Very different suddenly

Every alert fervent and loyal blog reader right away notices that today the words that are read are different.
Very different.

How to explain?
What the difference is exactly?

The words look as if they were baked this time in a different bakery.
As if it is a different masseuse today.
As if the words were spoken from a different mountaintop.

As usual, the alert fervent and loyal blog is absolutely right.
And we should be impressed by the alertness and sharpness demonstrated.
Because these words are written on American soil!
Yesterday, the Mexican-USA border was crossed.
That’s why today it looks so different.

The border crossing took place in the Mexican town of Tecate.
Well known for the beer they brew there.

Crossing the border in Tecate, for a traveller used to Tijuana, is a revealing experience.

In Tecate there are only two boots with an immigration-officer.
While in Tijuana there are more than fifty.
Where easily one has to be in line for over two hours.
Not so in Tecate.
There is a line of cars too and yesterday the turtling was one hour.
But guess what?
Next to the long single line of cars they have placed portable toilets.
What a service!
And it is relaxed.
No hassling going on.
Just one single lane of cars so nobody trying to snatch in front of another one.
Less polluted air as well.

The immigration officer was most friendly.
Working in much better conditions than his colleague in Tijuana.
As is the procedure, the Fuso Szulc had to go to the Secondary Inspection area.
Where another Immigration Officer researched carefully the vehicle.
Obviously he found nothing.

Next step was the paper work.
The I-94: a visa for foreigners to visit the USA.
Another Immigration Officer again who was even ready to chat.
He explained that this was the first person from the Netherlands this year.

He also told that these days in Tijuana foreigners needing an I-94 have to park their car somewhere in Tijuana.
And next somehow they have to find their way to the border and to a particular building where they can obtain an I-94.
To return somehow to their vehicle and then they can cross the border.

If a foreigner knows this procedure, he or she is lucky.
Because many will not be aware of this strange, time consuming and complicated arrangement.
An innocent Italian for example will wait in line with her car for two hours to be informed eventually when reaching the boot with the Immigration Officer that she has to go back and apply for an I-94 on foot.
She has to turn her car around and go back into Tijuana.
Has to find somewhere a parking place and then follow the whole hullabaloo procedure.
Crossing the border in Tijuana for a non-American can take two days.

Late in the afternoon, a place was found to spend the night in the National Park of Potrero.
Very close to the Tecate border crossing.

After 5 months in Mexico, an American National Park is a revelation.
It is clean.
It is super well organized.
It is beautiful.
And all this for $ 24.
Including water, electricity, garbage service and hot showers.



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Be a bee

One could say we live in times of great uncertainty.
The US Government is taking the biggest gamble ever in history.
Getting as deep in debt as never before hoping that the economy will revive and that the trillions borrowed can be paid back.

When one listens to the commentaries on radio and TV, we hear only two tunes.
One is singing that all will be well.
The other that we are approaching total catastrophe.

Who can decide with ultimate authority who is right and who is wrong?
Nobody, ladies and gentlemen.
However we imagine the outcome will be, it will be different.

So let’s lower the eyes from the future and point them to the present.

To the own well being this very moment.
Towards the people that are surrounding us.
To the nature embracing us.

And all that we see now does not need any explanation or prediction.
We know what it is and we can enjoy it.
We can find peace and harmony in our existence as it is right now.

This is rather important.
Because anything that is going to happen in the future will come from how a person lives now.
It is a direct line from now to next.
A perspective originating in the now and widening into the future.

Hence, the more happiness, harmony and peace we achieve in our daily life now, the more happy, healthy and harmonious we will be in the time to come.

And this doesn’t depend on what Barack Obama decides to do to fix the economy.
Happiness and harmony is a personal thing.
Rain or shine.

Of course these thoughts come up in the mind because tomorrow an attempt will be made to cross the Mexican-American border.
Because the last time in Tijuana it was explained by the US Immigration authorities that crossing there could only happen when first obtaining visa documents from the American consulate in Tijuana, tomorrow the border crossing at Tecate will be tried.
Tecate is 46 kilometres (29 miles) east from Tijuana and is reached taking a mountain road from Ensenada.

The mind is forced now not to think and speculate about crossing the border.
But to focus on that cat in front of the Fuso Szulc right now.
Bathing in the early sunshine while watchful to catch an innocent bird.





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