juarez had definitely a touch of third world charm. It reminded me more of Africa than of the Mexico I know. But it was still much better than the town opposite of Fort Douglas Arizona. The whole town was filled with thousands of Mexican soldiers with mashine guns in their hands. El Paso and especialy Ciudad Juarez saw a lot of gun violence in the last month and after the last open street killing in which harmless bystanders have been killed as well. Both cities decided to do something against it and Mexico brought in the army. In the short time I went through to see the cathedral and all the shopping, markets etc., it seemed pretty peaceful to me.
For dinner we went in a so called Thai restaurant where the dishes on the menue were not recognizable the Thai chicken soup was white gravy, the beef curry brown gravy and the fried Banana an unripe banana wrapped in a springroll dough sheet. But what were we thinking to get Thai food in Texas. Next time I know better.