Tijuana is a city in Baja California Norte, Mexico. It is located right across the border from San Diego, California, USA. Visitors can expect an ideal climate for most of the year, with average temperatures during the daytime ranging from 68ºF in January, to 86º in August. The rainy season is short (and tame, with yearly averages close to only 10 inches of rainfall), and encompasses late Winter to early Spring. Tijuana has a population of around 1.2 million people according to the last census, although it is believed that the number is now closer to 2 million. The city has grown from a small border town with a salacious reputation during the Prohibition era in the United States; into a large, modern city with a sizable middle class. Its proximity to the United States makes it a very popular tourist destination, especially for day-trippers from San Diego.
Tijuana is a perfect example of the diversity that exists in Mexico today.
Economically, the city is composed mainly of a growing middle class whose disposable income has fueled Tijuana’s transformation into a modern city with a vibrant culture, a characteristic that has attracted many national and international businesses which had largely shunned the city before. Aside from the middle class, in Tijuana you can reasonably expect to find areas filled with richer people. Tijuana is a transit point for illegal immigration into the United States, as well as a common destination for any illegal Mexican immigrants deported from the west coast of the United States. As such, some areas are swollen with poor people with no roots in the city, who inhabit shantytowns. Apart from these poor migrants, Tijuana is one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico. Some (mainly residential) areas of the city reflect the significant number of wealthy people who inhabit the city.
Tijuana’s growing reputation as a cosmopolitan city is justified. Not only is the city home to many people who have migrated from within the same country, as well as some native Mexican Indians, but it boasts an important amount of Asian residents, as well as South Americans from Argentina and Uruguay, among others.
Frequent English-speaking visitors to Tijuana use the term “gringo-friendly” for a shop, bar, or restaurant in which a non-Spanish speaking customer will be at ease. A place is gringo-friendly if the staff here is accustomed to dealing with American tourists, if they speak English and have English-language menus. Places that are not gringo-friendly may require use of Spanish, and patience. Just because a place is not gringo-friendly does not imply that the people there will not be friendly or that tourists will not be welcome.
While the Mexican peso is the legal currency, US dollars are widely accepted.
Tijuana Living is managed by Hello Cowboy Internet Services, a Montana Consulting Agency.