Crime fears empty Mexico beaches
Crime fears empty Mexico beaches
Saturday, January 05, 2008 11:44:54 AM
Crime Fears Empty Mexico Beaches
Assaults on American tourists have brought hard times to hotels and restaurants that dot Mexican beaches just south of the border from San Diego.
Surfers and kayakers are frightened to hit the waters of the northern stretch of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, long popular as a weekend destination for U.S. tourists. Weddings have been canceled. Lobster joints a few steps from the Pacific were almost empty on the usually busy New Year's weekend.
Americans have long tolerated shakedowns by police who boost salaries by pulling over motorists for alleged traffic violations, and tourists know parts of Baja are a hotbed of drug-related violence. But a handful of attacks since summer by masked, armed bandits - some of whom used flashing lights to appear like police - marks a new extreme that has spooked even longtime visitors.
Lori Hoffman, a San Diego-area emergency room nurse, said she was sexually assaulted Oct. 23 by two masked men in front of her boyfriend, San Diego Surfing Academy owner Pat Weber, who was forced to kneel at gunpoint for 45 minutes. They were at a campground with about 30 tents, some 200 miles south of the border.
The men shot out windows of the couple's trailer and forced their way inside, ransacked the cupboards and left with about $7,000 worth of gear, including computers, video equipment and a guitar.
Weber, who has taught dozens of students in Mexico over the last 10 years, plans to surf in Costa Rica or New Zealand. "No more Mexico," said Hoffman, who reported the attack to Mexican police. No arrests have been made.
The Baja California peninsula is known worldwide for clean and sparsely populated beaches, lobster and margaritas and blue waters visited by whales and dolphins. Surfers love the waves; fishermen catch tuna, yellowtail and marlin. Food and hotels are cheap.
News of harrowing assaults on American tourists has begun to overshadow that appeal in the northern part of the peninsula, home to drug gangs and the seedy border city of Tijuana. The comparatively isolated southern tip, with its tony Los Cabos resort, remains safer and is still popular with Hollywood celebrities, anglers and other foreign tourists.
Local media and surfing Web sites that trumpeted Baja in the past have reported several frightening crimes that U.S. and Mexican officials consider credible. Longtime visitors are particularly wary of a toll road near the border that runs through Playas de Rosarito - Rosarito Beach.
In late November, as they returned from the Baja 1000 off-road race, a San Diego-area family was pulled over on the toll road by a car with flashing lights. Heavily armed men held the family hostage for two hours. They eventually released them but stole the family's truck.
Before dawn on Aug. 31, three surfers were carjacked on the same stretch of highway. Gunmen pulled them over in a car with flashing lights, forced them out of their vehicles and ordered one to kneel. They took the trucks and left the surfers.
Aqua Adventures of San Diego scrapped its annual three-day kayak trip to scout for whales in January, ending a run of about 10 years. Customers had already been complaining about longer waits to return to the U.S.; crime gave them another reason to stay away.
"People are just saying, 'No way.' They don't want to deal with the risk," said owner Jen Kleck, who has sponsored trips to Baja about five times a year but hasn't been since July.
Charles Smith, spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Tijuana, said the U.S. government has not found a widespread increase in attacks against Americans, but he acknowledged many crimes go unreported. The State Department has long warned motorists on Mexico's border to watch for people following them, though no new warnings have been issued.
Mexican officials acknowledge crime has threatened a lifeblood of Baja's economy. In Playas de Rosarito, a city of 130,000, police were forced to surrender their weapons last month for testing to determine links to any crimes. Heavily armed men have patrolled City Hall since a failed assassination attempt on the new police chief left one officer dead. On Thursday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Tijuana police official and another man were found dumped near the beach.
"We cannot minimize what's happening to public safety," said Oscar Escobedo Carignan, Baja's new secretary of tourism. "We're going to impose order ... We're indignant about what's happening."
Tourist visits to Baja totaled about 18 million in 2007, down from 21 million the previous year, Escobedo said. Hotel occupancy dropped about 5 percentage points to 53 percent.
Hugo Torres, owner of the storied Rosarito Beach Hotel and the city's new mayor, estimates the number of visitors to Rosarito Beach since summer is down 30 percent.
In the city's Puerto Nuevo tourist enclave, which offers $20 lobster dinners and $1 margaritas, restaurant managers said sales were down as much as 80 percent from last year. One Saturday afternoon in October, masked bandits wielding pistols walked the streets and kidnapped two men - an American and a Spanish citizen - who were later released unharmed. Two people who were with them were shot and wounded.
Omar Armendariz, who manages a Puerto Nuevo lobster restaurant, is counting on the new state and city governments to make tourists feel safer. He has never seen fewer visitors in his nine years on the job.
"It's dead," he said.
Saturday, January 05, 2008 11:44:54 AM
Crime Fears Empty Mexico Beaches
Assaults on American tourists have brought hard times to hotels and restaurants that dot Mexican beaches just south of the border from San Diego.
Surfers and kayakers are frightened to hit the waters of the northern stretch of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, long popular as a weekend destination for U.S. tourists. Weddings have been canceled. Lobster joints a few steps from the Pacific were almost empty on the usually busy New Year's weekend.
Americans have long tolerated shakedowns by police who boost salaries by pulling over motorists for alleged traffic violations, and tourists know parts of Baja are a hotbed of drug-related violence. But a handful of attacks since summer by masked, armed bandits - some of whom used flashing lights to appear like police - marks a new extreme that has spooked even longtime visitors.
Lori Hoffman, a San Diego-area emergency room nurse, said she was sexually assaulted Oct. 23 by two masked men in front of her boyfriend, San Diego Surfing Academy owner Pat Weber, who was forced to kneel at gunpoint for 45 minutes. They were at a campground with about 30 tents, some 200 miles south of the border.
The men shot out windows of the couple's trailer and forced their way inside, ransacked the cupboards and left with about $7,000 worth of gear, including computers, video equipment and a guitar.
Weber, who has taught dozens of students in Mexico over the last 10 years, plans to surf in Costa Rica or New Zealand. "No more Mexico," said Hoffman, who reported the attack to Mexican police. No arrests have been made.
The Baja California peninsula is known worldwide for clean and sparsely populated beaches, lobster and margaritas and blue waters visited by whales and dolphins. Surfers love the waves; fishermen catch tuna, yellowtail and marlin. Food and hotels are cheap.
News of harrowing assaults on American tourists has begun to overshadow that appeal in the northern part of the peninsula, home to drug gangs and the seedy border city of Tijuana. The comparatively isolated southern tip, with its tony Los Cabos resort, remains safer and is still popular with Hollywood celebrities, anglers and other foreign tourists.
Local media and surfing Web sites that trumpeted Baja in the past have reported several frightening crimes that U.S. and Mexican officials consider credible. Longtime visitors are particularly wary of a toll road near the border that runs through Playas de Rosarito - Rosarito Beach.
In late November, as they returned from the Baja 1000 off-road race, a San Diego-area family was pulled over on the toll road by a car with flashing lights. Heavily armed men held the family hostage for two hours. They eventually released them but stole the family's truck.
Before dawn on Aug. 31, three surfers were carjacked on the same stretch of highway. Gunmen pulled them over in a car with flashing lights, forced them out of their vehicles and ordered one to kneel. They took the trucks and left the surfers.
Aqua Adventures of San Diego scrapped its annual three-day kayak trip to scout for whales in January, ending a run of about 10 years. Customers had already been complaining about longer waits to return to the U.S.; crime gave them another reason to stay away.
"People are just saying, 'No way.' They don't want to deal with the risk," said owner Jen Kleck, who has sponsored trips to Baja about five times a year but hasn't been since July.
Charles Smith, spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Tijuana, said the U.S. government has not found a widespread increase in attacks against Americans, but he acknowledged many crimes go unreported. The State Department has long warned motorists on Mexico's border to watch for people following them, though no new warnings have been issued.
Mexican officials acknowledge crime has threatened a lifeblood of Baja's economy. In Playas de Rosarito, a city of 130,000, police were forced to surrender their weapons last month for testing to determine links to any crimes. Heavily armed men have patrolled City Hall since a failed assassination attempt on the new police chief left one officer dead. On Thursday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Tijuana police official and another man were found dumped near the beach.
"We cannot minimize what's happening to public safety," said Oscar Escobedo Carignan, Baja's new secretary of tourism. "We're going to impose order ... We're indignant about what's happening."
Tourist visits to Baja totaled about 18 million in 2007, down from 21 million the previous year, Escobedo said. Hotel occupancy dropped about 5 percentage points to 53 percent.
Hugo Torres, owner of the storied Rosarito Beach Hotel and the city's new mayor, estimates the number of visitors to Rosarito Beach since summer is down 30 percent.
In the city's Puerto Nuevo tourist enclave, which offers $20 lobster dinners and $1 margaritas, restaurant managers said sales were down as much as 80 percent from last year. One Saturday afternoon in October, masked bandits wielding pistols walked the streets and kidnapped two men - an American and a Spanish citizen - who were later released unharmed. Two people who were with them were shot and wounded.
Omar Armendariz, who manages a Puerto Nuevo lobster restaurant, is counting on the new state and city governments to make tourists feel safer. He has never seen fewer visitors in his nine years on the job.
"It's dead," he said.
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I have driven the entire length of Mexico on three different vacations.
It really is a different world from the United States.
It is not uncommon to come upon a roadblock. A soldier with an M16 will appear in the middle of the road, a guy next to him is waving a lantern.
There will be maybe thirty more soldiers standing nearby.
They make you pull over and your car gets searched for about 15 minutes.
If you have a Buck knife, bye bye to that, Prohibido! Funny, every Mexican peasant is running around with a 3 foot long machete but your Buck knife has run afoul of the law.
If you have some Playboy magazines, bye bye to that, Prohibido! I am sure those get thoroughly inspected by the cops.
I wasn't stupid enough to drive around with any drugs down there, though I did smoke pot at the time.
But when we would go to campgrounds and spoke to American and European tourists we heard stories of Americans getting framed at these roadblocks. The cop comes out of your glove box with a nickel bag, Mucho Problema!
When the dust settles your father will wind up wiring down ten grand to get you out of jail, and you will never see your car again.
Combine Mexico's quaint legal system with the amoebic dysentery you get every time you go down there, and there are some good reasons to travel to western countries governed by written law, such as Canada, and to just skip Mexico.0 -
yep, i got to admit, visiting mexico isnt high on my list of "must do destinations"
i know two people who have gone there for holidays, and they have both been robbed by the cops!
going to a new place and trying to find your way around is hard enough, but to get robbed by the people who are supposed to help you is a horrible thing!
it`s just not worth the risk.0 -
among people in southern california it is well known for 30 years that baja was basically safe. like the article said, it was common for the police to pull you over and demand that you pay the ticket, in cash, right there. but now mexico has changed dramatically. the border region is just pure war and there is no law.
in addition, americans are being targeted. previously the policia would say that americans couldnt be targeted because it would reduce tourism. however, know they are fair game.
i have heard from numerous sources that the mexicans are targeting americans now in retribution for our attempts to crack down in illegal immigration. in addition, the mexican government is mad because of our efforts to cut down in illegal drugs being smuggled into the US, by MEXICAN POLICE.
i wont go to mexico now, its too dangerous.0 -
I like the idea of no tourist going south.
wait a little while, all that will be left is vacant buildings.
they will all be headed north to the united states.
we should just annex mexico to the union.
with all the money going south from illegals.
we could balance the budget0 -
I can speak with a little authority on the subject of Baja. She was our 'mistress' for about 30 years - from 1960 to about 1990, fishing, camping, offroad racing, and a little exploring and prospecting in the San Pedro Nasitier Range.
Allen, you made some valid points (below) but I think an explaination should me made to a few of your points. Just about everything in mexico can be explained and even defended - they are a pretty simple and uncomplicated people/society.
quote: allen griggs:
It really is a different world from the United States.
THAT is an understatement. Their laws are pretty straightforward and easily understood. In the past, just about everything could be settled with a small bribe - 'morbida' or 'the bite.'
It is not uncommon to come upon a roadblock. A soldier with an M16 will appear in the middle of the road, a guy next to him is waving a lantern.
Those roadblocks were set up by the United States Drug Enforcement folks sent down there to make sure they were established and run correctly. There were AWAYS DEA folks hidden off in the bushes out of sight. The roadblocks were random and run by the Mexican Army. The United State's DEA guys used them to intercept drug running and the Mexicans used them in order to stop the Communist guerrilla. The last time we were in Alcapoco 21 soldiers were machine gunned to death in the state north of there. The commies were killing Mexican soldiers for years and still remain a problem for the Army, except recently they've been pretty much absorbed by the drug cartels.
There will be maybe thirty more soldiers standing nearby.
Usually a hidden jeep and a truck, or two, with 16 soldiers to a truck.
There was usually a .50 caliber heavy watercooled machine gun set up out of sight where you couldn't see it as easily as the soldiers. We were once given a tour of such a roadblock by a very proud Mexican Army lieutenant. They were almost encouraging the drug running Communist guerrillas to run the initial kid soldier and the harmless looking lantern carrier, when one was used. Sometimes it was just a kid-looking soldier in local clothes (no uniform) to further bait their trap.
They make you pull over and your car gets searched for about 15 minutes.
If you have a Buck knife, bye bye to that, Prohibido!
Yep - that's the law. You break their laws and it was off to bucket ... unless you carried a twenty and later a fifty dollar note.
The three things you DIDN'T do was to get yourself involved on the wrong side of their laws, religion or politics - the PRI!
Funny, every Mexican peasant is running around with a 3 foot long machete but your Buck knife has run afoul of the law.
Yep - the peasants use those machetes every day - they are considered a tool in their hands - a weapon in yours.
If you have some Playboy magazines, bye bye to that, Prohibido! I am sure those get thoroughly inspected by the cops.
Actually, we used to carry (smuggle) boxes of playboys down to Gonzaga Bay and Baja de Los Angeles to pay for air - the air compressor guys preferred them to Gringo dolares - you money coudn't buy Playboys there - a VERY traditional Catholic country, remember? The village(s) women finally traced them to us - so we would buy a couple cases of baby food to give to the ladies and everything remained status quo.
I wasn't stupid enough to drive around with any drugs down there, though I did smoke pot at the time.
Yep - drugs would get you in jail - pronto! BUT, also remember, in TEXAS, if you were caught smoking a joint, you could, and often would get life in prison, in those days - especially, if you were dark skinned or a 'negro.'
But when we would go to campgrounds and spoke to American and European tourists we heard stories of Americans getting framed at these roadblocks. The cop comes out of your glove box with a nickel bag, Mucho Problema!
I've never heard of that - but - I'm sure it happened, occasionally. Back in those 'good old days' the policia were still a little carefully about framing tourists. They could get buttwhipped if the wrong political hombres found out. ... but like I said before, a $20 bill would take care of just about anything, with the local polic?a. The PJF boys were often another matter - they were the Polic?a Judicial Federal - or the Federalies - they were the federal SS - feared (rightly so) by all. You messed with those guys and you would often get beaten half to death or shot - or BOTH - before getting thrown into the bucket! It was - and IS - a good idea to walk around those guys ... on tippie tippie toes, if possible!
When the dust settles your father will wind up wiring down ten grand to get you out of jail, and you will never see your car again.
Maybe - those things are more common today..
One last footnote. We used to carry a 'throwaway .357 SA' ... not for protection against the locals - they were AWAYS great people ... instead, we were afraid of the crazy drunken drugged out gringos we'd run into out in the desolate regions of the Baja. In those days, if they found your hideaway gun, a big deal presentation of your gun to the Mexican policia findee was sufficient to settle things down, right then and there. It happened to two friends of mine - on two seperate occasions. Now, if it was a fererally ... it was sometimes more serious.
Combine Mexico's quaint legal system with the amoebic dysentery you get every time you go down there, and there are some good reasons to travel to western countries governed by written law, such as Canada, and to just skip Mexico.
Problem with Mexico today, is that THEY'VE BEEN EDUCATED by their Norte Americano Bros - that's US! In large part ... WE'VE created the monster that is now beginning to feed on us! Unfortunately, it's a genie that will never go back into it's bottle. For all of you who will never experience the 'Old Mexico' - I find it sad, very sad indeed.
[:D]
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Never been there, I doubt I never will. Why go there? 0 -
quote:by Allen Griggs, But when we would go to camp grounds and spoke to American and European tourists we heard stories of Americans getting framed at these road blocks. The cop comes out of your glove box with a nickel bag, Mucho Problema!
When the dust settles your father will wind up wiring down ten grand to get you out of jail, and you will never see your car again.
Two wrongs don't make a right but we should do this to the illegals.
Naaa lets just enforce the laws, or arrest those who don't for dereliction of duty.0 -
We cancelled a February camper tour down the Baja Peninsular last month after figuring projected fuel costs at 7-8 mpg from the east coast. It didn't justify.
After reading the above story on Yahoo this A.M. we alerted our friends who were still set on going with their 5th wheel camper.
We certainly feel better about our cancellation.0 -
I used to travel the Baja quite a bit. In the 1960s and 1970s. The thing that is different now is that the corruption is far worse, and the drug lords have found that robbing the Gringos is a profitable venture. And they know that the government will not mount any attempt to stop them. Police chiefs in Tijuana, when the try to do their jobs, get executed. 0 -
My step-son and his friends got robbed by the "POLICE" down there years ago on a surfing trip. 0 -
I have been in Mexico, and have spent money there. I have since repented and will never again do so. 0 -
Well, zipperzap, nice to talk to a fellow Mexico traveler, you have more experience down there than I do.
My first trip I crossed at Matamoros and went down to Isla Mujeres, 1970. I was a 19 year old kid, by myself in a VW van, what a wild ass!
Hard to believe today, but in that year Cancun did not exist! Met a stacket blond college girl from New York City on Isla Mujeres.....ah, keeps an old man warm on these cold winter nights, these memories.
Second trip, Crossed at Laredo and went down to Acapulco, and a little south, I remember we camped for a few days at Barra de Navidad.
Third trip crossed at Matamoros and went over to the Pacific, and down the coast all the way to Guatemala, and eventually to El Salvador. My college buddy George and I were going surfing.
I got so sick of those roadblocks and getting hassled by the Mexican cops and soldiers. So you say all those roadblocks were set up and monitored by DEA? Very interesting, I don't doubt it.
And, the Mexicans had a water cooled .50 hidden in the shadows? That is wild. I referenced M16s in my initial post, but actually in those days they mostly had FN/FALs in .308. Looked funny to see a little 4 foot 10 Mexican soldier with that big rifle. In the worst case, we were stopped at 4 roadblocks in one day, boy did that get old!
We did hear, in the middle '70s, that they were having a real problem with communist guerrillas, over in the mountains near the Pacific, in the Acapulco area, coming down and robbing banks and shooting a few cops or soldiers, that was the reason for all the roadblocks over there. You NEVER read about this communist insurrection stuff in American or Mexican newspapers.
On my third trip, we were heading back home for Laredo at about 3 am, and we were 50 miles from the border, and got pulled over at a damn roadblock out there in the desert. A Federale searched our van for 20 minutes. He was plainclothes, as they always were, and he had on a leather jacket with sheepskin collars turned out. Had an ivory grip 1911 Colt on his hip, those Federales loved the Colt .45, worshipped it.
That damn guy lifted up the floor mats and sifted with his fingers through the sand beneath, looking for a single marijuana seed. A miracle he didn't find one, hell it might have been there for 6 months, could have been a little orange sunshine under that damn mat for all I knew. But he didn't find anything and he didn't try to frame us, Gracias a Dios!
On my third auto trip, my brother and I were down there in central Mexico. We had just filled up at a PEMEX station. My brother was just pulling out when I heard someone yelling. I looked back, about a hundred feet back a Mexican guy was yelling and waving at us. I told my brother, "Wait, this guy needs a lift, wait a minute and help him out. Be a nice guy."
My brother stopped.
Big mistake.
He too had a leather jacket, and it turned out, a 1911 Colt with ivory grips on his hip. Federale, as were his 3 Compadres, all identically armed and garbed.
We got searched for 20 minutes, including pressing the tire valves and sniffing the air from all tires including the spare, cops trying to sniff some marijuana or coke.
They said, "Do ju smoka the greengrass?"
My brother liked to smoke a jay, like me, but I had told him, "No pot in Mexico, peligrosa!" So we had nothing illegal. They didn't try to frame us and they let us go but it was scary.
The charm of picking up Mexican hitchikers was quickly lost on both of us. This happened in December 1975.
I had heard many stories of Gringos getting cars confiscated, so I figured to turn the tables.
The next six times I went to Mexico, I flew to the hellhole of Cancun, rented a car there, and just hung around on the Yucatan. Never saw a roadblock over there. The Mayan people are such kind and gentle people, I really liked them. We would leave Cancun hellhole immediately and go a couple hours down the coast and rent a beautiful grass hut on the beach for $7 a day, now that was living. We stayed at the Cabanas Chac Mool, get up at 9 am, walk over to the little restaurant there, on the point 200 feet away from our Pelapas hut, and order some Huevos Rancheros and a Cerveza Superior for breakfast for a dollar, damn, that was living!
Go back to our hut, and sleep in a beautiful Yucatecan hammock between two palm trees, and take a two hour nap.
Go back to the restaurant and get some fried barracuda, and papas fritas, and a Cerveza Superior for lunch for $1.25, ah, yes.
My girlfriend and I would lay there at night in that grass hut, 100 feet from the beach, with the surf crashing and the sea breeze blowing through the hut, man, that was living. No electric or ac down there in the jungle and you didn't need it as long as the sea breeze blew.
We would drive to the ancient Spanish cities of Vallidolid and Merida and spend a few days. With the central plazas and the 250 year old buildings, you felt like you had taken a trip in a time machine. Gracious people, great food, delicious Margaritas with fresh limes grown in the back yards, and CHEAP.
I figured, if the cops wanted to harass me and confiscate my car, they could take it up with Hertz, Mexican section. But never had any trouble with cops on the Yucatan.
I hear what you say about missing the old days in Mexico. I have read about it, and I got in on the tail end of it. It would have been great to go down there in 1950, you didn't have all the tension that exists today. Obviously I liked many things about the place or I wouldn't have gone to so much time and trouble to visit there over 20 years, and I lived in Atlanta, pretty good travel distance to get there.
I guess the old Mexican proverb sums it up, "Poor Mexico, so close to the United States, so far from God."0 -
Yes, indeed, allen griggs, it was an ADVENTURE ... and ALWAYS a pleasurable one for us. The closest thing we ever had to a bad experience was near Taxco - we were caravaning all over Central Mexico with three other couples. One of them (couple) had a '78 VW Bus - remember those de-tuned pancake Porsche engines they experimented with for a couple of years - '78 & '79, I believe?
Anyway, after a heavy rainfall, we all went zipping around a blind corner - never a smart thing to do down there - usually, if you hit something it'd be most likely an open range cow but in this case, it was a big hole in the road! The bus skidded right up to the edge and very slowly - in slow motion - fell into the hole, front wheels first. The softened edges extended about 20 feet around the edge so we opted to go back into town and get some help - it was actually, a small village.
As we drove back into the village the first person we saw was the local police chief! I figured that we might have some trouble with that guy - he had a big belly and commanded authority. We told him that one of our cars had fallen into a hole in the road, outside of town.
He glared back with a very grim look and told us to follow as he walked over to the local bar. He told a number of men to run out and bring back some help. Uh oh, I siad to myself. Trouble.
When everyone returned there were about 50 men and probably an equal number of boys! Many had picks and shovels. I started calculating the money it was going take to pay all those guys - and the chief of police, of course - my heart sank - we'd probably come up a couple of hundred short.
We all walked back to the hole with the tail end of the bus sticking up out of it. Within a few - minutes they had surrounded the bus, and raised it to safety on the other side of the hole. Then they all went to work filling the hole with rocks, dirt and gravel. It took them about fifteen minutes.
When they finished, I poked a fist full of dollars towards the chief - and he looked shocked and embarrassed. He declined them and said to me, "No senior, that is not necessary. We only ask that you to not mention the hole in our road when you go through the next village down the road. We take great pride in our roads!" ... you could have blown me over with a feather!
As for the heavy .50 cal. machine gun - we were shown that one over in the Northern Sonora - near El Golfo - when the driver of a big Cheyenne 4x4 was thinking of running over an armed kid in the road. I shouted at him so loudly he almost jumped out the window! After stopping some more soldiers came out from behind a bush and asked us if we wanted to meet some of their friends - and that's when we saw the MG up on the top of a small hill overlooking the road. They smiles broadly and pointed out another about a quarter mile away on top of a small hill overlooking the same road. The young soldier said that each group of anticommunist soldiers had at least one MG hidden out of sight nearby! The implication was that anyone stupid enough to try running their primitive road stop would immediately be vaporized into a fine red mist by a pretty nifty heavy MG crossfire. Convinced us! We left them a case of Carta Blanca. Not a bad idea in those situations - ... never can have enough friends with machine guns!
I do miss those days - a LOT - but, to keep things in perspective, we were in our twenties and thirties and not sixties - usually fairly well lubed with cerveza! We didn't mind stepping over and walking around rattlers at night and doing the morning boot shakes - hoping that all the scorpions would fall out!
It was a special time, though. It was so much fun that we realized at the time that there'd never be another time like it, and time has proven us right. We just have fond memories, now, nothing else. Everything changes ... everything.
[:D]0 -
My wife wants to go there with me to visit her uncle. He owns a large ranch down there. He's a very nice guy. I really don't want to go down there. I don't really want to go anywhere outside of the USA. Not to mention the dangers of down there. She always asures me the problems are right along the border and where he uncle lives in deep Mexico and people are ok there. Still no from me though. 0 -
All I can hear is Squidward laughing.... 0 -
SLIPERY SLIMEY SCUM!
They want war, lets give them their wish[;)]0 -
zipperzap that is a pretty good adventure you had near Taxco.
I went there on one of my trips, we bought a bunch of silver rings and malachite jewelry for the girls back in Georgia, they loved that stuff.0 -
Taxco - one of the most beautiful towns anywhere - with obsidian street cobbles, each with a separate and unique design - the church that Borda built and a 350 year old hotel next to it - one of the most romantic places I've ever seen! ... and of course, the silver capital of Mexico!
Most folks don't know that it's also the fire opal capital of the world, as well. We watched on a typical sales day - at the time, only one day a week - the 'Fire Opal Man' selling trays of them to the European buyers for suitcases of money ... and we were able to buy from what was left over - which were good enough for me![:D]
quote:Kodiakk:
My wife wants to go there with me to visit her uncle. He owns a large ranch down there. He's a very nice guy. I really don't want to go down there. I don't really want to go anywhere outside of the USA. Not to mention the dangers of down there. She always asures me the problems are right along the border and where he uncle lives in deep Mexico and people are ok there. Still no from me though.
That's too bad - you should leap at the opportunity! 99.999% of the Mexican people are absolutely spectacular! (I know ... this is really ME speaking ... this sounds like someone's got a gun to my head, right? Wrong. I'm just really P/Oed about illegals over running our country)!
The border Mexicans are a different breed - thanks to U.S. TV and association with border Americans (sounds funny, but it's true) we've corrupted them - and they've lost their values. Where the average Mexican, south of the border, has retained much of what they had in the 'good old days' the border Mexicans are pretty nasty to deal with. Compare the murder rate per capita of our two countries).
Large land owners are wonderful people to know and befriend in Mexico. You are missing a fantastic opportunity. I'd check it out. Where does he live in Mexico? ... I'd go in a heartbeat ... you might learn a lot.
[:D]0 -
Scott -
The mexicans already get more from me than I can afford.
I have made many trips to Baja in the past, but they will never get another nickel from me.
I understand your love for the place, and that has a lot to do with your lifelong proximity to it. I would love to experience again many things that happened in my twenties and thirties.
Those who are looking for a vacation destination, might try some of the places in the United States that they have never visited...maybe even San Diego. I have a friend there who would show you around.
Doug0
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