The Country Just Over the Fence [View all]

[Kali]

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/travel/nogales-mexico-a-few-steps-and-a-whole-world-away.html?pagewanted=1&ref=travelx

After leaving my car at a secure parking lot ($4 a day), I showed my passport to the United States border guard, who asked about my plans. Business?

“Just curiosity,” I said. When he made a disapproving squint, I added, “Don’t you go over now and then?”

“Never been there,” he said.

“It’s 10 feet away!”

“I’m staying here,” he said, his squint now suggesting that I should be doing the same.

So what can you do with a couple of days in Nogales? Take advantage of its nearness, first of all. Buy cowboy boots, or pots, or folk art. I came away with a hand-carved set of dominoes, some silver coins and cleaner, whiter teeth.

It is obvious from the empty streets of downtown Nogales that very few visitors stay the night, but I found that overnighting simplified my experience of the place. The Hotel Fray Marcos has mixed reviews but I found it excellent (my suite went for around $80). It was also conveniently near the office of Dr. Jose Saturno, who on successive days worked on my teeth — the full limpieza ($54) y blanquiamento ($250).

Nogales is where they are dumped. Peg Bowden, a retired nurse, brought me to El Comedor, a shelter run by American Jesuits near the Mariposa gate just about a mile west of downtown Nogales. Ms. Bowden told me she was so shocked by the savage attack on Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in January 2011 that she decided to do something humane: “I needed to connect with something positive.” She joined a group of Samaritans — “a bunch of renegade senior citizens whose mission is to prevent deaths in the desert,” and she volunteered at El Comedor, working a few days a week, crossing the border from Arizona.

good read