Date:         Sat, 3 May 2008 10:04:13 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Subject:      Going safe in Mexico.some tips.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

  One thing you can do is NOT hang around the border towns, as has been
said.  I've lived long periods in Baja  for  15ys, off and on and traveled
widely on Mainland, also..by vehicle.  My only trouble has ever happened in
the bordertowns, other than a few minor incidents in La Paz and Cabo..
  The border areas in Mexico are VERY dangerous.  Drug related bad guys,
combined with crooks of all types seem to congregate along the borders and
in towns like Ensenada, and they are not reluctant to brazenly take the
opportunity to rob a gringo if given half a chance.  I do not camp out near
the border any longer.  If I must remain near a border town, I use a
commercial campground with a good fence and security around and I still
watch my a** carefully.  The main tourist routes can also be problematic,
but these ARE patrolled and probably as safe as any in the US..
  Large dogs are probably the best security you can have in Mexico.
Mexicans, on a whole, are very leery of large healthy looking unafraid dogs.
Mine, usually I take two large Chesapeake retrievers, have saved our butts
and make it easy to feel secure about leaving your campsite or parking and
being away from the vehicle for periods you wouldn't normally feel right
about.  I have a special spiked collar that I stick on my male when we head
south....Makes him look really mean, that and his intense yellow-eyed stare
causes many macho Mexican Man to make a wide detour around our camp or cross
the street rather than walk past the vehicle...We are almost always waved
through all the Army drug and gun checks you encounter...the soldiers take
one look at those two dogs and say "Pase! Pase!"
  Though we have never been asked, you are supposed to have proper travel
papers for taking dogs.  We always do, just in case.
  The one 'scam' that we were caught in happened in LaPaz, Baja.  One of the
local scumbags downtown had a crappy old honda 50 that he would sneak up and
wedge under tourist's bumpers behind big campers.  He got us with that
scam..My fault..I watched him pull that same scam about a dozen times later
that season, sometimes with the police right there, getting their cut..We
gave the jerk $50 US to "buy a new gas tank" even though the dented one he
lamented about after we "backed over his moto" was not even attached to the
un-rideable little honda..  Smart crook, dumb gringos...but Mexico is a
different culture and sometimes it is best to 'take the hit' rather than try
to fight the scam...It would have been with that guy, who we saw later often
smoozing wth the local cops...
  It's probably like anywhere, the cities have their share of crooks but out
in the countryside the traveling is safer than the US.

  Don Hanson