Safety in Mexico

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

I always felt safer in Mexico than I did in the US.

Us too.

[Tim_H]

Interesting thread

[John A]

Originally Posted by dana-tenacity

I always felt safer in Mexico than I did in the US.

Oh Please!! Get the heck out of the large cities!

Come to the Pacific Northwest, if you don't tell anybody you're from a large city or California, there's an excellant chance that we won't shoot you.

[wcsailor]

There are lots of ex-boaters, like us, who are now RVing all over Mexico. We love it here. The violence is all between druggies and either other druggies or law enforcement. It makes us CRAZY when we hear all the media sensation about how dangerous Mexico is. And YES, the locals are really hurting w/o tourism. We cruised Mexico for a year--a wonderful year! My husband uses a wheelchair and while some fear that makes us an easy target, we find we are treated wonderfully.

Common sense rules when considering safety, whether here in Mexico, or in the US, or anywhere.

[dana-tenacity]

Originally Posted by John A

Oh Please!! Get the heck out of the large cities!

Come to the Pacific Northwest, if you don't tell anybody you're from a large city or California, there's an excellant chance that we won't shoot you.

I spent a gloru=iuos couple of years cruising Alaska and the PNW back in the 80's, still have many good friends there and would love to return one day. The people there were almost normal - my favourite kind.

[Brent Swain]

The whole issue of safety in Mexico is a political issue, given that safety , and drug wars, are political issues, and thus such discussions are banned on this site. Warning people of such issues is a no-no here. That being the case, the whole topic should be deleted.

[Pblais]

The whole issue of safety in Mexico is a political issue, given that safety , and drug wars, are political issues, and thus such discussions are banned on this site

Understanding has it's rewards!

Fixing boats is all we ever hoped to accomplish here. Fixing people - forget it! Fixing countries - you have to be kidding. If one person understands something they didn't when they came here, the staff of CF will be over joyed. We don't expect huge things and we prefer to measure success in terms of one person and one solution at a time.

If you think there is more, you must be a politician and as Brent notes so well - we don't do that here! Save your other agendas for other web sites. There has to over 10,000 other places and each with something in mind. We just can't be everything.

[Agility]

I was just down in La Paz last weekend. The only issue I couldn't get a good understanding of was why there were so many military folks with rifles driving up and down mainstreet? It was a little unnerving at first to see trucks full of dozens of soldiers with assault rifles patrolling the streets.

I didn't feel unsafe, just more curious if this is just a drug war issue or what. I didn't see many police.

The only other place that seems to have so much firepower that I've been to was Palermo.

But again, people were very friendly and seemed very honest.

[unbusted67]

Yeah right in Ensenada we had a bunch of soldiers camped out right at the head of our dock. It was very surreal seeing that it was a really unlikely location tucked away from the city. They were all very cordial and professional. We had some soldiers overseeing an armored car transaction in the middle of the city too, that was a little intense they all looked very stressed out.

In Mexico I had some really interesting conversations with my mother who I was traveling with.
She is very worldly and has traveled to many third world countries. I was almost appalled at how cold she was to people. She was very polite but would shut someone down if they got too close or too friendly regardless of if they were threatening or not.

I consider myself pretty street smart too and have been in, and gotten out of a lot of compromising situations. My approach is to kill with kindness. Our travel styles were so different that we found ourselves butting heads a few different times. I started to realize that being a women you do not have the option of being overly kind to people because men take it the wrong way and then you have a real problem especially without the luxury of sharing the same language (No does not necessarily mean no).

It was a but of an eye opener, and I was pretty impressed realizing that although I didn't approve of my mother's behavior - at times it bordered on the ugly American paradigm - that it was time tested and she knew what she was doing.

[Charlie]

I let my kids wander around the Malecon in La Paz by themselves. It is very safe there. My kids are 11 and 13.

[daddle]

Just back to California from 6 months in Mexico. Had to dig out the padlock so I wouldn't lose anything to the locals. Here I'll lose anything left out on the deck, gas cans, lines, anything. Never lock the boat or dinghy in Mexico. Never felt any danger. Never lost anything. It's paradise. The Mexicans seem to have a better idea about social responsibility and humanity.