Is driving in Mexico dangerous? (Page 4): Or, if you love to listen to the Spanish language (Mexican isn't Spanish language) go to Spain. There is everything there, and more, than in...

jolly1

risteard wrote:

I read from the B.B.C. {because the American press hide things}
That the Cartels are going into towns and shooting women and CHILDREN. This way they can remain in control.
Americans can be targets for ransom.
Go to Ireland instead

Or, if you love to listen to the Spanish language (Mexican isn't Spanish language) go to Spain. There is everything there, and more, than in Mexico, and the Spanish people honestly do love Americans. The only nation in Europe where you will be treatred as friends and not as money leaking tourists.

pebble70 Loc: Winchester, MA USA

I have been to both places several times, and while both are very beautiful... I would not under any circumstances drive in Mexico; especially not near the Mayan ruins (as they are not near anything,not even help if you should need it) take the bus
watch the tipping policy (they often want a % of the cost of the ticket....yikes !!!

ken

Gramps Loc: Republic of Tejas--Tomball, TX

asylum1972 wrote:

donrent wrote:

Mexico has basically NO control over the drug cartel and to travel across the border to me would be like asking to be in danger....

I would NOT advise it at all...

Are you saying stay away from Mexico altogether, or just don't drive in Mexico?

Do bears do it in the woods? What part of make certain you have told your next of kin,that this may be your last dispatch don't you understand!!!!!!!!?????

rkeele Loc: Puyallup, Wa.

If there was any doubt about being safe , common sense would tell me to find another place to visit. Especially if i had a young child with me.

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

Now this is a subject I know a lot about having visited the area from '85 and lived on the Riviara Maya for 5 yrs -'00 to '05 and have family who have lived there for over 30 yrs and still do.
Driving on the Yucatan Peninsula is as safe as you are anywhere in the USA - there are fantastic new hyws and toll roads in all the areas you mentioned.
Tourism is Mexicos 2nd largest income - if you notice there is little or no violence regarding the areas you mention and zero with tourists.
Fly into Cancun rent a car and enjoy the area -I suggest an overnight trip to Chitza Nitza with a stay at the Mayaland Hotel that is just steps away from the ruins & photos ops are endless- that way you can go to the colored lighted night show that really give the history of the ruins. please fell free to PM me for infor on the area.
Harvey

cudakite Loc: San Antonio

Worked in mexico for 23 years. As a result i've a depth of knowledge not too many ppl have. Mexico is an out of control cesspool. Two plant managers murdered and one of our maquiladoras bombed in just the last 18 months i was stupid enough to work there. Can you get away with it? Sure, once when young and mindless, i managed to run across a freeway in the L.A. area on a dare. Hope there is no one back here that would miss you terribly if your luck isn't extra good. Mexico?! HaHaHaHa! I wish you well.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

tramsey wrote:

I live seven miles from the Mexican border and haven't been there in two years. The last time I went they had armed military troops walking around, an armored car(looked like a tank) that had a machine gun with a military guy behind it, He was moving it back and forth. There were Hummer looking vehicles that were full of armed troops in the middle of all the intersections. This was all less than a block off the bridge. This was all more than two years ago and I understand that it's worse now, twice as many troops, twice as many armored vehicles. This is Nevo Progresso, just a tiny village, the business area is only about four block long on one street. I don't know the population, tiny.
People come here from up North to spend the winter. They used to go across frequently, sight seeing, dining etc. I don't hear of anybody going like that, all they do is go to the first pharmacy or dentist across the bridge and hurry back.
There was a gun battle on the main street last year. Tourists were shot at, a building was burned down, several military vehicles tipped over and burned. That evening on the news it was reported that it was a battle between two different cartel in the area. There wasn't any American killed, two were wounded and four cartel members were killed. This has been the only incident that has been reported in Nevo Progresso.
Business people that have a business in Matamoros don't drive there, they fly.
In Brownsville there is the University of Texas, Brownsville that is right on the Rio Grande River and on most of the walls that are facing south have bullet holes in them.

Take a vacation in Mexico? Good place to stay away from.

I just remembered, last year there was an American family with twin girls that were about 6 or 7. They were on their way to Mexico City. The twins were kidnapped and held for ransom. When the parents got them back they (the girls) were addicted to drugs and so abused they had to be hospitalized, yes abused in all the ways.

If you go you'll need a passport or passport card and picture identification, your birth certificate would be a good idea to take to. You'll need these things to get back into the U.S.

I live seven miles from the Mexican border and hav... (show quote)

I hate to hear about it being this bad in Nevo Progresso, I was there probably 6, 7 years ago with my family. We stayed in the little business area for a few hours and then came back across into the U.S. There were lots of people crossing back and forth in those days. I definitely wouldn't do it now.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

asylum1972 wrote:

I'm not asking about Mexican border towns or Mexico City. I won't even travel to those places. I'm talking about the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico, near Belize. Are the cartels and the crime as bad in that region too?

Based on the military guards that were standing on the pier with guns and in the tops of truck with machine guns when I was in Progresso in 2010 I would say yes it can be that bad there too. That was my second time to visit Progresso and it was a little unnerving to see them there because I thought we were out of the dangerous area and they definitely weren't there the first time we were there. I took a cruise in 2010 to Progresso and Cozumel, that was my second time to visit each and I honestly don't know if I would go back or not. I didn't really notice military in Cozumel, but we didn't really leave the shops they had built next to the pier and when we did it was with a local cab driver who took us to our destination and helped us get what we wanted and we came back to the little shops.

cudakite Loc: San Antonio

PS. None, and i mean ZERO, of my mexican friends will take their families across the border any more. And i find that quite sad. =(

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

WHAT _ BOY ARE YOU FULL OF IT!!!
Chitza Nitza is a BIG CITY - TALUME is A BIG CITY the Roads to both ARE FREEWAYS DON"T write stuff you don't know personally is true. #ONE rule in MEXICO is DO NOT drive at night - not the banditos but - broken down cars and trucks with no warning lights or flares, people in dark cloths walking on the roads, bicycles without reflectors, and animals - they don't have fences a lot of the time. Those crosses along the road sides are not from tourist.
Cancun to Chitza Nitza - freeway/toll road - Cancun to Playa del Carmen & Talume - freeway - road to Coba from Talume - heavily traveled good paved road.
Who are all the people getting killed in NY, LA, SF, NO - the hoods not the tourists with children. Same in MX.
Harvey

pebble70 wrote:

I have been to both places several times, and while both are very beautiful... I would not under any circumstances drive in Mexico; especially not near the Mayan ruins (as they are not near anything,not even help if you should need it) take the bus
watch the tipping policy (they often want a % of the cost of the ticket....yikes !!!

ken

QueenChatty Loc: Ontario, Canada

[quote=russelray]

asylum1972 wrote:

The key to driving in Mexico is to drive twice as nicely as you would in America. If it's a stop sign and you normally roll through the stop sign, stop completely instead. If it's a yellow light and you normally run through yellow lights, slam on your brakes instead of stomping on the gas. If necessary, back up to get out of the intersection. If the speed limit is 65 and you normally do 75, do 55 instead.

No the "KEY" is "NOT" to drive at all in Mexico....I was just there last Jan 2012 and glad I only took taxis that the hotel said were good and only went to the Mayan Ruins via Tourbus.
They drive like maniacs they go as fast as they can and they run red lights cut people off..pretty scarey stuff just being the passenger. We had to laugh waiting for the bus...the drivers decide if they want to stop or not to pick up passengers so sometimes you would be waiting and the bus would just drive right by LOL it was crazy.
We stayed at an all inclusive resort and I would go again in a heart beat. Just don't go near the border districts or wander on your own. We stayed in Cancun.

cudakite Loc: San Antonio

harvey!HARVEY!! Con calma! Other folk's experiences may differ from yours. It's way swell you like mexico so much you are currently living there*, but many of us do not have whatever occult reasons you seem to have for loving it so much. Don't get me wrong, this is the very first post you've made i disagree with. No biggie, it's still more or less a free country. *That was an ambush but too childish even for me! lol!

Rick V

If you go stay at an all inclusive resort they have armed guards protecting the tourists that is what we did and we felt safe in the confines of the resort. We had guided tours of the ruins that you want to go to and had plenty of time at the sites. However we were guarded and we went at our own risk and that risk was spelled out at the resort. I personally wouldn't go and take my daughter there.

dachs

Caramba! We don't get this news in UK I read the posts with interest. Sounds like they've made themselves a no-go, which is stupid, they could make a mint off tourists if they just thought it through.

So that's all the old ruins off limits then?

Also, see the old film 'The Wages of Fear' - nitro-glycerine oil field chauffeurs one of whom got it wrong and actually removed an entire Mexican community with the explosion - actual events I recall (I think) 1930's, film is about mid 50's.

I need to revise my view of some of the World it seems, thanks all posters for the back ground

cudakite Loc: San Antonio

dachs wrote:

Caramba! We don't get this news in UK I read the ... (show quote)

Sad, isn't it?! This is what happens when both political parties allow an uncontrolled border with a quasi 3rd world country. The left wing wants another secure voting block for their agenda and the right wing wants an endless supply of cheap labor which drives down the cost of labor for those who are already well off. Is it any wonder we are witness to the rapid decline and probable death of the middle class? The very last real man we had as a president was Teddy Roosevelt. He went head on against the ultra rich and demands of his own party for the welfare of the people of his nation. The WORLD needs more like him!