In El Alberto, Mexico tourists can pay to feel like they're crossing the border illegally

Sep 11, 2012 07:05 GMT  ·  By

In El Alberto, Mexico tourists can pay to feel like they're crossing the border illegally.

For only $18 (€14) tourists can experience crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S. illegally while being chased by patrol guards and immigration officials.

El Alberto, Mexico is a small town of under 1,000 inhabitants. Most of them already crossed the U.S. border searching for work, and settled there. For the ones left behind, "La Caminata nocturna" (Spanish for 'the nocturnal hike') is more than a hobby – it's a living.

The HuffingtonPost reports approximately 100 residents are employed to give tourists the feeling that they are doing something illegal and extremely dangerous.

To make this a weekend “escape,” hikes are organized on Saturday nights and go on for about four hours. During this time groups venture through the wilderness led by “coyotes”(smugglers). They walk, run and crawl for about 7 1/2-miles (12 km).

“Migrants” are chased by border patrol guards while the masked smugglers yell at them to hurry up. The patrol pursues them in pickup trucks, turning on sirens and flashing lights.

In order to escape, they run through bushes and low-hanging trees and climb over or underneath fences. If the spotlights are flashed in their direction they must immediately hit the ground.

"I'm stressed because we've been running so much. You have to watch yourself with all these cactus spines and plants," one tourist explained.

This experience is not for the weak-hearted, but it could be a riot for boot-camp fitness enthusiasts.

There are those who believe people participate in "La Caminata" in an effort to train for crossing the U.S. border. One of the organizers, tour guide Julian Garcia, aims to dismiss these accusations. He claims the conditions simulated here are nothing compared to the real thing.

"Some people think we are training people. […] If we were training them, we'd make it much harder," he says.

If nothing, the exercise is meant to dither Mexicans from attempting to cross the border illegally, by showing them a glimpse of the dangers they would be facing.

ABC news reported about the odd amusement park a few years back, in 2009: