At the time travel was very difficult. After the laborers arrived in Ensenada, they had to walk for more than twenty days across the mountains before arriving at Mexicali in the scorching desert. Strangers in a strange land, they were often led astray and abandoned by coolie masters.
尤其當時交通不便，華工乘船從墨市南端的安塞那達港（華人俗稱苑埠）入境後，要翻山過嶺，步行廿多天才能穿過酷熱的沙漠抵達墨市。