Nuevo Laredo/Laredo

The bus driver was rude, but entering Nuevo Laredo was otherwise wonderfully uneventful, as were the scenes outside. In the days before traveling to this border town, we read daily accounts of an escalating war between drug cartels centered around this town. The U.S. Embassy had closed and the National Guard was dispatched to try and establish calm.

And calm it was. People relaxed in parks, descended on the square at night, and seemed to be functioning adequately—except for the empty stores and bars, which the tourists have abandoned. For a border town, Nuevo Laredo was quite pleasant.

Its namesake across the relaxed border with Texas was more of a shock. Gone were the things you get used to in Mexico—prompt and omnipresent public transportation, mom and pop businesses, and street life. Laredo had vestiges of its Spanish history—like a town square—but no one was in it. Everyone was out driving away from the city center toward the strip mall sprawl. We rented a car and kept heading north.

Business seemed rather slow.

At the tourist bar, there was a table of Texans, some locals and us.

Crossing the border was eerily calm. At this entryway, most everyone were day-trippers on foot.

Hot and sun burnt; mighty Mexico and its river; the border official [right] is coming to get me
for taking pictures of officials searching vehicles. I had to delete them.

Laredo—some nice sites, but dead.