There is no doubt you need to use precautions in Mexico.. just as you would any where else including stateside. When we took the bus from Guadajara to Jerez Zacatecas I asked why the roads had been clear-cut back so far and the bus driver said it's because bandits rob the bus's sometimes and this way they have a running chance!

When we got to Tamazula Jalisco and tried to visit a Mendez relative who didn't know me he was extremely fearful of us. When we returned we found he had been kidnapped for ransom, he's family owns casas de cambio so that made him a target.

In Jerez everyone was drinking bottled water much to my surprise, they said the iron content is so high it stains their teeth! Mostly they drank Coka-Cola in glass bottles. They would not allow me to walk anywhere alone but said it was because it would reflect badly on my family! I did find that all the families I visited drank alcohol much more and earlier in the day than we would stateside so beware of long lunches

Deena,
I enjoyed reading of your experience in Tijuana...........the stories on the news always sound worse than they really are. The same could be said about the US from the Mexican's point of view. When we go to Mexico you hear stories from the people who have never lived or been to the US about the lack of respect for authority in the United States, about the breakdown of the family because most women work and therefore the children are left to fend for themselves without a figurehead of respect and authority in the home during the day. One also hears about the breakdown in the morality of the family and the promiscuity of the youth, the rampant drug use of the young people etc. etc. I could go on and on. This they hear from the news as portrayed in the US media.........they get the same news there that we get here via CNN and other major newsbroadcasters via cable and from hearsay from people traveling back and forth. Is there some truth here? I would say yes. Is this the
whole