Take a Walk on the Wild Side ~ Playas de Tijuana

Take a Walk on the Wild Side ~ Playas de Tijuana
By Kennedy Carr

Over the past two decades, I’ve traveled far and wide in search of the ultimate beach community where I could settle down, rest my body and call home. For most of my adult life, I’ve lived as a wandering nomad, rambling through sub-tropical beaches of Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, India, South Africa, Southern California and the Gold Coast of Baja Norte.

As a professional Event Producer and Promoter, I set up art installations and interactive environments, as well as do booking, promoting and stage managing at many popular, large scale, west coast transformational festivals. I love what I do and feel blessed by the interesting opportunities I’ve been given. But after eight years of being on a tour that has sometimes felt endless, I’ve finally exhausted myself.and left it all on the dance floor. I am now semi-retired living in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

Prior to moving to Playas, I researched Tulum, Mexico and San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua as possibilities for retirement. After the 2015 ransacking of Tulum’s beach clubs and the shootings at the BPM Festival in Playa del Carmen, I decided to check out San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. The Emerald Coast of Nicaragua is one of the most beautiful pristine coastlines in the world. Famous for surfing, yoga retreats and wild parties. Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega then ordered the shooting of over 350 unarmed protesters in Managua, putting the entire country on lock down for almost a year. It will take several years for Nicaragua to recover. He remains in office until 2022. For obvious reasons, I decided that neither town would be a secure place to live.

Upon visiting an interesting American friend earlier this year, a DJ who moved recently to Playas from Costa Rica, I became spellbound by what I saw here. This very first beach town south of the border feels like a place that time has somehow skipped over. As an Event Producer and Visionary, I see an incredible amount of untapped potential here.With an adventurous spirit, I decided to take a leap of faith and take up residence in Baja Norte, an area I’ve been traveling to frequently for the past 20 years while living in San Diego,

With limited resources and a fixed income, I was quickly able to find a delightful, shared third-floor penthouse apartment, two blocks from the beach with an ocean view, in a plushy neighborhood in Playas de Tijuana for $300. Comparably, in San Diego, something like this would cost at least $1000, plus utilities. Feeling lucky, I moved in without hesitation.

And so, begins a new chapter in my life, a new era, knowing that I’ve worked hard all these years and am joining a growing expat community—many of us who have become disillusioned by the current U.S. Administration and border practices. So here I sit, excitedly, with my coffee, laptop and ocean view, researching and experiencing this diamond-in-the-rough..

Established in 1848, Playas de Tijuana is the coastline of Tijuana stretching from the United States border to Rosarito. Located on the outskirts of one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Playas is an up-scale neighborhood on the ocean's edge and is home to many Latino celebrities living in gated communities and beachfront homes. The village along the boardwalk is a throwback to the 1950s and 60s beach towns of California—reminiscent of Redondo Beach before modernization in the early 70s, when only a wooden pier existed.

I’m charmed by the muraled border wall at Friendship Park and the mile-long, wood-planked boardwalk sprinkled with bohemian coffee shops, hip locals, international backpackers and local artists displaying their artistries for sale. I’m amazed at how clean and pristine the beach is, which goes on for miles. With spectacular sunsets that glisten over the Coronado Islands, and the incandescent skyline of San Diego off to the distance, Playas is one of the most ravishingly beautiful beaches on earth. The sound of roosters at early morning sunrise adds to the untamed nuance of this Hispanic Camelot by the Sea.

In the evenings along the beach you’ll find bonfires surrounded by happy people being serenaded by wandering mariachis, coolers filled with beer and ceviche. In Baja California “Todo es Posible,” anything is possible. No tickets are given out for open containers or smoking on the beach. No enforced curfews and pets are allowed almost anywhere. The paranoia that I feel on US beaches is non-existent here. A new sensation of liberation and freedom is amazingly present in my awareness.

Mexico offers the best hospitality I have ever received. Locals are overly friendly and are extremely helpful whenever they are given the opportunity. My days start with authentic Mexican coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice and breakfast burrito for under $3 at the local taco stand, a block away from my house. Mondays, you’ll find me strolling through one of the largest farmer’s market I’ve ever seen. Vendors stretch for over a mile and fills many of the side streets along Paseo Playas de Tijuana.

Playas de Tijuana is also home to the legendary City of Hope, a medical treatment facility for Cancer Cure and Prevention, as well as, the prestigious private Universidad Iberoamericana. With many students, professors, medical personnel and doctors living in the immediate area.

My curiosity arose of why this wasn’t one of the most popular beach towns on the west coast. What I learned was several factors of why Playas de Tijuana is deficient in International appeal and overlooked by many local Californians.

From 1960 until recently, bullfights were staged at the legendary Monumental in Playas de Tijuana. Once popular among American day-trippers, as well as Hollywood celebrities, the Plaza Monumental shut its doors a few years back due to protests from Tijuana-based animal-rights group ProvidAnimal and the decline of popularity.

In the late 1970s there was a huge storm that destroyed several homes and businesses and exposed the area as a floodplain collecting sewage run off from the neighboring mountain side region. In many parts of Playas there remains vacant and dilapidated houses that were destroyed by the storm, thus formulating the area unattractive to potential US renters and investors. Current border circumstances, US propaganda, along with the purge of Central American US asylum applicants have also slowed progress.

If you are looking for a home close to the border in a healthy environment with beautiful views, sub-tropical weather, affordable prices, fresh seafood, fine Mexican cuisine, charming coffee shops, reliable public transportation and Happy People, Playas de Tijuana is a worth a Leap of Faith. In my opinion, she is one the Crown Jewels of Baja Norte’s Gold Coast.