Los Algodones

Los Algodones, officially Vicente Guerrero, is the seat of a borough of Mexicali municipality in the far northeast corner of Baja California. It sits 33 meters above sea level and had 6,796 people in 2020. It is the northernmost town in Mexico, with the US border wrapping around its north and east sides, so you could head off in any of the four compass directions and hit the United States. Across the gate is Andrade, California, about 16 km west of Yuma, Arizona. Nobody knows where the name, "the cotton plants", came from; a local symposium in 1995 settled on July 27, 1894 as a symbolic founding date.

Only 531 people lived here in 1970. From the 1980s on, dental offices, opticians and pharmacies steadily took over the open-air shops and restaurants by the line, and the town turned from souvenirs to medicine. It is now nicknamed Molar City: estimates run from 350 to 600 dentists and over 300 clinics, nearly all within four blocks of the crossing, with English-speaking staff and US phone numbers. A root canal can cost around US$280 here against more than US$1,000 in the States.

Most patients are retirees from the US and Canada who winter in Yuma and Winterhaven, so winter is the busy season. Summer is brutal, with July and August highs averaging over 41 °C and a record of 50 °C; January highs are around 21 °C, and the year brings about 60 mm of rain. Between appointments there are still craft stalls, restaurants and frequent fiestas, especially at Christmas.