Mexico – Safe or Unsafe? Rosie and The Operator can honestly say they never felt threatened, intimidated or unsafe anywhere on our travels in Mexico.
Okay, we didn’t go off the beaten tourist track too many times to be honest, even when we were poking around cities….sometimes we were the only tourists around….Rosie doesn’t think they were looked at twice, other than a shy smile from the locals now and then. Rosie dosn’t think they were targeted in any way….well, except by a gang of 8 year olds maybe….and 0.50c kept them happy and us amused.
Even Rosie on her own for a month never felt scared walking down an empty street on her own with people walking behind her. Lets be real, you can put yourself in silly situations, Rosie didnt, she was always home before dark and never carried too much money around at any one time…cause I didnt really need it.
Why then did we go to Mexico with plans on how to scupper all of the underhand dealings and scams we would encounter? We even prepared by having a ‘fake wallet’…with a little money and old cancelled credit cards in it….so we could hand that over if we were held up. True! Rosie is actually quite ashamed thinking about the hours reading on the internet about scammers, dangers and things to watch out for. All perpetrated by US sites spewing forth their ‘fake news’.
Why all the scaremongering? Rosie doesn’t really understand it. Yes there are troubled areas in Mexico….No, we and any right minded tourist wouldn’t go anywhere near those spots of unrest. Yes, there have been terrorist attacks in the past, as per every major tourist destination in the world. Its a big country, you can put a lot of space between a trouble spot and the areas you are visiting. Its like when the earthquake struck Christchurch and all our overseas friends are contacting us to see if we are all right because of the disaster that happened ‘in New Zealand’. That’s kind of putting it into context. The irony is all the gun crime and violence happening my own little country that I am reading about whilst in Mexico.
Rosie and The Operator can say they they never saw any rough sleepers or homeless. There were no gangs of youth hanging around street corners….thinking about it now……that even seems a little odd that no groups of friends seemed to gather. Most boys that age (late teens) seemed to be already in the road working crews that were en force around the town. We never saw any displays of public drunkenness or fighting.
Is it because the police here are a big deterant in any unruliness? The police ARE intimidating here, totally. When you first see them its like WOW…I mean full jumpsuited combat gear, body armor, helmets, sometimes face covers and fully loaded, hands on trigger weaponry. Holstered side arm and finger on the trigger of a huge automatic weapon held across their chests. They are not the people you would ask for directions on the street corner. Their big, matte black utes look like battle trucks straight out of a Mad Max movie. Road patrols driving around have an armed guy standing in the back of a cage watching the traffic. After a couple of days, the novelty of difference wears off and they blend into the shadows and become part of the norm.
Rosie and The Operator will never take our own safety for granted, we are always vigilant to the world around us and any developing situations. Sometimes though, and you read about them world wide, you can be just caught in the middle of something you have no control over. A random event, in one place and time…..these are terrible when they happen, but dont let this deter anyone from travelling anywhere. The odds of you being in that place and time are still really stacked in your favour. Rosie just touched wood….and threw away the fake wallet.
