First Person: Find fun and variety in Nogales, Sonora

Like many border cities around the world, Nogales, Sonora, is a place to have fun, traipsing the downtown streets where aggressive merchants hawk their wares, and for excellent dishes from restaurants with tuxedo-clad waiters, and the unlikely discovery of open-air art in an unusual location.

The art, including fine sculpture in a silver-colored medium, and a brightly painted comic mural featuring Mexican men, women and children, is less than half a mile west of the main border crossing. It’s on the inside of the 15-foot-high border fence.

Easy walking or a $5 cab ride.

“Step inside, step inside. See what I’ve got,” cries one merchant on Campillo street. Many of the merchants stand on the sidewalk outside their shops, hoping to entice buyers.

Around the corner, heading south, is Calle Obregon, a street of shops and restaurants more than a mile long.

There are trinkets, faux art, blankets, cowboy hats, apparel, handbags, novelties and Western boots.

But as world security has worsened, there are more attempts to keep Nogales, Sonora — Nogson to some — from becoming like the violence-wracked communities near the Texas-Mexico border.

Police officers are everywhere. A large white SUV, emblazoned with red letters “SWAT, ” drives though an area just southwest of the main tourist area.

Cab drivers are a whiz, especially if they speak only Spanish and his passengers only English. However, in a few words, usually he gets the idea — you want to go to the American Consulate.

Dodging cars and errant pedestrians, he zips 5 miles south on Adolfo Mateos, a major thoroughfare, to the consulate on Calle San Jose.

It’s just south of the large La Ley supermarket and the fairly new but idle bullring.

The consulate is brown split-faced rock building, bearing the American eagle and the red, white and blue American flag, probably the only one flying in Nogales.

If you have questions ahead of time, you can call the consulate from the United States — 011-52-631 313 48-20.

Lines of people applying for border-crossing documents such as the “Laser Visa” stretch out the door.

The consulate is located in what looks like a “Little America.”

On La Ley’s parking lot, there’s a Burger King. Nearby is McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Auto Zone and a store advertising Sherman Williams paints.

In the vegetable aisles at La Ley supermarket, there are bins and bins of chilis, all sizes and all degrees of heat.

Your eyes will tear, but the smell is wonderful.

Going north across The Line is sometimes a hassle on busy days, especially in the morning.

Pedestrian lines can stretch out the door of the Customs and Border Protection facility at the DeConcini port of entry.

Southbound travelers generally aren’t delayed.

Grand Avenue, a main street in Nogales, Ariz., or Nogalaz, ends at the border, where it becomes Lopez Mateos in Mexico. It’s a main street on that side, too.

Be sure when it’s time to go home that you’ve got your passport or that you have a government-issued picture identification like a driver’s license and your birth certificate, or that you have the new U.S. Passport Card.

It’s a simpler document than the passport, costing $45. Regular passports cost just under $100.

Apply at many U.S. post offices and federal buildings. The passport card can’t be used for international air travel. It’s for border crossing on land only.

Restaurants in Mexico are usually good, especially if ordering Mexican food. There are a few specialty restaurants, too, La Palapa on Adolfo Mateos specializes in seafood, El Toro, also on Adolfo Mateos, sells great steaks and other beef dishes.

La Roca is near the border on the east side of the railroad tracks and upstairs. Its menu runs from Mexican to seafood to steaks. Usually there’s a combo playing.

El Greco, also offering a variety of dishes, is upstairs on busy Calle Obregon with views of the bustling shoppers and traffic.

Besides the merchants trying to get you to “come inside and take a look,” there are also beggars, often women sitting on the sidewalk with children nearby.

On a recent trip there was a mother and five children. One, an infant so young it couldn’t walk, was lying on her lap.

Near the end of the day, three men carrying a bass, a small drum set and an accordion dodged the rush-hour crowds, going from restaurant to restaurant looking for a gig that night.

A slender young boy walked on his hands before some tourists. He even managed a little jig. Quarters and dimes were his reward.

Occasionally, some of the boys working the northbound car lanes will do a few card tricks, also trying to coax some donations from homeward bound Americans.

At 5 p.m. the bells in the downtown cathedral pealed five times.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749