As close as I'll get to Mehico

I arrived heartbroken in San Diego. Portland was the one. But you have to move on. San Diego is a prosperous place. This seems unfair as it sits on the border with Mexico - a not so prosperous place.

It's ivory towers overshadow the shanty town huts across the invisible hand-drawn border line. I guess it acts as a reminder to those peasants what they could never aspire to. Thoughtful. It's downtown marina made me feel sick.

I was on the wong side of this divide and promptly took a cab ride over the border to be at one with the 'gringos' as my driver so affectionately called them. This was terrifically frightening despite the overwhelming police presence. The car passed the scene of no less than four homicides during a 15-minute whistlestop tour of the 'other side'. Before we sped back to the safety of Santa Fe station so I could jump on the Pacific Coast starlight express (only in America would a train line be called this) to LA

San Diego was brief. But I had already been warned the place was soulless.