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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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)