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Mack A. Damia

On Fri, 22 May 2009 17:04:41 -0400, (Carmelia)
wrote:

>I used to spend winters in Mexico and I never got sick from eating the
>food. I was on a low budget and ate where the Nationals ate and not
>restaurants catering to tourists. It is not the food I am afraid
>of in Mexico these days but the crime. I am not as agile as I was and
>my hair is 100% white and I would feel like a prime target for the
>criminals. I hate being such a sissy because I loved Mexico!

I can't tell you there's no violence, but what I can tell you is that
it's fairly restricted to the border areas and certain neighborhoods.
It's like anywhere else....if you want to find drugs and trouble, you
can find it. Just a bit more salient in Mexico.

There are a lot of us aging white/gray-haired gringos here, and we
don't have any problems. Occasion burglaries of unoccupied homes.
The police seem very protective of us here, too.

The press has cruxified Mexico with drug crime/violence and the swine
flu.

Real problem is government bureaucracy which operates on a kind of
"pecking order" where bureaucrats have very specific "turf", and may
not step on another's. However, they can and do delegate to lower
ranks...and they delegate and so on.

Simple permits and the like can take years.

The military is ubiquitous, and they search many Mexican vehicles -
the tourists are usually not bothered.

I feel safer here than in California.
--
mad