Another 10 years of our current immigration policies and South = North.

Same,  or I am hiding from the FBI. But I can think of safer places, like Angola.

The real point of this sad story seems to be overlooked by most folk.
There's some poor bastard running out of clean plates to eat off, and his stack of paper plates won't last forever!

I don't even dare picture how bad the laundry basket is looking right now

Meh, I've been going down to Tiujuana for work somewhat regularly lately and I've never had an issue. Then again I'm back across the border before dark and I'm not a blonde female. I certainly wouldn't just wander the streets alone, even as a male.

Wasn't it a friend of an ARFCOM'er? I recall that thread - about three, maybe 4 years ago now?

Juarez is great for a walkabout, I hear.

It is. I was there last month and had a nice time walking around the city.

It's usually naive White girls that have lived in a bubble their entire life. They post memes of bullshit like seeing the best in everyone. My old roommate is like that. Love her like a sister, but she's always willing to go to third world countries to explore. She's good looking, great body, and just got back from a solo trip to Kuwait to visit her boyfriend in the military.

Morbid to say, but drowning in the ocean is probably the best case scenario of whatever happened to her.

i climbed to the top of the pyramid of the sun two times.  bought up some obsidian.  got laid.  mexico ain't got nothing on me!

Oh she's alive but that shit's like a two week old loose meat by now..  I have no sympathy for a chick that is stupid enough to wander outside of the hotel by herself... Or a dude who takes his SO to MX..

You couldn't pay me enough money to go to Mexico.

You do know Belize is not safe for white missionary women?
I was down there several years ago and the manager at the Hotel was telling me they have a big a problem
with rape out there. He told me (Belize is infested with Mennonites) that the locals will go out in the jungle and rape the
Mennonite women for fun. He said the women will not fight back, or call the cops due to religious reasons.

I even asked my taxi driver and he laughed about it and agreed.
Its like their version of Monday night football.

Just stay inside after dark, otherwise it can go sideways pretty quickly.

I once knew a guy in southern CA who spent his entire life in the military and law enforcement in various roles at a fairly high level. He always told his blued-eyed blonde daughter that one of three things could happen to her if she crossed into Mexico:

Raped and murdered
Kidnapped and sold
Kidnapped and then he would be extorted for money to get her back as he was a fairly well off guy.

He also told her these kinds of things could possibly involve the Mexican police. He absolutely forbade her to cross the border for any reason. Right or wrong, she never went to Mexico.

I'm used to keeping my head on a swivel at night here in my AO...course here it's bears and mountain lions I usually have to worry about.  
We've got a 500lb black bear in the neighborhood trying to fatten himself up for winter...5 homes broken into so far including my neighbors place 2 doors down.  Tore the garage door apart getting at some garbage inside.  He also broke into an occupied house and trashed the hell out of their kitchen.  NDOW has a trap set for him next door, and I'm hunting PETA types over it!  
In Mexico I travel with numbers and have a big knife on me.  I'm just a silly gringo diver...it's my dive knife!  

Yeah. I also know a guy that survived a Grizzly attack. He should go around telling people to try the same. He lived.

Visiting Juarez was nothing like being attacked by a grizzly bear. I felt entirely safe the whole time I was there. We walked around quite a bit, including in some areas well off the beaten path for visitors. We also attended a nighttime street concert, walked around the downtown area, wandered around El Chamizal Park, had drinks at a random dive bar, ate great food, and stayed in a nice hotel. The violence has calmed down dramatically since 2008-2012.

SO it's all good....until it's not.

Wow
That’s good to hear. For a long time any nighttime activity outside was absolutely a no go in that town.
Maybe things are turning a corner.
There were several years where I was told in no uncertain terms, do not come here, by family down there. It really is a beautiful place with a lot great folks. Unfortunately a completely corrupt gov and the drug trade have ruined that experience for everyone.

Yeah it was really nice. I visited in 2014 and it seemed okay then too, but I saw a lot more of the city this time. Here are some pictures I took last month:
https://imgur.com/a/CmUMlIj

https://imgur.com/a/kFMflbu

Well, his daughter is missing out on visiting a great place. He sounds paranoid.

He sounds like a guy who has enough knowledge of what happens in Mexico to want to scare his daughter from going there. I knew Mexicans in California with family in Mexico who would not go down there to visit their families. Most out of fear.

That’s sad. Thousands of Americans and people from all over the world visit Mexico every day and the vast majority come home just fine. It’s the 6th most visited country in the world—it gets about 40 million visitors per year.

It’s also sad that so many here are so terrified of such an interesting, beautiful country. Hard to understand the irrational fear that so many here seem to have.

I do have one personal safety fear.  Or perhaps I should say my liver is not safe from the unending waterfall of tequila refilling my cup.

Attached File

What's interesting is when you use google street maps to check out foreign countries. One thing you notice, and I'll use pre Hurricane Puerto Rico, as an example, is how all the neighborhood houses have bars on windows, a gate on the porch, so you can't walk up to the front door, bars on second story windows, no one in their front yard, no pedestrians anywhere, and that's a huge tell. If the people living there have to fortify their shitty little houses to feel safe, it's probably not a smart idea to be outside the hotel at night.

Yes that was my friend Harry Devert

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/My-friend-and-fellow-world-traveler-is-missing-in-Mexico-ETA-His-remains-were-identified-/5-1590518/

It’s scary outside my friend.

Which foreign country is Puerto Rico in?

Spain has claimed it...keep up on current events please.

I used to go to Cozumel every year for 2 weeks at a time.

I stayed in a nice beachfront resort (not all inclusive) a few blocks from the main part of town.

Most resorts were not all inclusive so people could walk anywhere day or night to shop or visit restaurants all over the island and not feel afraid.

Once most resorts changed to all inclusive people had little desire to venture from their resort compound to visit all the little mom and pop restaurants and shops.

Now the local island population suffered as local shops and restaurants that the locals owned or worked at closed and as the new resort owners often brought their new staff from the mainland many locals lost jobs.

That's when the crime started growing there.

ETA IMHO I can't understand how people can visit a nice exotic vacation spot and never leave the resort compound.

Yeah it makes no sense. Travel all the way to a foreign country with all sorts of interesting, beautiful places and things to see, and see one building and one little strip of beach.

At the Riveria Maya, we've gone off the compound to Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, Chitzen Itza which included a swim in a cenote near Valladolid.  We had a 4ish very late lunch in Valladolid with a nice wander around downtown after.  Went snorkeling from Maroma Beach marina and to Xel-Ha eco-park.

On our one trip to San Jose del Cabo, we went snorkeling, wandered around downtown, shopped at the Mega.  The snorkeling was from the Cabo marina and we wandered around there, had lunch and stopped occasionally at touristy bars for drinks.  The resort at Cabo sucked since it was also timeshares, shitty food, and shitty drinks.

Next year we are doing a Riviera Maya all inclusive 11 nighter.  The resort we like was carved out of the jungle about a half-mile off the road, has a half-mile beach, 9 restaurants, and 14 bars and covers 136 acres.  2/3rds of the way from Cancun to Playa Del Carmen 45 minutes south of the airport.  Good food and lots of decent booze labels.  Good beer selection both Mexican and American. The buildings are smaller, two or three stories, and from the ground are very well screened by trees and shrubs.  Live music in the plaza, piano bar, live performance theater, and other entertainment every evening.  Includes shooting (22 rifles) a couple afternoons a week.  Bike riding, organized runs, water aerobics, cigar bar, local arts and crafts vendors that do not pester you set up most evenings in the plaza.  The resort covers 136 acres.  This trip we may very well not leave the resort but who knows.  We've done two 10 nighters and a 7 nighter there and we were not bored.  No kids are allowed at the resort which is a huge plus.  There are much bigger resorts but we like where we go and don't want to risk being disappointed elsewhere.  Going to a place like this is sort of like a cruise except not crowded, eat when you want without reservations, go on excursions without worrying about missing the boat, big pools and a number of other advantages.

Every other year we go to an East Coast or Gulf Coast beach with the kids and rent a condo on the beach so we are not in a Mexico rut by any means.  Just a beach and pool rut.

We would not consider going to a one building hotel with not much beach in Cancun or any other resort town in Mexico except maybe in Cabo walkable to the marina and a beach.   Attached File


Attached File

Some people don’t want to have to take vacations from their vacations after their vacations.

All inclusive is low effort “chillaxing.” Like a cruise ship always at port (nobody is forcing you to stay in) and without the disease outbreaks or boarding procedures. They have their purpose.

I like the Nueva Vallarta area in western Mexico. Great all inclusive, great beaches, and Puerto Ballarta is just across the state border when cabin fever kicks in. So far, that area has managed to avoid the encroaching crime problem as well. So far.

Not sure I’d want to do an all inclusive where the nearby city was not considered safe to explore. But there is clearly a market for it.

Oh, gee - what could it be?

Corrupt as hell police and government, 3rd world medical care if something does happen, tourists dying from tainted alcohol in resorts, water ad n food born illnesses, widespread rape, murder, kidnapping, narco violence, gun running, human trafficking, people smuggling, and headless corpses hanging from the overpasses.  What's not to love?

And what’s the percentage of American tourists in Mexico who actually experience any of those things?

What is the acceptable percentage, and why is that not "zero" for a tourist destination?

Maybe we shouldn't tolerate our government officials allowing guns to go to narco gangs to be used to kill innocents and our own border guards.

I can get concrete and dumpsters all day long and the mob still makes money.

Organized crime much?

How many people in the US got gunned down over bootleg liquor and beer last year, verses any complete year under Prohibition?

21st Amendment much?

History much?

There’s nowhere in the world where you have zero risk of being robbed or killed. If the only acceptable percentage for you is zero, I’m not sure where you could travel. Tourists fall victim to crime everywhere, even in the US.

There is no zero-risk activity or zero-risk vacation. The risk to the average American tourist in Mexico is extremely low.

Someone goes missing in the US, happens once a week. We have pictures of missing people on milk cartons and "amber alerts" for missing or abducted kids. GD couldn't care less.

Someone goes missing in Mexico, 7 page thread of people saying this is why they won't go to Mexico.

If you don’t think organized crime doesn’t still make money in the distribution of alcohol, you’re a fool.

Because every tourist destination across the US and the planet has people that live there. It's not a special "only people on vacation come here ever" place.  People live there just like everywhere else and humans do bad things everywhere they are.  Crime happens "nice neighborhoods" and "bad neighborhoods" just the same.  There is nowhere on the planet where humans exist that is "safe" or has zero crime.

While the problems with crime in Mexico are an issue in their own right, I find it odd how frequently the other half of the couple is so often involved in  mysterious disappearances, people going overboard from a cruise ship and similar things that happen during out of country vacations.

I hope that is not the case, and that she is returned safely, but I fear the worst.

For some odd reason, most people don't think of moonshiners as "organized" crime...they are wrong.

So where are all the dangerous alcohol cartels/gangs that were thriving under prohibition?  Why did legalization bury them and render them obsolete?  Can you please elaborate on exactly what the differences were between them and the drug cartels and how it would be different this time around?

At least you admit that you are incapable or unwilling to wrap your head around the simple concepts of supply and demand of black markets.

Yep. I asked about him a while back and no one else could remember the dirt bike guy that stopped posting..