Best City in Mexico

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

New State Department travel alert for Mexico.

When I heard this report on the news I knew someone would post this. I think this is about the 7th or 8th year in a row they have posted this right before Spring Break to discourage college aged people from going to border towns, where they could be a target because they are drunk and not paying attention.

This is EXACTLY the point of this thread. Where can I go in Mexico that is 'relatively safe'.

I went to Puerto Vallarta a few years ago. I was warned about Mexico with all of the State Department bulletins. When I got there the place could not have been more different than I had been warned. We went everywhere in town, up and down every street, in the surrounding towns and in nearby villages at all times of the day and night. We felt totally safe everywhere we went. It could not have been more different than these reports. So I wanted to know from others, where have you gone in Mexico where you felt totally safe to walk the streets.

I would ask the same thing if I was going to an inter-city area of the US. Where have you gone that you felt safe.

MicWayWal added 8 Minutes and 58 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by PhotoByLeal

I will be flying to Mexico City for business next week!
I will be there for 4 days...... I think I am just taking a Canon 30D with one Canon 50 1.4 lens!
I will be leaving the other lenses at home 24-105 f/4 and 70-200 2.8!.

Do you really think NOT having a zoom lens will stop an attack?

[L Stegall]

Originally Posted by PhotoByLeal

I will be flying to Mexico City for business next week!
I will be there for 4 days...... I think I am just taking a Canon 30D with one Canon 50 1.4 lens!
I will be leaving the other lenses at home 24-105 f/4 and 70-200 2.8! for safety purposes.....


later,
angel m. leal jr.

No, but taking just the 50 can be a fun exercise to make yourself think of a city in a different way. Our last trip to San Francisco, I deliberately limited myself to my 50 f/1.4 as an exercise in seeing some of the smaller details in the city and it was really liberating to just get out and shoot without carrying a bag of lenses and constantly swapping out.

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by L Stegall

No, but taking just the 50 can be a fun exercise to make yourself think of a city in a different way. Our last trip to San Francisco, I deliberately limited myself to my 50 f/1.4 as an exercise in seeing some of the smaller details in the city and it was really liberating to just get out and shoot without carrying a bag of lenses and constantly swapping out.

I am with you on this. Try doing it sometime with an 85. That will reshape your thinking too.

[dsjsws]

Originally Posted by Dobick

Texas Tech had a short two week mid-mester trip to Guanajuato back 2 years ago. From the stories that I heard it was very same and friendly, and completely gorgeous.

I would like to go sometime.

TCU goes to Guanajuato. It is wonderful. It is only a short drive to San Miguel, so it is easy to see both.
I walked by myself everywhere. In the town center there are so many people, it is fun and as safe as anywhere.
In fact, I felt much safer there than I do at home.

Have fun.

Donna

[PhotoByLeal]

Do you really think NOT having a zoom lens will stop an attack?

LMAO
You better believe it! I can throw that 50 1.4 and knock them out!
So, then I guess it is true! My Choice of Camera is one BIG Canon!
I just don't want to attract the wrong attention..... and I also want to try a different approach and not have to carry all my gear with me!

Originally Posted by L Stegall

No, but taking just the 50 can be a fun exercise to make yourself think of a city in a different way. Our last trip to San Francisco, I deliberately limited myself to my 50 f/1.4 as an exercise in seeing some of the smaller details in the city and it was really liberating to just get out and shoot without carrying a bag of lenses and constantly swapping out.

That's what I was thinking, since I am going to be in a hurry to get there and get working! No real time to shoot! Maybe next time......


later,
angel m. leal jr.

[kenw]

OK, it's almost 11 years past, but be careful:
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/nov/12/news/mn-42054

bottomline: If it happens, the robbery won't be a staged show.

More recent robberies have occured but I believe this was the only one w/ a fatality.

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by dsjsws

TCU goes to Guanajuato. It is wonderful. It is only a short drive to San Miguel, so it is easy to see both.
I walked by myself everywhere. In the town center there are so many people, it is fun and as safe as anywhere.
In fact, I felt much safer there than I do at home.

Have fun.

Donna

Thanks Donna for your input.

[MarcoFromHouston]

i just got home from Mexico City and Huatulco, Oaxaca - Mexico. Great places. Very safe.

Click here to see my pics from the trip

I have also been to San Miguel & Guanajuato. Merida is an awesome city. Tampico and Veracruz. I wanted to go to Oaxaca City so badly, but it did not work out.

[richflo1]

Go to Valle de Bravo, Mexico.. Continental flies to Toluca and you can get a taxi to take you there for around 40-50 USD here is a link.. http://www.valledebravomexico.info/eng/.

[RandySmith]

I would agree with Joe about Todos Santos. I stumbled across this 7-room hotel during my last visit two years ago. I'm planning to visit this place again in a couple of weeks for another visit. The lagoon in front of the hotel used to be a swamp and local dump before the owners "cleaned" up the place. It is now a wonderful nature preserve that you can enjoy from the balcony overlook restaurant. Very quiet & peaceful hotel and away from the typical "touristy" stuff.

http://www.lapoza.com/resortoverview.html

[dmora]

Safe and Urban are mutually exclusive in Mexico.
Period.

There are "safe" areas of Mexico City, but thats only if you hire someone as a body guard or escort. Especially if you're swinging around expensive camera gear.

Avoid anything along the border unless you want to do photo journalism of the drug wars.


If you want something completely safe, then your best bet would be San Miguel de Allende.
Cozumel and Playa del Carmen are also safe.

However in all places in Mexico, people are very aware of all the pinche gringos (stupid white people) who come over to buy tequila and cigars and typically act like ugly tourists. SO there's people who exploit this and will take advantage of you simply for your innocence or lack of ability to communicate. This goes for all places really.

Just dont act like a tourist, and if you speak fluent spanish, you'll be ok in those cities.

dmora added 6 Minutes and 13 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by CaptainG

I've spent the last 10 years traveling pretty extensively in Mexico. I've recently decided that I'm not going back, but, of all the spectacular places in Mexico, I would have to go along with Guanajuanto and San Miguel Allende. Take your battery charger. You will fill your memory cards pretty quickly. Of the two, I prefer Guanajuanto mainly because it is somewhat less popular with (and somewhat less spoiled by) Americans. Lots of Europeans, though, especially during the Cervantes expo in October. The two are very close to each other, about an hour, and both close to the larger airport in Leon. As nice, but harder to reach, is San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas. But really, almost any place in Mexico is a treasure trove for photographers.

CaptainG added 21 Minutes and 48 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below


Maybe. But just last week, a highly respected retired general who had been hired by the mayor of Cancun (50km away) to set up and direct an elite crime prevention agency, was tortured and murdered. The current chief of police is a suspect.

Until recently, the drogistas and narcotraficantes didn't mess with the tourists or the tourist destinations too much. Lately, it doesn't seem to matter.

Mexico leads the world in kidnappings, too, with over 7000 reported last year. I have a PDF file of a report by a joint task force on Mexican security issues if anyone wants to read it. I hate to cut and paste, but I can email it.

Holy sh|t. They really are getting vicious. Cozumel and Cancun were typically pretty safe because there was so much american tourism there bringing in money so the locals were not affected by the bribes of the drug cartels.

[Kev]

We spent a week in Playa in 2005 after I returned from a deployment to Kyrgyzstan. Stayed at the Gran Flamenco Xcaret...awesome time, Mayan ruins on the property, along with some howler monkeys, deer, flamingos, etc. Definitely a European flair/atmosphere..as nothing really gets started until between 9 and 10..It definitely paid to haggle with the vendors off the resort...we got some good deals and didn't get treated like pinche gringos...thinking that may have been because we didn't treat them like dirt and actually learned enough Spanish before we went to ask for things and say please and thank you.