Here's some travel advice: don't try everything to impress the locals. There are other ways to make friends.
On my first trip to Tijuana, with two days remaining, I found myself at a taco stand we call Hotel Taco, and I boldly declared, "I want to be the guy who will try anything." I'm not Andrew Zimmern from the old days of Travel Channel shows (love you, Samantha Brown), but I figured, why the heck not?
I am an idiot.
Tijuana is a dream. It's less than the distance Fernando Tatis Jr. can throw a baseball from San Diego. The Southern California sunsets don't miss it — they are amplified at the Playas, where a bullfighting ring and a border wall impose themselves on your view of the Pacific.
It's also the most trafficked international border in the world. There are thousands here waiting to get across, thousands more deported back. Many live in tents, dorms, and hostels. Some end up on the streets, some on drugs, and many just take the risk of getting caught and jumping the fence. For some people, Tijuana is a nightmare.
In travel, two things can get into your soul: a place and its people. And if you want to find both of those, make a friend and ask them to take you to an eatery they love.
And so, "I want to be the guy who will try anything" left my lips, and later I heard my former friend, Kyle, say, "Sam will try that!" while we were at an ice cream shop in the Playas.
I don't want to explain what I tried, but just know that it came from a chili that's eaten as a dessert. Okay, I'll tell you: it was a piece of pickled pig skin. I didn't know that. To me, it was what a gummy worm might look like if it grew in the ground.
So, I ate it (hmm, cool and chewy) and went on with my night.
And that was the end of my trip.
I spent a night on the toilet and a day in bed. I also learned I could make myself throw up, and that was enough to get me across the border (walking, which is a story for another time). It was the worst day of my life.
But now, my friends I made in Mexico remember me as the guy who spent a night on the toilet and a day in bed because he said he'd try anything.