Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 06:50:39 -0700 (PDT)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Tobin T. Copley" <tobin@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca>
Subject: Re: Got back from Baja
On Wed, 14 Jun 1995, Lars Poulsen wrote:
> As a European, I was used to criss-crossing borders on vacation, but
> after arriving in California, I have been told so many scary stories,
> that in 15 years I have never dared to drive into Mexico.
>
> Anecdotes say that
> - driving down the highway, you WILL be held up either by robbers
> or by the police, who want a hundred dollars to let you go
We've all heard stories, but in our drive down the Pacific coast well
past Acapulco, over the mountains, and back up the Gulf coast to
Brownsville (about 6,000 miles, one month in the country) we had no
problems like this. ZERO. We met plenty of other gringos along the way,
and none of these folks had any problems in their travels that winter.
Keep in mind it's always a good policy to keep a low profile, wherever
you travel. We've all heard similar stories about the corrupt hicksville
cops in the Deep South, too, right?
> - no US insurance company will write you insurance valid in Mexico,
> and it is next to impossible (and next to unaffordable) to buy
> Mexican insurance for a short trip
You can purchase Mexican driving insurance from AAA offices in southern
California, including one conveniently located in San Ysidro. Rates are
higher than insurance in the states or Canada, but they don't make a trip
unaffordable. (We didn't go for collision ins, tho)
> - poor people will throw their kids in front of a Norteamericano
> vehicle and sue the driver; they may be short one kid, but now
> the surviving family is rich.
Or they lead their livestock into the road, or they drive into you
deliberately, or they lynch drivers who run into people in small remote
villages.... The stories abound. I, personally, saw no barrage of
thrown children in any of the towns I drove through ;)
> - teenagers who resent Norteamericanos will vandalize your vehicle
Actually, I did see a lot of this. No kidding. Only in the south of
Mexico, and ALWAYS directed at rich Americans driving very large
ostentatious shiny converted-greyhound bus-type RV coaches that probably
cost at least $300,000 a piece. Several folks had had kids shot at them
with powerful slingshots on several occasions. One guy had a large rock
thrown through his windshield while driving at speed (missed his body by
about 2 feet). Several had picked up a lot of nails in the tires. One
rig even got fire-bombed one night at a trailer park we were staying at
(no kidding). One gut picked up a big bullet hole in his front fender,
but that was over-zealous government types doing some poor shooting in a
conflict with some criminal types in Mazatlan, so it doesn't count.
Avoid this problem by not looking rich. Drive a VW van. Don't wash
it--period. Pay a kid a few pesos to watch your van after you park it if
you're really worried about it. Better yet, buy some pasteries, tamales,
fruit, or whatever the little kids try to sell you (as long as you
want/could use it) when the village's kids swarm up to your car when you
pull up. Smile and wave at folks. Be respectful of the people and the
country. I figure I'm an ambassador for my country, so I'm going to try
and leave these folks with a good impression of Canadians. Good karma,
ya know.
>
> I have always WANTED to take a (winter ?) vacation in Mexico, but
> with these stories, I thought that I would have to fly in and rent
> from Avis locally.
By all means go to Mexico. It's a great country, wonderful people, and
only gets better the further you get from the tourist spots. This is why
a VW van is so great. The only "horror" stories I've heard that I'm at
all close to the source of these stories involve rental cars. And I can
kind of see it--rental cars DO mark you as a target, whether in Mexico or
Miami. And Mexico IS a poor country. Still, we should keep this all is
perspective, most people who rent cars in Mexico have a wonderful time
without any problems. The thing that would concern me most about flying
in and renting a car in Mexico would be the lack of driving
"aclimatization": driving requires a lot more attention than elsewhere in
north america, drivers are generally more aggressive, and road hazards
are many and varied. For me, I find Mexican driving a lot more fun than,
say, the boredom of driving freeways in the states or Canada.
> It sounds like people on the list have MUCH more cheerful stories.
> I would like to hear more of people's experiences.
I'm working on a full report of our Big Trip, and as soon as I can figure
out how to upload it to this stupid freenet system I'll start to post
it. Maybe one (long!) section per Friday?
Viva Mexico!
Tobin
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Tobin T. Copley Currently =============
(604) 689-2660 Occupationally /_| |__||__| :| putta
tobin@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca Challenged! O| | putta
'-()-------()-'
Circum-continental USA, Mexico, Canada 15,000 miles... '76 VW Camper! (Mango)
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