TR6

Myself and the co-worker I was with had a similar experience but with a happier ending after some tense moments. We walked out of a very nice restaurant where we'd been meeting with customers, with the expectation that our driver was waiting at the curb with the car where we'd left him to take us back to our hotel. He was nowhere to be seen. Instead we were quickly surrounded by some guys on the street. I tried to turn around go back into the restaurant but the doorman blocked the door and wouldn't let me in. He suddenly pretended he'd never seen us before although we'd walked out literally seconds before! About the time I started to think we were in serious trouble, our driver roars up to the curb, jumps out, and pushes his way to us and pulls us into the car and drives off with us in the back seat. Then he chewed us out in broken English about the foolishness of walking out of the restaurant alone. He'd been parked down the block waiting.

I heard around the office recently that Mexico City has now surpassed Bogota, Columbia as the kidnapping capital of the Americas. I don't doubt it.

Bull

Don't go to Mex City, but do enjoy the rest of the country, particularly the Pacific Coast and Baja.....Rosarita Beach and down to Hussongs in Ensenada (different now, but still there). Carry a bigger gun, plan to use it and bring plenty of pesos...always a fun trip!

TR6

I know you're kidding (I hope), but just in case anyone takes that seriously, I want to clarify. Possessing a gun in Mexico is a very serious crime punishable by many years in a prison that probably makes a Turkish prison look pleasant. In fact, even having a single bullet or shot gun shell (without the gun) in your possession will get you sent away a long time there. Many sad cases of unwary American tourists who made that mistake....

Luke

Detroit? I'm @ Wayne State

deep_uv

Living in Texas all my life only a few hours from the border, I've been to Mexico many, many times. Mostly at the border. That's now as dangerous as any place in Mexico with the drug lord wars that are happening there. I don't even go across for dinner any more. They have lots kidnapping, murdering and ransoming going on. Not to mention large gunfights between rival drug gangs and the Federales. Everybody is on the take there.

I fish every year at Falcon Reservoir near Laredo and at Lake Amistad near Del Rio which are lakes on the Rio Grande River that are co-owned by the US and Mexico. The border runs down the center of the main river channel in each lake. We used to fish the Mexican side all the time without any problems - you could even buy Mexican fishing licenses on the US side of the border. Now you can't, they make you cross the border to buy the licenses where you have to bribe 3 people including a judge. Then you have to buy a meal in the restaurant where the licenses are "sold" (or they make you wait for hours) to get your license. Once fishing on the Mexican side of the lake you have to worry about high speed bass boats with machine gun toting Federales who will confiscate your boat for violating some obscure Mexican game law that nobody knows about like having too many fishing rods per person in the boat. Guess where they get their bass boats??? I no longer fish the Mexican side.

Its a shame, it used to be fun to go there and go across the border to shop and eat. I used to absolutely love fishing on the Mexican side. I wouldn't go across now for anything. My advice is avoid that little sh~t-rod country all together except maybe the Caribbean resorts at Cozumel and Cancun. Even at that there are much better places than Mexico to go in the Caribbean.

Greg is absolutely right about the firearms. Even a bullet will get you thrown in jail. It's not uncommon at all for your average Texan to have a box of bullets or shotgun shells in his pickup truck's tool box - legal here.

Steve

ttAmerica RoadsterAWD

My two cents:

I travel to Mexico maybe 3X/year. Living in San Antonio allow me to just take off south and be in the border in two hours. I always take my Landcruiser and I've never had a bad experience traveling in Mexico, though I too will not go to Mexico City. Also, I try to pass Nuevo Laredo about 7:00am when the bad guys finally go to sleep from their evening, self employed street jobs.

Most cited incidents above have been mostly a thing of the past. My parents use to face this when I was a kid when we traveled from California to Guadalajara in car. About 10-15yrs ago, it has largely been cleaned up with the new Mexican President in office. There has been a move in Mexico to encourage tourism including clean up and beautifying roads, and in particular the "autopistas" which are toll roads. The toll is relatively cheap and in return you can travel in very picturesque, scenic routes in smooth, groomed highways which are BETTER than highways in the USA, having emergency phones every few kilometers, lights for night driving (I'm talking in the middle of nowhere), water spigots for radiator overheating, and the state police patrolling these highways making sure everything is safe. There is a Pemex gasoline station at least every 100 miles, many with travel centers which are new, clean and well cared for. There is less federal police/military police in the autopistas, allowing for quicker stints. Many just wave you on if you look like you are on vacation. When we are flagged down at a typical stop, they are very appologetic for having to inconvinence us, and are very curteous, offering directions to our destination or areas to rest, food, gas etc.,

Tips: Go thru your car with a fine tooth comb looking for any firearms you may have forgot to take out, even a BB gun. Make darn sure you don't have any free, rolling around bullets of any type (like if you like to hunt and maybe have a shotgun shell deep in your glove box, or something like that).

Stay on the toll autopistas as much as you can. It's prestigeous to be able to travel in the autopista so this essentially keeps the traffic low. You may be able to run up to 90mph without any problems-especially if you have US plates...... One time this patrol car pulled in front of me to pull over a car with mexican plates cause he was exceeding the limits, but so was I ! I think we were both doing about 92mph.

Autopistas flank cities by about 10 miles, so you can detour off the autopista to go into the towns "centro" and enjoy the local food/spirits and culture. Almost every medium size town has a beautiful center town square with spectacular architecture especially in the Cathedrals and surrounding areas. You will see very bold colors and daring combinations that make every city stop memorable. The teperate weather makes for flowers blossom with full radiance, deep violet bouganvillas, starburst roses, just seems to make life richer. The local folk are very down to earth and greet you with a smile and are very helpful and curteous.

Summer travel is awesome because these cities are low in humidity and most are above 3,000 feet which make for lots of street activites, people being busy at work and play. Seems very carefree....makes you wanna buy a vacation home in every town. There's specifically the absence of ratrace mentality.

I also travel to California both with the Cruiser and sometimes with my Porsche. By comparison, it seems long, boring, hot, muggy, Too many 18 wheelers and discourteous drivers to boot. But, when I get to southern Cal, at least it's not muggy...........

Hmmm, maybe I'll take off to Tepatitlan, Jalisco next week.....

John Boggiano

Things sure are different over there...

TR6

No doubt! But you guys over on the other side of the pond probably wouldn't typically have a few loose shotgun shells in your car anyway.

Just to reiterate my feelings about Mexico, I'm not out to bash the country, and I have enjoyed many journeys to that country. The vast majority of the people are very warm and generous. But when I talk about Mexico City, its a different world. Its like comparing the worst part of a crime ridden US city with the countryside in the US or a nice town like Austin. I've been to Monterey, Mexico many times and have always had a great time there and felt as safe as I do in any large US city.

I've also crossed the Rio Grande in a small rowboat and hiked into small villages across from Big Bend National park such as Santa Helena and Boquillas to have some lunch and knock back a few cold Pacificos sitting under a brush arbor beside a cantina. Now, since 2002, the US has shut all of those "informal" crossings down due to security concerns. Partly due to the drug turf wars along the border. Damn shame, nothing good seems to last.

Mexico City is a different animal altogether. Its the western hemisphere's answer to Beirut. Which is a shame, because there are a lot of historical and cultural sites to visit there...

Bull

Yes, we should be clear here for those who might not know. Actaully, there aren't too many places where it is good to be found with a firearm if you are an American traveling abroad!

ttAmerica RoadsterAWD

Ahem, actually, with proper permit, anybody can carry a gun no larger than .380 caliber. 38, 357, 45, 50 callibers are nono's, and "sporting guns" for "sports" are also allowed as well as shotguns with proper permits. In general, I'd have to say: 1) Most laws are only as good as the individual enforcing them are, ie, if the particular police is malinformed, uninformed and not up to snuff, he/she may not know you are allowed to carry with a permit even if you show it to him/her. If you are arrested, it may take until you see a judge, whom hopefully will realize you were not breaking the law to let you loose so, the problem is having ignorant law enforcement. 2) Stay the hell clear of large cities, border cities, and check the news to see where the "hot spots" are and just avoid them. Remember, for the most part, most citizens small to medium towns have no internet, don't make it a point to listen to news or watch TV (many people just don't have TV), so they go about their business interracting with each other without the knowledge of poisonous activities of larger cities....Heck, many just don't travel further than the outskirts of town!

Bull

Of course, with the proper permit one can do most anything! Most who get in trouble traveling through Mexico armed haven't taken the trouble to secure the permit when they throw that Desert Eagle in the consol, or those surplus tracer bullets.....

Indycam

"Things sure are different over there..."
In the good old usofa , you coulda gotten shot for that comment !
God gave us guns and told us to use them !
So you best get outta town before sundown mister .

Private Guns, Public Health
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=17530

If you are thinking of taking a road trip in america , bring your vest !
Cause we do love guns .

skruggs964

Even though it is extremely unlawful to have possession of a handgun in Canada ...they are finding their way up here in my city. There are parts of Calgary that you don't want to be in late at night. There are gangs that have turf wars...(almost always drug related)...and gawd help you if you get caught in the cross fire. Somehow these criminals are getting them across the Canadian/US border...

I guess every city has this element in some degree......but it seems to be quite noticeable the last few years in good ol' cowtown....

Peter Badore

I drove from Dearborn to Guadalajara in August, 2006. I used a 96 Golf GTI VR6 which blended right into the local traffic except for the Michigan license plate which the Federales noticed and stopped me (also the VR6 badge is not found on local Mexican GTIs even though the car was assembled in Puebla, Mexico). The Porsche would be fun to drive but be prepared to walk away from the car if legal problems occur. Or you could buy my either of Jetta VR6 or 97 GTI VR6 project cars to use on the trip. Wheel and tire damage is a given in the Mexican rainy season because road repairs of big holes are very slow to be accomplished. Then there "the tope" problem. Topes are speed bumps placed on main roads to slow traffic into small villages. If they are marked properly you can see them and slow down a lot. If the warning marks have not yet been painted in front of them watch out. On mountain roads like the ones near the Colima volcano in "Terminator" movie, the city to city buses will pass on your side of the road to get by heavy trucks crawling up the mountain at 5KPH. When this happens you will be driving off road or risk a collision with the bus. You will also be driving off road when you encounter Mexican Army main road check points. I think the bored troops delight in routing the vehicle traffic to unpaved surfaces to see how many get stuck or break things--certainly they do not stop drug trafficing as the Federal government claims. When you do lose a tire be prepared to pay double the US price for a name brand Bridgestone. For example, a GTI 15" tire like a Bridgestone G009 sells for about $100.00 on Tire Rack, in Guadalajara the price was $260.00. If you take the 964 (which would a lot of fun) you will need all the suspension capability the car has to drive on the two lane mountain roads. So the advice given not to change the rear tire size is very valid I my opinion. Inspite of the issues raised it still would be a lot of fun. And I have not even finished my Mexican road "war stories" some are comic and some tragic. Also I like Mexico and have granddaughters living there.

Bull

In the late '80s/early '90s we made the Phoenix to "Rocky Point" run often, and with out a problem where money could not buy our way out. Generally uneventful trips with lots of fun involved. Had a factory in Guadalajara through the '90s, with many flights in and out, and other than the occasional shoot-out between the Federales and some drug folks in the middle of the highway, or the local Police and the Federales when it was time to deal with the "evidence", all was good fun. Mex City is another story all together!