Joan's view of Tijuana......

Joan says: "I love Mexico, and I have been visiting this country since the eighties, but I have always avoided Tijuana. In recent years as I read in the papers about the horrible battles between the drug cartels and the government it made me even more sure that I would NEVER GO TO TIJUANA. Well life is strange isn't it? How does it happen that the one doctor we really need is in TIJUANA?!?! So, OK, I told myself that I would go, but I would not leave the safe walls of the gated "compound."

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I can't sit still and I love to explore. So it only took a few days before I ventured a short way beyond the walls. There I saw the 2 million residents of the city going about their daily business. If you are not a Mayor, a policeman, or a drug dealer (or a family member of one of these) then you have nothing to fear.

Tijuana is NOT an attractive city, but it does have a wonderful climate. I am being cautious, and I do not go out after dark, but my world here is no longer contained within the walls.

This is a good place for Rick and I to be. Especially when you consider our options: either home doing nothing; or in a stateside hospital where we could not sleep in the same bed, where we would be woken all hours of the night, where we would get no fresh air, and where the expectation for recovery is very low. We are thankful to be in the Rubio Clinic, in Tijuana."