Texas authorities urge students to avoid Mexico

by Libby Zay on

As spring break draws near, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has issued a warning that advises college students to stay away from Mexico. The warning cites ongoing drug cartel violence as the main reason to avoid going south of the border, but also mentions criminal activity including homicides, gun battles, kidnappings, carjackings, rapes and more.

Popular resort destinations such as Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas and Tijuana are not exempt from the warning, which states these areas “can be havens for drug dealers and petty criminals.” Although the DPS acknowledges that many travel to Mexico without incident and that the Mexican government has made strides battling the cartels, it encourages travelers to carefully research any planned trips and always check the U.S. Department of State website for up-to-date information on security issues in Mexico.

Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of State issued a new Mexico travel warning that advised against nonessential travel to areas within 16 Mexican states. According to U.S. Department of State numbers, 120 U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico during 2011, a number that has increased dramatically since the tally was at 35 in 2007. All U.S. citizens living or traveling in Mexico are advised to register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

Riviera Nayarit kicks off Mexico’s largest sailing competition this month

by Jessica Festa on

Every other year, Mexico hosts their Nautical Extravaganza, a month filled with classic sailing and water sport competitions that take you to different Mexican cities. This year, the event kicked off on March 2 with the 30th Biennial San Diego to Vallarta Yacht Club race, which consists of sailors navigating their boats over 1,000 miles from San Diego, California, to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.

If you weren’t at the kick-off, no need to be upset, as the month is still young. Because the London Olympics are coming up, the most anticipated contest of the event is the Regatta Mexico Cup 2012 Olympic Edition, which includes seven sailing divisions and features over 1,500 international athletes, many of whom are preparing for the official summer Olympics.

For those who aren’t into sailing, the event also includes windsurfing, kite surfing, stand-up paddle boarding, whale watching, and beach volleyball as part of the fun. If you’re competitive, the Punta Sayulita Longboard and Stand-Up Paddle Classic will kickoff on March 9 in the picturesque surf village of Sayulita. The event attracts visitors and professional athletes from all over the world who come to enjoy the talent and scenery, partake in beach events, and also raise money for charity.

For more information on the competitions and events still to come this month in the Nautical Extravaganza, click here.

Mexico tourism adds environmentalists to list of foes

by Chris Owen on

Mexico gets bad press for a number of reasons causing travelers to use extra caution when visiting south of the border. Attractions, like UNESCO biosphere sites along the Baja California Peninsula, draw travelers but a newly thriving coral reef is under threat from a mega-development planned for the area, adding environmentalists to Mexico tourism’s list of foes.

In Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, the shallow reef was a typical degraded reef 17 years ago that had been damaged by commercial boats dragging their anchors through the coral to get at valuable species that lived there.

“We started noticing there were fewer fish, and we were having to go farther out,” says Judith Castro, a local commercial fisherman. “We just saw the reef as a garden. We didn’t know the importance of it.”

Aided by local residents, the economy was gradually transformed from fishing to ecotourism, and the amount of life on the reef blossomed, increasing by 460 percent.

Now, a new sprawling project would transform the sleepy little village of Cabo Pulmo into a major tourist destination with about 30,000 hotel rooms, golf courses and a marina on a strip of seaside desert about a 90-minute drive northeast of the Los Cabos resorts.Opposing the project, The World Wildlife Fund recently brought schoolchildren bearing the flags of 70 countries to present almost 13,000 signatures from around the world asking President Felipe Calderon to cancel permits for construction at the site.

“It is unique, not only in Mexico, but in the world,” says Omar Vidal, the head of the WWF in Mexico. “It is a nursery for marine species to repopulate many areas of the Gulf of California.”

Mexico is a land rich in natural beauty and wonderful places to visit, making the country still one of the most visited in the world. Of course, this means tourism is an important part of the economy. At a time when cruise lines have canceled stops at Mexican ports and an updated US Department of State Travel Warning does not help matters, a new tourist destination is going to be awfully hard for Mexico’s government to pass up as it weighs its options.





Flickr photo by NOAA’s National Ocean Service

Crime in Mexico: Is Puerto Vallarta unsafe for travelers?

by Dave Seminara on

My colleague Chris Owen has raised some good points about crime in Mexico in his piece on Saturday about the bus full of tourists who were recently robbed at gunpoint near Puerto Vallarta (PV), but as someone who has visited PV three years in a row, 2009-11, I’d like to offer another perspective on this issue.

Early reports of the incident left the impression that the tourists were robbed by a group of armed men in the city of Puerto Vallarta. But those reports were soon corrected to reflect the fact that the incident actually occurred in a remote jungle area well outside the city and involved a lone gunman, not a gang. Those early reports went viral across the Internet and the erroneous stories are likely to leave a lasting impression on Americans considering a trip to this region.

But a look a recent annual homicide rates in medium-sized American cities reveals that some have a higher murder rate than Puerto Vallarta.

Puerto Vallarta– population- 255,725- homicides- 56 (2011) rate per 100,000-21.96
Miami– population- 399,457- homicides- 84 (2010) rate per 100,000- 21.0
Cleveland– population- 396,815- homicides- 88 (2011) – rate per 100,000- 22.2
Oakland– population- 390,724- homicides- 95 (2010) – rate per 100,000- 24.35
St. Louis– population- 319, 294- homicides- 144 (2010) – rate per 100,000- 45.14
New Orleans– population- 343,829- homicides- 199 (2011)- rate per 100,000- 58.0
Orlando– population- 238,300- homicides- 28 (2011)- rate per 100,000- 11.76
Las Vegas- population- 583, 756- homicides- 86 in 2011, 116 in 2010- rate per 100,000- 14.75/19.89
Buffalo– population- 261,310- homicides- 36 in 2011, 55 in 2010- rate per 100,000- 13.79/21.07

The tourists in Puerto Vallarta weren’t harmed, and because murders are often gang or drug related, homicide rates aren’t always an accurate barometer to gauge the overall threat level to tourists. But they do give you a general idea on the level of violent crime in a place.

I disagree with those who argue that bloggers and the mainstream media shouldn’t report incidents of crime in tourist destinations like Puerto Vallarta. Chris is right to report on this and other incidents. But he writes that “this latest incident of crime involving tourists in Mexico adds yet another legitimate reason for travelers to stay away from Mexico or at least exercise extreme caution when visiting.”

I have to respectfully disagree with the notion that travelers should avoid an entire country, especially a huge one like Mexico, which has 31 states and a population approaching 100 million, based upon one or more individual incidents in specific places. There were 199 homicides in New Orleans last year. Granted, the vast majority of them didn’t involve tourists, but even if they had, would that mean that tourists should also avoid skiing in Vermont, visiting vineyards in Napa or seeing the Grand Canyon? I don’t think so. There are dangerous places in Mexico, but there are also plenty of safe places as well.And Chris obviously knows this as well, as this post about his trip to Mazatlan last October illustrates. His point that visitors should exercise caution is a good one– travelers should always exercise caution in any city, pretty much anywhere in the world. But what does it mean to exercise “extreme caution?”

Does that mean that tourists should remain cloistered inside an all-inclusive resort afraid to go out without a bulletproof vest and a Glock tucked in their waistband? The truth is that you can build an anecdotal case against visiting almost any city in the world by finding examples of crimes that have been committed there. The tourists who were robbed have every right to be angry and I wouldn’t blame them for not wanting to return to Mexico, but their story doesn’t necessarily negate the experiences of millions of other tourists who have traveled to Mexico without incident.

I’ve traveled to Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding region with my wife and two small children three years in a row and we’ve always felt very safe, even at night, even in un-crowded non-touristy areas, like the working class neighborhood of Pitillal. That doesn’t mean that bad things can’t happen there, but I would return in a heartbeat. There is also a huge community of American and Canadian snowbirds in Puerto Vallarta, and all of the long-time winter residents I’ve met there over the last few years have told me that the city is pretty safe.

After noting the recent cruise passenger robbery incident, Owen notes, “crime is nothing new for Puerto Vallarta though.” I don’t think that crime is new for any medium-sized city anywhere in the world. Owen cites the case of a Canadian who was brutally murdered in Puerto Vallarta on May 30, 2011 as further evidence that PV is a dangerous place. But as others have noted, the victim wasn’t a tourist- he lived in PV and operated a business there. Local police indicated that the crime scene seemed to indicate that the victim and perpetrator knew each other.

That doesn’t reduce the impact of the crime but the fact is that violent crimes occur in even the safest of places. The Amanda Knox case, for example, played out in Perugia, a beautiful hill town in Umbria. Would you avoid visiting Umbria or the whole of Italy based upon the murder of one British exchange student?

Obviously the incident involving the Canadian expat and the tour bus robbery aren’t the only crimes that have occurred in Puerto Vallarta and crime there and across Mexico remains a serious problem. But I think it’s a mistake to seize upon a news report here or there and then make broad, sweeping conclusions about the security situation in the entire country.

The fact is that tourists have been robbed in probably every decent sized city in the world at one point or another, including American cities. The difference is that, in large U.S. cities, an armed robbery might not even make the paper if the victim isn’t hurt. When I lived in D.C. (I’m now in the suburbs), I knew two women from my apartment building who were robbed at gunpoint, in separate incidents, coming home at night from the Potomac Avenue metro stop. Neither incident merited even a brief mention in the Washington Post.

Puerto Vallarta’s economy revolves around tourism and Mexican officials are smart enough to know that they’ll need to redouble efforts to prevent crimes like this one from occurring again. In the meantime, travelers who are concerned about violent crime should consider visiting smaller towns, rather than big cities- not just in Mexico but also in many countries around the world.

One place that I highly recommend is San Pancho, a lovely beach community about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta that is about as safe as Mayberry.

Photos taken by Dave Seminara. (1) Beach in PV, 2) the pool at the Westin- Puerto Vallarta and 3) the beach in San Pancho.)

Carnaval Mazatlan a festive celebration, but safe?

by Chris Owen on

Carnaval Mazatlan started this week and runs through February 21. Like other celebrations, glittering costumes, exotic foods and dancing street musicians are all part of the festivities. But this year’s Carnaval, while featuring a full program of activities designed for the whole family, comes on the heels of a renewed travel warning to Mexico questioning the safety of a visit south of the border.

“Thousands of North American visitors will join in the full array of festivities, which celebrate Mazatlan’s rich heritage, authentic cuisine, music and welcoming spirit of its residents,” says GoMazatlan, the marketing arm of the Mazatlan Hotel Association.

But will Americans traveling to Mexico be safe?

The U.S Department of State’s updated warning on travel to Mexico points out “an increasing number of innocent people are being targeted by transnational criminal organizations (TCOs)”, something that Mexican President Felipe Calderón generally doesn’t like to acknowledge or discuss says HSsecuritytoday, a web site targeting news and analysis on homeland security affairs.

Issuing a “strong caution” against “nonessential travel to areas within 16 of Mexico’s 31 states,” Spring break trips to Mexico are being discouraged. In fact, National Public Radio (NPR) says Mexican drug wars have gotten so bad that the Mexican people are out on strike – not because they need better wages, but because of crime that’s nearly shut down the country’s tourism industry. In turn, NPR reported how locals and tourists have been “extorted, kidnapped and intimidated by local gangs,” said Huliq just this week.

While Americans may be debating a trip to Carnaval in Mazatlan, Canadians seem to have made a clear decision not to visit. In the latest case troubling Canadians, a Calgary woman was found badly beaten in a five star resort hotel elevator last month in Mazatlan and placed in a medically induced coma later undergoing reconstructive surgery for injuries to her face. The headline in Canadian news reports: Calgary woman Sheila Nabb emerges from coma after horrific Mexico hotel beating. Not good a good sign.

In 2011, six Canadians were killed in Mexico and 50 were assaulted. According to the State Department US citizens murdered in Mexico increased from 35 in 2007 to 120 in 2011.

To be fair, the State Department also says that “the Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect US citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations,” which we found to be true visiting Mazatlan last October where armed Mexican Marines stood watch over Day of the Dead celebrations happening during our visit. But at that time, crime in the state of Sinaloa, where Mazatlan was located, was not a concern.

The travel warning updated by the State Department earlier this month breaks down crime by states in Mexico and notes “You should defer non-essential travel to the state of Sinaloa except the city of Mazatlan where you should exercise caution particularly late at night and in the early morning. One of Mexico’s most powerful TCOs is based in the state of Sinaloa,” which causes concern for many and will probably result in a lower than normal turnout for one of the best Carnaval celebrations in the world.

Dating back 113 years, Mazatlan’s celebration began in 1898 and is today recognized as the third largest Mardi Gras in the world, following Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. During Mazatlan’s Carnaval, locals and visitors converge for colorful parades, dance performances, art exhibitions, open-air street festivals, outdoor concerts by international artists and a grand firework display.

It will be a shame if, after all that time, Mazatlan’s Carnaval gets shut down by criminal activity. Still, the words of caution by a relative of Canadian Sheila Nabb are hard to ignore: “Stay out of Mexico. It seems to be getting worse and worse.”


Flickr photo by Kashmera