Absolutely not. That's the most dangerous area! :armed: :armed:
But you know I met a lovely family at IW who had driven there from Monterey. They were so cute. And they all spoke excellent English -- even the kids. I was sitting beside the husband and one of Rafa's doubles matches and there were so few seats that people had to split up. The mother and the daughter got seats right down by the court and eventually, the father got a seat by me and the son sort of in front of me. And during the warm up the mother and daughter were talking to Rafa as he came over near them to get a ball, and he gave them the most darling little smile. Afterward, I asked what they had said to him, and they told me in English that they said, "Please Rafa, give us a smile -- just a little smile, please." And that's what prompted the cute little smile. The girl was 13 and she was so happy and her mother was almost equally happy. It was fun to see how much the father enjoyed their happiness.
You can go to Merida. I know people who own a hacienda on the outskirts of Merida and they say (and the article agrees) that there is a low crime rate there and not the drug wars. I also know people who vacation in Yucatan. But Northern New Mexico -- including Monterrey is off limits.
Anyway, it's a short flight from Merida to the U.S.
But, you sort of have to look at it like how likely are you to get caught up in something. I mean -- Juarez, that's just hell and no one should venture in there. It's so sad because these border towns used to be so great. Matamoros, Laredo, Juarez -- those were just nice places, but now they everything has changed. And it's bad for the people who live there not just because of the cartels and the violence, but the tourist business has dried up completely.
The east coast, Cancun, Merida, are still fine. Veracruz is a state I would avoid. When you have gangsters dumping 35 bodies on a freeway in the middle of the day, that just does not give me confidence about the city or the state of Veracruz.
Anyway, it's a short flight from Merida to the U.S.
But, you sort of have to look at it like how likely are you to get caught up in something. I mean -- Juarez, that's just hell and no one should venture in there. It's so sad because these border towns used to be so great. Matamoros, Laredo, Juarez -- those were just nice places, but now they everything has changed. And it's bad for the people who live there not just because of the cartels and the violence, but the tourist business has dried up completely.
Wait. They kill TOURIST? I thought we were talking about getting caught in cross fire or something. They actually kill tourists? But why? that doesn't make sense!!
EDIT: I read the artile and now I get it. But why is this happening? Why are the drud dealers getting so violent?
Why so violent? Yes. It's a good question. It's a fight for control of a very lucrative business. The U.S. consumer demand drives the market, but it's the control of the supply where the violence occurs. It's an escalating thing. The beheading of rivals doesn't scare off the competition? Well, let's tear out their hearts and see if that does. It's a brutal, simplistic approach, but I think it is common in a gangster society, and especially one where the authorities are either cowed or corrupted.
This article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10681249 has nice maps. At the bottom there is a map that lets you put your cursor over the particular state and see the death rate. There is a place at the top of the map to let you choose the year. There's also a chart at the very bottom. Chihuahua is particularly horrific, but is better in 2011 than 2010. In Yucatan the rate remains quite low.
This is an interesting blog with a recent entry on an arrest of one of the drug kingpins in late September and what that means. http://borderviolenceanalysis.typepad.com
The situation deteriorated rapidly in the last few years. There is a little fishing port called Rocky Point which was a favorite vacation spot for residence here. A few hours drive south with lots of vacation condos for rent. Rocky Point is pretty safe but the escalting drug war near the border which make the trip from the border to Rocky Point unsafe for travellers. I thought about going there many times but just not feel comfortable enough.
Ok. Just off the top of my head Chihuahua, Monterrey, Durango, Veracruz and Guadalupe are no go zones. Mexico City is better, but there are those kidnappings where they take you to the ATM to withdraw money.
Looking them up.
Culiacan is right in the midst of the Sinaloa cartel's territory.
Ciudad Mendoza -- I can't really find it -- seems to be in the state of Veracruz.
Satillo is on the outskirts of Monterrey, so no.
Toluca looks to be about 40 or 50 km from Mexico City. It's in Mexico State. Not good, but not as bad as the northern part of the country.
Xalapa is in the state of Veracruz -- about 100 km from Veracruz.
Torreon -- way too far north -- and ditto for Gomez Placio. It's right by Torreon.
Can they not choose cities in the Yucatan peninsula?
Minatitlán is in the state of Veracruz, but it i much further to the south and edging over to the Yucatan peninsula. It's close to the gulf of mexico.
Hubby is the one who walks Brutus grooms him and cleans up after him Hubby insists taking Brutus everywhere we go.
This morning, Brutus went a bit nuts because hubby was not in bed Hopefully he will finally settle down.
And after 26 hours, hubby finally settled in his hotel room and skyped me last night. Afterward, he would have to clean up and went meeting his co-workers there. No sleep. Lucky for him, he can sleep anywhere, unlike me, so he had adequate sleep in the plane.
I thought I responded to this earlier, but I don't see my post.
I think it's touching that LeeHubby has such a bond with Brutus, and that he is a caregiver too, not just a buddy. We'll have to see how he holds out for the next week-- More than a week, isn't it? Does the plane get in on the 22nd or 23rd?
I was driving home after dropping off Jr. Traffic was really slow because of construction and there's a game on the radio with three callers, each was asked with the same question and all had to answered correctly to win the prize. Today's question is who are the two people in tonight's VP debate. First two answered Biden and Ryan but the third one said Romney and Ryan
It's raining here today, Lee. Lighting and thunder around 4 a.m. and now steady slow rain. In Houston, it would be called a drizzle, but we count it as real rain here.
I'm sure there will be snow on the mountains when the clouds clear.
Also lots of people will be on the mountains today for deer hunting. I hate for the snow to drive the deer to lower elevations, but I like the hunters to be miserable.
It rained yesterday and on/off whole evening/morning with thunder. Finally dropped to high 50s this morning. too.
I can never understand hunting in this modern world but :shrug: One of my bosses in Canada hunt every year. Before each trip, his wife dutifully told him not to kill any bambi and he dutifully answered OK! :lol:
Anyway, I felt lucky that the cortisone shot I had a month ago is not tainted. Honestly, I don't understand how this can happened.
The calm rain turned into a real storm with lots of rain and wind. Any leaves that were ready to fall have been torn off the branches now.
Yes! I thought about the shots too! I felt very happy that I didn't need one because I don't think I could make myself get one for awhile. Certainly, I would have questions about suppliers now, and that thought never crossed my mind before. I feel so badly for people who have a routine medical procedure turn horrifically bad. I still think about Ashe who agreed to his doctor's offer of a blood transfusion when he said it would make him feel better faster. I don't think either one of them understood that the blood supply had been fatally tainted.
He has to make sure another of his humans doesn't disappear. He's got a double dose of loyalty. The Chow protective loyalty and the Golden adoring loyalty.
Today was a dip because of the storm, but we will be in the 70s after this. That's about 10 degrees cooler than it has been since we were in the 80s. It's the slow slide toward winter.
I was just reading that England is in for a cold winter because there has been a huge melt of arctic ice -- about as big as Texas. That's hard to imagine. The scientists are saying it's happening faster than they thought. I was hoping I would be dead before the full force of global warming hit.
I am at 100% today except for this cough. And now I have to study :awww:
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