El Paso to Juarez: Walkable? Safe? Recommendations?

Try to befriend all the dogs you pass, you can never have too many best friends.

This is pretty much my internet strategy in a nutshell.

To go from the sublime to the ridiculous, let me add another (couple) off topic dog anecdotes. I´ve never kicked a dog, in Mexico or elsewhere, but I have punched a few.

Last winter at the roadblock near SanMateo Rio Hondo, I passed some time playing with a local dog. But it got a little too boisterous, and I decided I´d make better use of my time walking to San Jose del Pacifico. BUt the dog just wouldn´t quit. A loud ¨NO¨ had no effect; a smart tap on the nose with my forefinger was just as ineffective; then a soft punch to the shoulder; then a stronger one. Finally it left me alone.

This winter I found another best friend in front of the Marques del Valle. Some tourists were even taking photos of us together. ¨That dog just loves you,¨ they said. (Why didn´t I think of asking for a donation for our show?) But when I had enough of the puppy love I faced the same problem. How to break up? Same routine, ending with a couple of punches to the shoulder. and one stray dog looking for another best friend.

one stray dog looking for another best friend
Which was which?

I knew it would just be a matter of time before another ¨Coco¨ lover mentioned that famous mutt in the Disney Pixar film.

To update anyone who is interested, I crossed over into Juarez and survived.

I went over the Santa Fe bridge by foot around noon and stayed in Juarez for about 4 hours. Crossing over was instantaneous and you only had to pay 50 cents - that's it, and no one checked you for anything (I actually couldn't believe this).

The area immediately after crossing is very safe and if you stay completely straight for some time you'll eventually hit Plaza Armas (the street leading to it from the bridge has a lot of foot traffic and seems like the main bustling street with many shops, street performers, and "tourist" attractions, such as the famous Kentucky Bar). I made a detour at one point and got my passport stamped at one of the immigration offices (this is optional and you have to seek it out yourself, as it is not standard procedure for them to stamp you upon entry due to the amount of people crossing 24/7).

I was solo for about the first 3 hours and did nothing but walk around and head into a few shops and the Kentucky Bar. For the last hour I actually met up with a native from Tinder (yes, Tinder) and she showed me a really good taco place. I used Uber (yes, thy also have Uber there) to get to the restaurant, and it was completely safe (I made sure the driver had a good rating). We took an uber together after to the big red X on the other side of the city, took some pictures, and then I took one last Uber to the Bridge of the Americas and crossed back into the US on that side (as a note, coming back in, at least on this bridge, took much longer than coming in and they were asking me a bunch of questions, even though I had Global Entry).

Hope this helps. Can't say I'd cross again because quite frankly I feel like I saw everything I had to see there, but if I had to for whatever reason I wouldn't really be too afraid to. The people I encountered and talked to were very friendly. Locals took pictures of me when I asked and we would strike conversation and sometimes even joke about the violence there - they said it still exists but to just not go looking for it in bad areas.

Thanks for that report. Glad everthing worked out and you enjoyed yourself.

A first-time visit of a few hours in just one area, or several in the city ... any city, isn't enough to assure anyone that those areas or the city itself is safe. But thanks for the summary. There were a (under) reported 772 homicides in Ciudad Juarez in 2017 ... a city the size of about 1.51 million persons. that was more than a 1/3 increase over 2016. By comparison, there were a reported 600 homicides in Chicago in 2017 ...a city the size of about 2.7 million persons. That was a decline from the previous year. As we know, there are a myriad of other crimes potentially impacting visitors and residents. And, yes, crime rates aren't the only consideration travelers mull-over when trip planning. Thanks, again, for the summary.

LW

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