Deleting and Closing A Thread

moisheh wrote:
Thanks. I forgot about the cost of fuel. But it was partially offset by a weaker peso. There is also the cost of the tolls. Mexico has not been a cheap destination for more than 20 years. We enjoyed Mexico in the early years when every day was an adventure. Where will we spend the night: Pemex,motel parking lot,mechanic's back yard? Will we make it into San Cristobal without overheating the brakes? Will there be fuel before the next town? Today none of the above is a problem. Boring

Very true, gasoline prices have increased 34% in Mexico during the last year.

And also true Moisheh, I was and still am a big supporter but without going to the political side, what you wrote is exactly what is happening. The constitution is eroding little by little every day and the trouble in Latin America has made its way north.

It took forty years to get where we are today only to see much of it being reversed in as little as two years.

One last thing and then I'll disappear for a spell. The border issue. What bugs me more than anything else is that Mexico is wide open and yet hard-working Mexicans who have visas are not allowed to use land crossings and can only enter by air.

The RGV is suffering without the 4 billion USD that Mexican tourists pour into its economy and we are sitting here ready to go. That is the thorn in my side.

Thanks. I forgot about the cost of fuel. But it was partially offset by a weaker peso. There is also the cost of the tolls. Mexico has not been a cheap destination for more than 20 years. We enjoyed Mexico in the early years when every day was an adventure. Where will we spend the night: Pemex,motel parking lot,mechanic's back yard? Will we make it into San Cristobal without overheating the brakes? Will there be fuel before the next town? Today none of the above is a problem. Boring

Excellent points.

I still think that the cost of fuel has a huge amount to do with the lack of RV travel in Mexico, too. When the cost per liter here is over 20 pesos per liter for every grade, and the average cost of a gallon of gas in the US is $2.87 USD, the cost of driving in Mexico is really really high.

Add the lack of fancy RV parks and the scary press, and it is understandable.

The decline of RV travel in Mexico was not caused by one thing. It is and was a perfect storm. In 2007 the economy in the USA was horrible. RV sales tumbled and RV mfrs. were going broke Although there has always been cartels, corruption and murders things became quite bad. Of course the US media was showing this on the evening news. Pictures of bodies hanging from a bridge or stories about bodies dropped into acid baths does not encourage tourism. Certainly RV tourists were not part of the above. But perception is everything. Suddenly Caravans were infrequent. RV parks were empty. Canadians kept coming but they were old hands. Not new blood. Many of the RV parks sit on valuable beach front property. As the owners aged their families were not interested in the business and sold the parks. The Mexican Government was not interested in promoting RV tourism. They claimed that RV tourists are cheap and bring everything with them from the North. ( this is actually partially true. RV'rs especially Canadians tend to be thrifty. I still remember a fellow who used to post here that said he would never pay more than $10.00 for a site. He went on to start a Facebook group and even led some Caravans). Mexico want the farmers from Saskatchewan that fly into Maz, spend a bunch of money and 4 or 5 days later return to Canada. Every week there are hundreds of flights with tourists ready to have a good time and leave lots of money. Today RV sales are out of sight. The mfrs. cannot keep up. But these units are being sold to a lot of newbies. They expect 30 or 50 amp service, sewer and water at every site and clean modern restrooms. The older parks in Mexico do not provide these services. Think of the big parks that used to be in Maz. Most are gone. Houses or Condos sit on those properties. If and when this pandemic ends in Canada and the USA, Mexico will still be suffering. I wont get into the politics but the present President will not be able to handle the unemployment and lack of foreign investment. Recently a survey revealed that a large percentage of Mexicans would be OK with a military government. Hello Banana Republic. When Chris , a long time supporter of Mexico, is showing some disillusionment then things are bad.

bighatnohorse wrote:

qtla9111 wrote:
We were traveling more in 2007 and 2008, although we are boondockers many stopped coming because of the cartel surges taking place throughout the country.

Saturday, April 3, 2020, Mexicans Traveling Home From The U.S. Pay A Tip To Cops And Extortion To Cartels

This is happening more now on a regular basis including rvers who are paying extortion. There are many dashcam videos of this taking place.

The link is misleading - it has nothing to do with RV'ers.
What you see in the article is Mexican's returning home LOADED with SHOPPING GOODIES.
And the quoted article is second hand - it quotes Reforma and is now slanted to your purposes.

The link is not misleading. There is no mention of rving. The article is about crossing the border which affects all of us. The purpose of posting it here is to remind those naive or newbie rvers in Mexico that danger is lurking and it starts at the border. Some well-known rv park owners and rvers have fallen prey to both the police and cartels in Nuevo Laredo which is a major crossing point.

Second, Reforma is a major newspaper publisher and Mexico Daily is a gringo newspaper that translates articles for their use with the original publishers' permission. It is widely read along with Lake Chapala News by ex-pats in Mexico as they don't speak Spanish.

qtla9111 wrote:
We were traveling more in 2007 and 2008, although we are boondockers many stopped coming because of the cartel surges taking place throughout the country.

Saturday, April 3, 2020, Mexicans Traveling Home From The U.S. Pay A Tip To Cops And Extortion To Cartels

This is happening more now on a regular basis including rvers who are paying extortion. There are many dashcam videos of this taking place.

The link is misleading - it has nothing to do with RV'ers.
What you see in the article is Mexican's returning home LOADED with SHOPPING GOODIES.
And the quoted article is second hand - it quotes Reforma and is now slanted to your purposes.

Life as we knew it - on either side of the border will never be the same again. I just saw a poll that revealed that half those surveyed will continue to wear face masks after Covid passes. That's irrational fear that will paralyze those in its spell to life in isolation - avoiding others and preferring to stay home.
The dynamics that kept RVers out of Mexico for the past 15 or so years are amped up now. The media portrays Covid-19 as a risk far worse than it is. Those who accept doomsday stories shame, slur, and shun those of us who are more optimistic. We saw those emotions at work in the thread that was deleted.
It's heartbreaking. The few of us with a better sense of proportion can continue to travel in a world of face masks where one can't tell if a person is smiling or angry and be the object of hate and resentment from the moribund millions all to quick to pass judgement... Maybe I will try but the unbridled fear and paranoia will make future vacations very different.

We were traveling more in 2007 and 2008, although we are boondockers many stopped coming because of the cartel surges taking place throughout the country.

I did a blog post back then with investigative research proving that although most rvers didn't know, they were staying in the five most dangerous states at the time. Not long after there were several reported incidences. They still continue but you read little about them in the news.

Saturday, April 3, 2020, Mexicans Traveling Home From The U.S. Pay A Tip To Cops And Extortion To Cartels

This is happening more now on a regular basis including rvers who are paying extortion. There are many dashcam videos of this taking place.

QTLA, I don't think the decline that started in 2007 was because of the "cartels" I think the economic recession in 08 and swine flu 09 were the biggest hits causing the decline in RV'ing in Mexico. Fuel prices and crime stories kept many Americans away in recent years. Canadian were still coming until the pandemic restricted their free movement.

Expats, the older retired kind, just want their last years to be comfortable. You are correct that they don't know the "local" news. Living in their gated communities allows them not to know whats going on. There is nothing wrong with that. It does allow for the tremendous amount of charitable endeavors expats perform in their local communities.

Vacationers, including snowbirds, don't care about local politics. They are on vacation.

Because of covid travel restrictions, I have driven 6 cars and RV's out of Mexico for folks during the last year. During my travels I went to 4 RV Parks; Totonaka, Villa Patzcuaro, Paamul, and the RV Park at Playa la Ropa. Totonaka had about 5 rigs, Paamul had 2 rigs, and the others had none. I didn't see many rigs on the road either.

Unless the citizens of the USA, Canada, and Mexico fight these BS covid travel restrictions, Covid could be the final nail in the coffin for RV parks in Mexico

Too much has changed in the last two years under the new government. Unfortunately, most visitors and ex-pats don't speak the language so they don't watch and read local and national news. It's not good. Things have only gotten worse unless of course, you stick to ex-pat hangouts, rv parks, and the like.

I don't see many rv parks surviving. They've been on the decline since 2007 when all the trouble began with cartels. Too many incidents to recount and I, like many other Mexicans and residents lived some of those terrible times which are now returning thanks to a "no confrontation" policy from the federal government.

Poverty, crime, unemployment were on the rise during 2019 and now they have worsened. We're entering a socialist era and if anyone has read recent history about Latin American, they know it will not turn out well.

I do know that history has good news that may save Mexico. After each pandemic, there were 17 very critical pandemics in world history since the first recorded in 438 B.C., there will be a huge economic boom in democratic societies and developed nations. The end of WWI and the pandemic of 1918 show what happened; the roaring 20s, economic increases such as the stock market, a baby boom also followed.

I'm no longer confident you will see those things here though. Being an rver who can come and go on a whim, escaping a country that one day the decisions they don't like because of its politics, climate, poverty, or changes in laws is easy to do, they can just pick up and leave.

We are still very far behind on vaccinations (only 13 million in three months so that would mean another 2.5 years for full vaccination) so I wouldn't expect border issues to change much unless you are a U.S. citizen.

The northern 10 states have formed an alliance, Alianza Federalista, to fight for less federal control. History can and does repeat itself. Lots of reasons why we are doing this; poor tax base redistribution (northern states pay the most and receive the least, southern states pay the least and receive the most), the lack of formalizing informal businesses, elimination of critical federal institutions such as FONDEN (FEMA Mexico). After suffering the last three weeks with forest fires that have consumed 15,000 acres just across the highway from my house, we can see the damage of reversal in federal reforms and their consequences. Without FONDEN, we lost two weeks of valuable time renting C-10 tankers to put out the fires. We were close to evacuation, 1000 evacuated, homes, businesses, and livestock destroyed.

This is the new Mexico and we can tool around it in our rvs and ex-pat communities and pretend it doesn't have an effect on us.

Just like the pandemic, this is also history.