B.C. tourist shot in Mexico

[janalta]

It seems to me that no matter where you are in the world at any given moment, tragedy can strike.
So, people have two choices...they can lock themselves away and hope nothing ever happens...or...they can get out there and experience life and take their chances.
Guess what? If you lock yourself up and never taste life...I guarantee...nothing will ever happen...nothing.

Life is short....you have to live it to the fullest.
Travel. Explore. Jump out of a plane.
LIVE.

Yep...you might be in the wrong palce at the wrong time...you might get caught up in the middle of a gang war...in Mexico or LA, you might even find yourself in the midst of a knife fight at a movie theatre in Canada.
But...you can't just spend your life hiding.

[Glacier]

Tragedy CAN strike anywhere, but not all risks are equal. You have FAR higher chance of getting raped in South Africa than Canada and a FAR greater chance of getting robbed in Peru than Canada, and certainly a FAR lesser chance of seeing justice in Mexico than Canada.

I don't blame anyone for choosing to avoid certain countries.

[janalta]

True glacier....and no one said anything about not taking precautions and travelling smart. But...in reality, what is the percentage of people who do travel to those countries every year without incident?

[Kwik]

I think Mexico is a great place to vacation, however you must be aware of where you are and not venture into the 'sketchy' areas. It is true, the closer you get to those sketchy areas the more authentic the experience will be. I've been to Mazatlan before and would not dare venture to the area that this shooting took place. I hope this gentleman recovers quickly and gets home safely.

[Bud+]

There are plenty of other places besides Mexico I would rather go. Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Hawaii, for example. Mexico is corrupt, top to bottom. They fired over 4,000 federal police this past year for corruption. Tip of the ice berg. Those were the ones caught red handed by someone not corrupt! The government is corrupt, every little official is on the take, accepting bribes to look the other way etc, whatever anyone is willing to pay for. The military is corrupt, everyone is corrupt. 1% of the population has 99% of the wealth. What more do I need to know about that festering cesspool? Nothing more needed thank you, I'll pass.

What is the most common English language phrase used in Mexico? Meester meester, like to buy my seester.

Anyone who goes there has no reason to complain when they get mugged, murdered, robbed or raped by the police.

I think the death toll in the drug wars has reached over 40,000, per year? Who runs Mexico? Drug Cartels.

Link to an old, but interesting article on corruption at higher levels. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... ublic.html

[Oxl3y]

There is corruption and then there is plain stupidity. Tourism has to be one of mexico's biggest revenue sources you would figure the authorities would be going out of their way to make people want to come back, I mean more money made more to extort its just good business.

[Bagotricks]

What is the most common English language phrase used in Mexico? Meester meester, like to buy my seester.

Can you cite a source for this slanderous statement?

[kloney]

Do your research before you travel. But really, isn't there issues anywhere right now? Travel smart. Stay in areas that are well lit, well populated, and well patrolled. Mexico is a fine place to vacation. You take your chances no matter where you decide to go. I don't think it is fair to say that Mexico itself is an unsafe place to travel. Crime is everywhere, even in our own city. But people still come here to ski our hills in the winter and boat in our lakes in the summer. I feel bad for this man and his family. I think it is pretty silly to speculate that he himself was involved in the "drug war" down there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have about 6 friends that just returned from PV and Mazatlan and they had no issues. They did, however, comment on the amount of armed guards around the area. They all played it safe and stayed close to their resorts. If I were going there, I would do the same.

[Bud+]

What is the most common English language phrase used in Mexico? Meester meester, like to buy my seester.

Can you cite a source for this slanderous statement?

Another poster with no sense of humor. Why does Kelowna have so many bitter, self righteous people? (I'll keep the answer to myself so I don't have to be grilled about it)


FYI the quote.
It came from a 1962 dirty joke book that I stole from the ministers desk while I was taking a slug from his whiskey bottle. It had drawings in it too! Want me to describe them?

The book had already been around for a long time when I got it and was dog eared and well thumbed with some pages stuck together.. Seeing as it was found in a church every word has to be true of course, and I can swear on a stack of bibles to that effect. In fact I can swear on a stack of anything.

Got any more questions?

[Queen K]

Don't go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hom ... u%C3%A1rez

We've had friends go to Mexico recently but I have no desire to support anyone there with tourist dollars myself.

[phasyluck]

Pretty sure the resorts are a safe, maybe if you're cruising around in the "Rutland" of Mexico if there is such a place it could be bad, but I think it's fairly safe judging by the amount of Canadians and Americans travel there.

[Bud+]

Do your research before you travel. But really, isn't there issues anywhere right now? Travel smart. Stay in areas that are well lit, well populated, and well patrolled. Mexico is a fine place to vacation. You take your chances no matter where you decide to go. I don't think it is fair to say that Mexico itself is an unsafe place to travel. Crime is everywhere, even in our own city. But people still come here to ski our hills in the winter and boat in our lakes in the summer. I feel bad for this man and his family. I think it is pretty silly to speculate that he himself was involved in the "drug war" down there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have about 6 friends that just returned from PV and Mazatlan and they had no issues. They did, however, comment on the amount of armed guards around the area. They all played it safe and stayed close to their resorts. If I were going there, I would do the same.

Good advice if you are going to go there. Stay inside the sanitary zones, don't dare try to mingle with the locals, you are risking your life.

Plenty of armed guards eh! Problem with Mexicans is that they all accept bribes, every last one of them, its their culture of corruption. So whoever is willing to pay more gets what they want. Remember the case of the two Canadian women murdered at their resort in a bungled robbery attempt. The Mexican authorities tried to say it was a love triangle and probably stole everything that the first robber missed.

What is wrong with this picture. Why would any Canadian want to go to such a God forsaken place where they have armed guards at your resort hotel? Really, what if they make a mistake and shoot you dead? But its cheap eh! Thats the draw, Joe Blow can go down there and be a big man for a day throwing Pesos around like pennies. Oh, they are like pennies.

A friend went to Thailand and came back so disgusted. He was mistakenly directed to a bar that served children. Literally, children were on the menu so to speak. We heard about the Victoria person who was tracked down by Interpol through child porn photos he made in Thailand. They made a big deal about it in the news as if it was a big unique case. Well child prostitution is a major part of the economy in that country and many other countries including Mexico.

People are so blind to what they don't want to see. Going to Mexico only promotes more corruption and suffering for the people. There are no benefits for the ordinary Mexicans, they are still the peons.

[Bud+]

Don't go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hom ... u%C3%A1rez

We've had friends go to Mexico recently but I have no desire to support anyone there with tourist dollars myself.

Egads, makes the hiway of tears look like a goat trail doesn't it.

[Queen K]

Pretty sure the resorts are a safe, maybe if you're cruising around in the "Rutland" of Mexico if there is such a place it could be bad, but I think it's fairly safe judging by the amount of Canadians and Americans travel there.

No need to insult Mexico by throwing Rutland in there.

Okay, j/k. Don't throw a gasket people. But seriously, we have a most esteemed member on Castanet who visits Mexico yearly and loves it there. So I guess it's all what you see.

[phasyluck]

Okay the part about the kids thats just wrong on every level...I mean disgusting! Your other statement about the bribes and corruption may be true also, but these same people who may or may not bribe us as tourists would only be hurting themselves in the long run, small bribes put food on the table and so forth no tourists=no bribe money. Stay in the tourist zones and I can't see any major problems.