Mexwanderer in accident

Chuck: Actually we have lots of drug users and low level dealers. One family that is rarely here with legit businesses but dealers nonetheless. One local who is connected but he works hard and is a nice person. Cartels? None. There was a bunch many years ago but ended up in jail. Kino is like the middle of nowhere! I bet our BC forum members have more drug activity than Kino in their home towns !

Moisheh

hypoxia wrote:
Mex has approached a subject that is important for travellers to be informed about. He did it from a worst case scenario and I am fine with that. The Department of Tourism is in distress, the flower bed has been trampled.

I want to hear the good, bad and ugly and am perfectly capable of processing and filtering it. Please keep it civil so we can continue the discussion and keep exchange of information going.

It is certainly a lesson on the importance of your choice of insurance and the vender you purchase it from.

Thank you.

Mex has approached a subject that is important for travellers to be informed about. He did it from a worst case scenario and I am fine with that. The Department of Tourism is in distress, the flower bed has been trampled.

I want to hear the good, bad and ugly and am perfectly capable of processing and filtering it. Please keep it civil so we can continue the discussion and keep exchange of information going.

It is certainly a lesson on the importance of your choice of insurance and the vender you purchase it from.

Cool it folks

iguana07 wrote:
moisheh the cops may not be really rotten but I guarantee you there are cartels or cartel in your area.

yeah cuz you know/

moisheh the cops may not be really rotten but I guarantee you there are cartels or cartel in your area.

Mex: I am a realist. I have never had a run in with the police. I have attended local accidents and interpreted between the adjuster and the driver. Police were there but no one was arrested. They were polite while everyone waited for the adjuster: he came on the bus and we had to pay his fare home! I think it was ada vis insurance! But we do not live in an area where the cops are rally rotten nor are there any cartels. BTW: I ONLY use Lewis and Lewis.

Moisheh

oh boy

GET GOOD INSURANCE. Lewis & Lewis is a proven aggressive Surplus Line Broker.

My home is located deep within one of the most (recognized) "dangerous areas" in Mexico which is referred to as "Tierra Caliente". Not Gringolandia.

I listened and I asked "How safe is the Rio Chuta area for picnicking?" The answers were overwhelming direct - "The swimming hole up the brecha (dirt road) about 2Km are safe. Travel to or past the first ranchito and you can expect to get shot". Did I panic? No. Did I pack? No. Why? Because I dealt with reality. Not a travel brochure and not fellow traveler hyperbole.

Unfortunately, when Los Caballeros Templarios forced the police to travel as far as the city limits and the military to travel only on convoy, petty criminals exploited the situation and they had their nice looking 4-door Jeep hijacked on Mex 200 about 40 Km north of my casita. They were not advised with proper info that certain colored 4x4 vehicles are like trolling through a school of barracuda with a flashy lure. That advice still holds water several years later. Rather than scurry back north of the border with a raft of horror stories, they elected to share their experience on this forum.In detail. No holds barred.

I read and what I already knew got reconfirmed. You lose a TIP bonded motor vehicle in Mexico you will not get another TIP at the frontera. Period.

But instead of manufacturing clouds of hyperbolic dung, Canadian Rainbirds replaced their vehicle with a more sedate looking toad and what's more, they passed down Mex 200 again. Without incident. My hat is off to these folks. They experienced - they asked - they learned - and had the intelligence to understand their changes and inquiries were enough to do the job.

I have a good "grip" on reality. Why don't you come down and visit Tierra Caliente? This is an area that makes the always open mouth and always closed mind produce dramatic results. I try and help people to understand. When I get criticism from people who do not live in a sensitive area like this, my upper lip curls into a sneer. Hypocrites mock others. Genuine travelers tell it like-it-is, then proceed to inform the unwary as to how to EFFECTIVELY circumvent problems. With ease. But like getting the attention of a freakin' mule, sometimes it's necessary to whack them across the forehead with a two by four. I am blunt on this forum for a reason. I have bailed out too many know-it-all's who even when commanded to sit in a chair in a comandancia chose to argue (at first). Their girlfriend or spouse or friend begged me to help. Why wait? It's more intelligent to inform folks beforehand.

Take the indigenous demonstrations on Mex 200 at the "X" villages. The highway is blocked. No turning around. Eighty to a hundred drunk protesters, some carrying .22 rifles. Roaring and fuming in Nahuatl. How many "guide books" have I read that warned against "camping on the coast of Michoacan"? In the 70's and 80's. These so-called guide book authors were ejected, some forceably, from tribal land which is all unmarked. Did they research WHY they were forced to leave at three AM? Oh hell no. That would have taken intelligence. Instead they fled back to the US and printed up horror stories that went to print.

I have been stopped twice between the "X" villages. Both times, I raised my right fist clenched fingers forward and smiled. While the rest of the line of cars endured ranting in stilted Spanish, I opened a novel and relaxed. The indigenous were protesting local judicial injustice and my gesture showed them I understood.

Mexico has two sides. Smiling Ramón the bartender from Long Beach who gestures at the Mariachi band to play louder for the tourists drinking six-dollar birdbath-size margaritas. The other is forceably being seated in a chair, not understanding a word being said, scared out of their wits. Is this fun to you? I don't think of something like this as being conducive for anything but a part of a TRUTHFUL horror story when the tourist somehow finds himself freed.

It is preventable. But unfortunately there is an obstacle. People who would do everything but stand on their head to convince others such things are not possible. This is my fifty-third year down here. I can say one thing that is an absolute: The tourist who is convinced he is doing everything "right" then finds himself in deep ---- will endeavor to convince as many people as he can to never cross the Rio Bravo. The bad thing is every last word he says is the truth.

Moisheh - a message for you. Keep it in perspective. Having a KenMex hood ornament plastered against your rear seat, faced to the rear is the thing you want to avoid. I hope NONE of you are ever faced with being a captive in a comandancia (the police station). Knowing facts not fiction about Mexican law and auto insurance is one certain way to avoid it.

I am selling all my vehicles and going to use the bus !

Moisheh