. . . back to the US from Mexico via the Otay Mesa border crossing pedestrian lane, which has usually been the better option than the San Ysidro border crossing, located nine miles to the west. Today, that did not appear to be the case.

My intentionally misleading title was geared to get you to open this and read it. Technically speaking, it is a border crossing report, something that may prove useful to others who cross or who are considering whether or not to cross. For the purpose of this report, my crossing times back into the US are usually late morning to noonish to early afternoons.

Two hours and fifteen minutes is now not only the longest I've ever had to wait at either Otay Mesa or San Ysidro, but it also marks the defeat of my purpose for selecting Otay anyway: for years it has reliably been fairly quicker to cross northbound at Otay than at San Ysidro.  

SOME BACKGROUND:
In the city of Tijuana, more commerce and attractions can be found near San Ysidro than can be found near Otay Mesa, and it's also more of a transportation hub for accessing other parts of Mexico than Otay Mesa. Tijuana's international airport is located in the Otay Mesa area, but more ground travel still revolves around San Ysidro. On the US side, it's almost the same story; more businesses, attractions and ground transportation routes are in the San Ysidro side than in the Otay Mesa area, and to access Tijuana's International Airport, a highly restricted and highly regulated place known as the Cross Border Express, but it is only for certain air passengers, no pedestrian or vehicle traffic between the two countries is allowed there.  

Otay Mesa is the smaller of the two land crossing locations, both in terms of pedestrian lanes and vehicle lanes. A few years ago, July of 2016, San Ysidro opened up new and extremely efficient alternative pedestrian crossing that severely cut wait times down to under 30 minutes, often 15 minutes or less. It is known as San Ysidro's Pedestrian West Crossing, or colloquially as El Chaparral, and is just a few blocks away from the original pedestrian crossing, known colloquially as La Vieja (The Old One). Both of tgem were open to pedestrians, so there were fewer people going through either one of them at a time. El Chaparral took the slack off of La Vieja, and vice-versa. Having two separate pedestrian crossings at a busy place like San Ysidro gave people a choice as to where they could cross, which is why and how pedestrian wait times for entering the US at El Chaparral and La Vieja dropped to such low levels between 2016 to January 2020.

Then came COVID-19. Government-ordered shutdowns hit the border in that El Chaparral has been closed for at least 6 months now, spring of 2020, forcing all the pedestrians who crossed there to flock over to La Vieja. As a result, pedestrian wait times at La Vieja increased drastically, sometimes an hour-long and sometimes an hour and forty-five minutes. I used to wait in those long lines during the summer of 2020, but even for me, it got unbearable.

Personally, Otay Mesa became the better option for me because I don't drive in Mexico, I cross over on foot, and once in Mexico, taxis or Uber can take me anywhere I need to go in Tijuana in no time, even to the San Ysidro area. Also, for hobbying, getting laid in the Otay Mesa part of Tijuana is exactly the same as getting laid in the San Ysidro side of Tijuana. A lot of other pedestrians had the same idea about the long waits, and abandoned San Ysidro for Otay Mesa. Little by little, there were times that Otay Mesa was about half as bad as San Ysidro, with 45-minute waits. The surprise was that often, I only waited 15, 10, or 5 minutes to cross through Otay Mesa, just like pre-COVID days. By Thanksgiving, Christmastime, and New Year's 2020, Otay Mesa's pedestrian waits creeped up to a max for me of 1 hour and fifteen minutes. I was crossing maybe three times a month by then. I have developed a system of timing my long waits by hitting the stopwatch feature on my phone when I see the line is long.

[Twice in a ten-day period, I broke from habit and instead of walking, I drove into and out of Mexico, both times at Otay Mesa. The drive in was always smooth and quick because it was before 7 am during late December and a combination of holidays and COVID had everything shut down, no traffic. Returning to the US both times was a nightmare.  Saw the chicas who I wanted to see, hopped in the car mid-morning for a 45-minute wait the first time, 75 minutes the second time.]

Today being January 7, I figured a jaunt into Tijuana to get laid would be quick and easy. Ok, getting into Mexico at 7 am through Otay Mesa was the only quick part about it, the chica was the only easy part about it, but coming back here to the US through Otay Mesa was neither. I got in line at 10:30 am, stepped on US soil at 12:45 am.

I'm filing this report as a cautionary measure while the experience is still fresh in my mind, only about two hours old, to inform others who are flipping the coin on going or not going, San Ysidro or Otay Mesa, drive or walk, etc.  

(By the way, final score is that at least the pussy was good, she made all the hassle worth it.)