What's a good, affordable city if I'm looking to live in Mexico? Mostly care about affordability and safety, other stuff I can work out later
>>2703677>safetymerida is your best choice. a lot of the cartel bosses sent their families there a while back with the implicit agreement that families are hands off. i don't know it that's still holding but i'm not aware of any major cartel violence happening there right now.just be aware that they had something similiar in colima that changed completely when someone decided that they didn't care about the rules.
>>2703890i meant to say cuernevaca not colima. sorry.
>>2703677If you are looking for safety, I recommend choosing cities in states that have a crime rate below 150.If you are not so concerned about insecurity, then choose one below 200.According to a security survey (ENSU), the cities where their citizens feel safest are Piedras Negras, Los Cabos, Los Mochis, Saltillo, Tampico, Merida, Tepic, La Paz and Puerto Vallarta.Other good options are Mazatlan and Torreon.
>>2703933I always heard Durango was quite dangerous, that it was vaquero territory, very lawless place but I guess this is not true. any anons been there? can confirm?
>>2703890Keeping up with violence trends in Mexico is a full-time job. I recommend borderlandbeat.com if you want to really get into what is going on. The safer a city is, the more relaxed and upbeat its street life is, particularly on Saturday and Sunday nights. The more violent a city is, the more guarded and wary everyone will be, and you will see far fewer people wandering around enjoying an evening of leisure.>>2703936Vaquero culture is violent, but also honorable. The idea of a man in a cowboy hat mugging you for your wallet or trying to scam you for pocket change is unthinkable in Mexico. High transactional trust, low social trust...the opposite of Vietnam, kek.I've been to Durango twice, once in November 2017 in my private SUV and once in October 2018 via bus on my way to Mazatlan. It's a long distance from any other city, so make sure you leave Chihuahua early if you are traveling by bus. The ride from Durango to Mazatlan is amazingly scenic, and the ride from San Francisco del Mezquital to Estacion Ruiz, Nayarit still holds #1 place as the most adventurous expedition I have ever undertaken (no map, no GPS, just a 4x4 and a pair of balls). Durango has some gentrified areas, some grungy areas. It wasn't my favorite Mexican city - I recall it being difficult to find cheap food - but it was okay. Went to a free concert in the city, made friends with an affluent-looking local guy who spoke excellent English, stayed at Hotel Gallo for 180 pesos a night ($9/night at the time). Like most cheap Mexican hotels, it was a disgusting shithole. Hostel La Casa de Bruno is sadly permanently closed, it was a nice hostel with very friendly owners. I had the whole dorm to myself for $12/night. Picrel is MEX-45 near Abasolo.
>>2703974good shit anon you're well travelled
The Sierra Madre Occidental is very beautiful, but it is pure Wild West outlaw Indian country. The eastern slope (picrel) is a rich highland pine forest, while the western drainages are ridden with dramatic gorges and isolated high mesas, with mulepaths leading to remote mountain shanties and even entire villages tucked away miles from any road. Unfortunately I lost all of my pictures from the trip, apart from the few I ripped from my Facebook page.
Going from the chill of a clear morning in the pines at 8000 ft elevation down through the misty rainforest-like vegetation, bottoming out in the cactus-ridden swelter of Huazamota, 1900 ft elevation and 98 degrees in November...I did not feel welcome in the cartel-controlled town, but bathing in the rushing river was quite pleasant. The highway would be flawlessly paved for a distance before abruptly transitioning to horribly rough rocks, and then back again to pristine asphalt (maybe ridden with rockfall).
I never thought about it but Mexico is probably a way better place to see Native American culture than America is
are we finally going to get a good /mxg/? is this the one lads?
>>2703985yeah there are still like 2 million L1 Nahuatl speakers in central Mexico
As far as OP's question, my personal recommendation is Xalapa, Veracruz. Rentals are plentiful and cheap (w/ no heat or A/C)...restaurant meals are the cheapest I encountered in Mexico, 40 pesos for a delicious breakfast that cost me 100 pesos in Sonora the following year. The city's climate is unique in Mexico...clouds and drizzle are common in the highland rainforest, enough so that every concrete surface is covered in moss. Daytime temps in April, when I visited, varied from a misty 58 F to a sun-drenched 87 F. Cerro de la Galaxia was one of my favorite city parks in all of Latin America - the rainforest covering the extinct volcano is so thick that you forget you are surrounded by urban development. Safety - I got into some shit at a house party there, but never felt unsafe in the streets, with a very heavy Policia Estatal presence. Parking is really tough to find in the city, and streets can get very congested at times. Even if you wanted to explore the surrounding rainforest mountains, it should be doable with a local bus.>>2703890Merida and Yucatan state continue to have a crime rate lower than nearly all cities in the USA. I've heard Merida is pricey, but see quite a few rooms with A/C available for around $20/night in October. Tough to know what kind of room you are getting for that price in Mexico...it could be great, or it could be awfully run-down and smelly.
>>2703985Go roadtrip Oaxaca. MEX-175 from San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec to Oaxaca de Juarez is one of the best scenic drives in Mexico. You climb from the unattractive sugarcane plains near the Veracruz border into hills that look almost Hawaiian with their profusion of tropical flowers, crossing rushing rivers and then climbing ridges with endless vistas (picrel) into a cool, pristine highland pine forest. Oaxaquenos are some of the friendliest indios on earth and love to host tourists in their pretty little villages, where all buildings and land are communally owned. Ixtlan de Juarez was still in COVID paranoia mode when I visited, but my 200 peso room with shared bath was beautifully simple and very comfortable. On the final descent into the central valley of Oaxaca, restaurants serve trucha raised in spring-fed mountainside pools. I tried a trucha empapelada (wrapped in foil and roasted) with some sort of garlic sauce, tastiest fish I've ever eaten. Cost 160 pesos.
A Oaxacan village. It's wonderful how great care the natives take of their land. Other parts of Mexico, you see tierra chingada (raped land) everywhere, but not in Oaxaca.
The pocket desert south of Tehuacan lies in the rain shadow of the eastern mountains. Fucking huge cactus trees everywhere. Tehuacan is not a very appealing city, with tons of impoverished migrants from other parts of Mexico contributing to street crime. The hotel lady had to come out and run them off from before she could open the gate and let me bring my van into her parking lot. Room was 240 pesos, pretty nice and had a great view of the street life below - migrants spreading their wares on blankets, cartel-looking thugs loading packages into taxis late at night, etc.
If you want to live cheap in a semi-arid highland climate, I'd 100% recommend Ciudad Serdan at 7000' elevation, one of my favorite small cities in all of Mexico. Pico de Orizaba is right in your back yard. Supposedly Orizaba is pretty nice as well, at 4000'. Sadly I didn't get to visit either Orizaba or Cordoba.
All kinds of cool shit in the Cd Serdan area, like the Crater of Aljojuca, and the best hotels in the 200-250 peso range I encountered in all of Mexico. Perote was weird, however. A constant war of damp and dry airmasses. The city felt really grimy and unfriendly, and the only budget hotel in town was a fucking awful maze of smelly bugboxes. GN pulled me over outside town, the agent inspected the entirety of my paperwork (passport, FMM, import permit, American registration, Mexican insurance), then pawed through my belongings for a minute before sending me on my way.
The road to the summit of the Cofre de Perote (14049') was a wonderful hike, though the climb to the summit of Sierra Negra (15026') was more spectacular. It is Pico de Orizaba's lesser twin. The climate in March was amazingly pleasant in the whole highland region; brisk morning temps, hot sun, mild afternoons with some clouds.
Can't forget the beach. Heroica Veracruz is a rather popular city with foreigners, quite cheap as well. Winter climate can get horribly windy or overcast for days on end. In fact, I counted 11 consecutive days without sunshine or temps in the 70s during a prolonged January - February cold snap in eastern Mexico.
>>2703677>>2703890Merida is beautiful. Same with Campeche. >>2703933This list largely tracks having been to most of those places. That said, the dangerous, cartel controlled parts of Mexico tend to be rural areas, not urban centers. The drug war is a low level insurgency so the dangerous areas are where cartels can control a large amount of territory unimpeded. This mostly is rural, backwaters in the mountains and then places that are immediately on the border crossing routes. >>2703974The cities have petty crime, and frequently a lot of it but the cartel stuff is confined to their territory where petty crime is not tolerated. The Sierra Madre sketches me out though. It feels haunted before you even get into the thick of it.
San Cristobal de Las Casas
>>2703974borderland beat is definitely at the top of the list for cartel info. that's where i heard about merida. it might have been in the comments so no gurantee of its accuracy.sol recently retired so no more daily gore vids. i think he probably got doxxed. he was dropping way too much personal shit and i probably could have found him if i tried. same with chivis. hope she's safe. they're all good people doing hard and sometime high risk work for nothing to keep us informed.
>>2703994Is that pudding and powdered sugar on the other half of that plate?
>>2704372It's flavored bean paste. Standard side with the huevos a la mexicana. Some parts of Mexico have cheap street food, like these 25 peso deep-fried empanadas in Tuxtepec. Other places, you're dropping 100 pesos on an orden of five tacos with about one big bite of meat in each. Meat tends to be higher quality in the north.
Chihuahua used to be the closest big city when I worked in Big Bend. The centro is walkable and usually well-visited. Hotel Roma used to charge me only 165 pesos for a room. Even had central A/C (on the hottest nights) and kinda-hot water. I remember sitting on top of a payphone box with a 40 of Tecate, watching the cars cruise down the nearby alley and chat with the working ladies. The hotel keeper's wife hated my ass for some unknown reason.
>>2704386Oh shit, that picture is clearly Juarez, not Chihuahua. Both of them have a similar pedestrian mall near the central cathedral. Zacatecas was an interesting city, very high elevation. The highway was blocked by a protest, so I turned off and promptly got lost in the maze of hilly streets. My room at the Hotel Rio Grande was amazingly cheap, amazingly clean, gushing hot shower, and a kickass view of Cerro de la Bufa from the exterior walkway. Only catch was, I had to park my truck on the street almost a mile away.
The streets of Guanajuato are full of character. Some privileged hillside neighborhoods have their own access tunnels connecting to the underground thoroughfares.
>>2704390Nigga, that's literally a favela. You walked there?
toasting an epic bread
>>2704392So you speak Spanish, I take it?
Thoughts on Mexico state and the region around Cuernavaca?
>>2704428That's not a favela. That's "middle class" Mexico outside of major cities. Why do you think everyone calls it a shithole?
>>2704428Obboously, but also has tan skin or would have been eaten alive in Durango or Zecatacas. So a self righteous Mediterranean, probably Italian... >>2703974>>2704592 meant for >>2704394
>>2704428Yes, but when dealing with corrupt police as a gringo, particularly as a solo male suspected of cartel activity, it is best to have some difficulties understanding and speaking Spanish. I got pulled over by municipal police on this road heading into the mountains from Montemorelos to Rayones in Nuevo Leon. It was the toughest traffic stop in all my Mexico travels. They refused to believe that I was not involved in illicit activity until they went through my phone and found 500 pictures of natural scenery from all across northeast Mexico.BTW when you are trying to escape a traffic citation by paying a bribe, wait for the officer to threaten to seize your license and issue a paper citation, then ask "what is the typical fine?" in Spanish. There is nothing at all incriminating about the question for either party. If the amount is low, 300 pesos or so, hand over the cash without another word, and that will promptly terminate the interaction. Alternately, you can go through the rigamorole of paying the fine legitimately, which can be an enormous pain in the ass. >>2704595Nope, onions un güero. Gringo privilege is very real in Mexico. You will get a lot of hard looks as a white man in cartel country, but only the lowlifes in the trashy bars are gonna fuck with you, and that only after you've debased yourself in their eyes by befriending them, drinking with them, and asking them how to obtain drugs (the #1 way to get into shit in Mexico).Look at how these two gringo maricones got treated by the cartel enforcers once they realized they were gringos. Do you think two young Mexican guys snooping around outside some cartel bigshot's property would be treated anything like this? Hell no, best case they'd be kidnapped and interrogated harshly.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kcl9OPzLIU
>>2704823it sounds like if you just don't use any cartel services (drugs, prostitution) and you don't stick your nose in to anything, you won't really get in to trouble in Mexico. that's good to hear. it's so beautiful, and I love the old Mexican territories like Texas and California, so I think I would love Mexico proper.
>>2704592True, even middle-class Mexican colonias are fucking hideous. Potholed streets with leaking water mains, blocky houses built with no aesthetic considerations, rebar sticking up from whatever floor was last completed, water tanks on every rooftop, razor wire separating your roof from your neighbor's. Only the centros historicos have beautiful Spanish buildings. Picrel is Xilitla, a small city in the rainforest hills of eastern Mexico. A unique little place for sure, but it got bone-chillingly cold and damp while I was there in January. Daytime high around 8 C for several days. No heat, of course.Also spent a month living in Hermosillo a couple winters ago, renting a room in an airbnb for 320 pesos a night ($17 at the time). The interior was well-furnished, but natural lighting was minimal, so the winter sun had a tough time warming the unheated place. Overall, HMO isn't too bad of a place to be in the winter; it's sunny, reasonably safe, and quite modern. No import permit necessary to bring your car down there. The lodging options on the budget end are lousy, and the restaurant selection in the grimy commercial center is mediocre in quality and price. Magdalena de Kino was the most kino spot in Sonora...great hotels, good food and a placid desert river flowing past cactus-studded hills. However, the city has been plagued by sporadic outbreaks of extreme violence that have scared away all the gringos.
>>2704824Driving around mainland Mexico is unequivocally dangerous, yet so rewarding. It's a true adventure, because you are blazing your own trail, never knowing what you will encounter around the next bend. There are no safeguards for police or citizen interactions like in the USA. You have no rights, no legal recourse if something should go horribly wrong. Mexican police are the most criminal police in the world. Yet there are customs to be observed. He may paw through the contents of your vehicle to his heart's content, but he will never lay his hands on you. You are free to step out of the vehicle at your leisure, even look over his shoulder as he searches your belongings. You and he will measure each other's mettle under a facade of amiable friendliness. Then abruptly he will take his leave, and you will take a deep breath of relief and continue on your way.
>>2704834what a beautiful place
It's always crazy to me how much insanely beautiful stuff there is to see in continental Mexico that no one ever does because it's a lawless hellhole that can never clean up its act. Cool enough for thrill seekers like the blogger ITT but it would be nice if you didn't have to be that adventurous. I'm not asking for boomer level of more mayan disney world but one or two steps above "will certainly be held ransom in the desert by police at least once on any given trip" would be lovely.
Following this thread closely, I would like to do some cicloturismo in mainland Mexico this winter but have pretty vague plans. Baja --> Mazatlan --> Oaxaca --> Veracruz maybe but I don't know much about the different routes between them, or if there's a good way back to the states other than going back through Baja.>>2704386>worked in Big Bendparkie?
will it be safe to walk around Mexico City in a shirt with a picture of Arjen Robben?
>>2705165Cycling on Mexican highways isn't for the faint of heart. Slower traffic keeps to the extreme right of the pavement, allowing impatient drivers to pass into oncoming traffic (which likewise veers to the extreme right). This is on the modern highways; the older highways have zero shoulder room whatsoever. Then you have to consider the potholes on many roads that can be big and deep enough to throw you off your bike. If you could cycle on the toll highways, that would be a lot more comfy as they are built to modern standards and much better maintained. MEX-15 from Nogales would be a cruise on a bicycle, with the concrete surface and wide shoulder, but cycling Baja and then taking the ferry to Mazatlan would be a lot more scenic than passing through the drab scrublands of Sonora and Sinaloa. Guaymas has potential to be an amazing tourist destination, but the chronic insecurity has left the city looking awfully rough. When I visited in January 2023, the marines and state police had placed the city under occupation, so it was safe, but the hollowed-out buildings and sparse crowds along the beautiful waterfront testified to the destruction left by years of cartel violence. The only gringos I saw there were living on their boats in the harbor. The old ferry from Santa Rosalia to Guaymas has ceased running.
>>2705002So true! Only a few hours south of Texas is the northernmost tropical rainforest in North America, the El Cielo Biosphere Reserve in Tamaulipas. So many tropical butterflies in January, amazingly verdant vegetation in Gomez Farias contrasting with the scrubby plains beyond. Melchor Muzquiz is likewise a lovely little city barely half an hour south of the border, and has an amazing trail climbing high into the mountains that a local vaquero told me about. He rescued me when I got stuck after my van's wheel had fallen through a crumbling concrete culvert...some local women in a side-by-side took me out to the nearest road and flagged down the first pickup they saw, and the señor immediately offered to help pull me out. Since it was New Year's Day, I presented him with a 500 peso gift, and he gave me his number and told me to call him any time I was in any kind of trouble. BTW during the holiday season there were tons of Texan Hispanics visiting their families in Mexico. So much Texan flexin' in Coahuila and Nuevo León...every jacked-up pickup truck rolling around blasting narcocorridos had a Texas license plate, kek.
A better shot of the Guaymas harbor
I don't know anything about Mexico, but how dumb is it to go to somewhere like Hidalgo or Ecatepec? All I've ever heard is the cartel controls the country and tourists are targeted.
>>2704823Speaking on gringos in the wrong place at the wrong time. What did you think about that whole situation of those surfer Aussies getting shot dead in rural Mexico a few months back? A bunch of fellow Aussies think they were in over their heads.
Based quality thread (mainly thanks to the one dude effortposting)
>>2705263You'll be fine if you go to Pachuca, Hidalgo, the capital of that state, as long as you like small cities ."Ecaepunk", however, is a complete cesspool, even uber driver in Mexico city avoid that part of the city at all cost, do not even consider moving there.
>>2705225If President Polk had gotten what he wanted we could enjoy those areas without dealing with a country larping as one giant Fallout location
>>2705512Thanks for the tips. Pachuca looks very nice. Same with Merida, even though they're different areas.It wouldn't be to move. Just to visit. qt said she'd rather we go to somewhere like Cancun anyway, so Ecatepec can be avoided.
>>2705222nice tripsanyway, right on, thanks. I've ridden in Baja a bit so not entirely unaccustomed to Mexican roads. I wonder if there's any unofficial ferry service these days--there are surely enough fishing boats in Santa Rosalia.
>>2705549There's an actual, official ferry service, called Baja Ferries. La Paz to Mazatlan or Los Mochis. Before covid you could also go from Santa Rosalia to Guaymas or from Cabo to Mazatlan. The latter 2 are supposed to resume at some point so you could go from Santa Rosalia. Skipping Baja south of Santa Rosalia is a waste though. It's the best part of the peninsula and where it really starts to feel like you're not near the US border anymore. Mulege and Loreto are historic, pleasant towns, the beaches around them are unreal and La Paz is a very pleasant city by Mexican standards though the summer heat can be intense. The Eastern Cape is still unspoiled but Cabo is all overpriced resorts full of stupid Americans. The ferry is insanely overpriced though I doubt you'd do much better asking a local to take you across it's a long way.
>>2705324There's nothing keeping gringos safe in Mexico apart from the long-running custom of gringo privilege. Violations of the custom do occur, but the resulting news coverage guarantees that retribution is always severe. The coastal area north of Ensenada isn't really rural, though some sections of the Pacific coast don't yet have condos and other development. I spent some time in Ensenada last March. Didn't like the city at all, although the waterfront plaza and downtown streets which cater to cruise passengers are quite upscale. Ensenada takes the worst aspects of SoCal and combines them with some of the highest prices in Mexico. The cheapest room I could find in the city was $31/night, in a shitty motel next to the boulevard. The city's inhabitants struck me as exceptionally anti-social but in a passive & sullen way. Driving behavior was horrible, but nobody honked at anyone else. Very different from the Gulf of Mexico coastal cities, where everyone was coarsely good-natured in their manners and honked at every opportunity.
>>2705324This gets little mention on the news but talked about locally (I'm in a group of so cal people involved with Baja 1000 stuff) that they were looking to score drugs or something and that tracks with the behavior of Aussies I've encountered in general. And Mexico is not Bali. It's hard to say though. The Mexican landowner/rancher was also found dead nearby. The story rumor in Mexico is that they just tried to rob the guy to steal the wheels and tires of their Toyota pickup and the Aussies, being Aussies, attempted to fight back. But who knows, the thing about latins is that their actions don't really make sense and somethings shit just pops off and things happen. >>2705582This was actually about an hour or so south of Ensenada, not north, where this occurred and is a very remote area with few people around.
>>2705569I'd add San Ignacio to Mulege and Loreto as another example of peak Baja comfiness. It's a village nestled in a massive oasis of palms a little north of Santa Rosalia. Picrel is the Volcan de Tres Virgenes between San Ignacio and Santa Rosalia.>insanely overpricedFerries are expensive, bro. 1850 pesos ($93) for a 13 hour boat ride from La Paz to Mazatlan is reasonable in my book. Compare to $80 for the 4 hour ferry ride to Isle Royale National Park. $42 for the one-hour ferry ride to Catalina Island from Long Beach. $34 for the roundtrip ferry to Mackinac Island (30 minutes total).
>>2705587Free camping is risky in Mexico. I've done it many times in remote places with minimal issues, doing my best to be noticed by as few locals as possible. Pull in at dusk, practice light discipline, leave at dawn. First eye-opening Mexico vagabonding experience was in La Paz, where I was sleeping in my truck on a back street lined by high walls, too cheap to pay $8/night for lodging at the tourist flophouse downtown. Woken up at 2 AM, I foolishly handed a bag containing my wallet to some police for "inspection" as demanded, and they swiped most of my cash while shining a flashlight in my eyes. Then came back an hour later to gloat over it and sarcastically tell me that I was sleeping in a dangerous place and might get robbed. I told them I wasn't worried, after all they were the police and were obviously keeping watch over me. They must've thought I was the stupidest gringo they'd ever met...didn't even suspect anything until I pulled out my wallet to pay for gas the next morning.
We can't forget Basaseachic, one of the most spectacular waterfalls on Earth when it is flowing. 853 feet high, the sound of the roaring water echoing off the cliff is unbelievable. It's not far from MEX-16, the highway between Hermosillo and Chihuahua. Lawless country, my buddy was trippin' over some of the looks we were getting, but nobody gave us a hard time. He decided to overcome his fear by climbing up on the roof of my truck while I was cruising down the curvy mountain highway. Not to be outdone, I walked right up to the brink of the waterfall, where the water slices through a trench in the rock 3 feet wide and 10 feet deep before making the drop, and the park ranger yelled angrily at me. One slip would've been a self-sacrifice to the water gods.
>>2705534The catch? This annexation would've required granting millions of benighted mudhut-dwelling mestizos all the privileges and rights of citizenship in America.
>>2705610That already happen
Next visit to Mexico I really want to include Chihuahua and Durango. I've traveled a fair amount of the country including almost a month between Michoacan and Guerrero, have done some road tripping in Baja and Yucatan so have had to deal with cops on a handful occasions, and my wife is nearly fluent in Spanish and I'm conversational. We're both as white as they come so do stick out in the more remote places we've been. All that considered, would you recommend extra precautions in Durango and Chihuahua assuming we aren't going too far off the normal trails?
>>2705610Northern Mexico was (and still is) the most european descended part of the country and the most sparsely populated. As late as the 60s there were no roads between Baja and the rest of Mexico and less than 100,000 people living in the peninsula in its entirety.I sure wish Baja was an American state (there was also talk of turning into the Jewish State, so imagine San Diego bordering Israel and no problems with the arabs). Including Cuba probably would have been a mistake though.
>>2705612>would you recommend extra precautions in Durango and Chihuahua assuming we aren't going too far off the normal trails?I'm the other Mexico anon not the one you responded to but yes. Chihuahua has more crime in general not just cartel crime than southern Baja or the Yucatan does.Since you've done some Mexico travel you'll have picked up the vibe of the place. If it seems off, it is, and you should leave.Travel in the morning until about the end of the afternoon. Be where you plan to stay by nightfall.
>>2705569>It's the best part of the peninsulaYep, agree with all this>>2705588Yep, I know it well and it's great.>>2705593I'm told that the move is to ask at churches or fire stations, but I have not tried this myself.
>>2705612Chihuahua has an absurdly high murder rate, but it has been violent for so long that you'll be hard pressed to notice anything amiss. One town I'd recommend avoiding would be Ascension...it is a mecca of migrant trafficking, and had some very bad vibes when I passed through in November 2022. In fact, that whole region of northern Chihuahua was the most gringo-hating part of Mexico I visited. At the Santa Teresa crossing they refused to give me more then 90 days, then refused to grant me an import permit because of a wreck in my van's carfax history.Exploring the Sierra Madre Occidental is worth it for the amazing scenery, despite the dangers of the region. IIRC, the highway (MEX-24) from Parral to Badiraguato has been completed. Do you dare drive it? I'd do it in a vehicle crappy enough that no CDS operatives would take a fancy to it, kek.I strongly recommend crossing at Ojinaga, with a side trip to Big Bend National Park before driving FM-170 to Presidio. Ojinaga has a modern crossing facility and the town is quite tranquil, with several quality hotels if you don't want to pay Big Bend prices. Heading south on bumpy MEX-16, stop to peer down into the Canon del Peguis (or even kayak it), then stop off at the Grutas del Coyame, where the guides will allow you to do some scrambling around in the caverns for a small entrance fee.
Downtown Ojinaga, about as boring as it gets.
Doggone it, got these old fakebook pics mixed up again. That was Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila.Anyway, here's Recohuata Hot Spring, a cool spot deep in a canyon south of Creel. You drive down a bumpy cobblestone road to a parking lot, then hike down even farther. Driving to Batopilas was also spectacular, we did it fueled on tequila and weaving around enormous boulders tumbled into the road. After passing out in a spacious fan-cooled room and waking up at 1 AM, we walked out to find some armed men without insignia loitering in the parking lot, and everyone else vanished into their homes. They greeted us with "good morning Americans".
The brink of Basaseachic Falls
The famous view of the Copper Canyon from Divisadero during the July rainy season. Except for this point, what you see from the Chepe train is totally different from what you see driving around the region. They cook up some pretty good chiles rellenos up there. Other unsafe regions...I'd recommend avoiding the sad street of dive bars near the railroad in central Ciudad Cuauhtemoc. I left my truck unlocked on the street there after chatting with a drunk Yaqui, then flirting with a drug-addled hooker and rejecting her (much to her chagrin, she followed us down the street alternately abusing and begging). In the morning, I returned to my truck to find that I had involuntarily donated a full set of tools, blankets, and packaged food to the local poors. They were kind enough to lock it up after they took what they wanted (or needed). The Hotel San Francisco had great rooms for a very low price, only downside was our west-facing room was baked by the afternoon sun and stayed sweltering long into the June night.
>>2705610>granting millions of benighted mudhut-dwelling mestizos all the privileges and rights of citizenship in America
>>2705654Sounds like an ending to an episode of Quantum Leap. Then what happened, Bakula?
Mazatlan is a great option. Good beaches, restaurants, relatively touristic but not overrun like Cancun/PDC etc. I have been all over Mexico and felt pretty safe. If you don’t go looking for trouble and put yourself in questionable situations you’ll be fine.
>>2705866The malecon in Mazatlan is really cool to drink a few beers, hang out, watch people pass by. Best beach is on Isla de la Piedra, a cheap boat ride across from the city. The climb to the lighthouse is cool. Be aware that Mazatlan is rainy in "summer", muggy and increasingly sunny in "autumn", but arid in winter and "spring" with warm/hot days and cool nights. I visited in October, it was sunny and humid with highs around 88 F and lows around 75 F. Not too pleasant in a fan-cooled $8/night room at Hotel Oro...I got sick my first evening there, not sure what caused it, puked then washed my mouth out with tap water, swallowed a little without thinking and got even sicker, could barely eat for days.
Met a gringo who ran a homeless feeding ministry in the local park. He was paying 3000 pesos/month for his two-bedroom apartment, plus utilities. It had A/C, and I paid him 200 pesos to stay there for a few days. Picrel is the view from the rooftop. He constantly picked up garbage from the street outside, but people kept littering anyway.
The lighthouse path makes for a nice climb overlooking the city and its harbor.
Rusted-out cannon overlooking the wave-tossed coast at sunset. The old city center - full of touristy markets - is behind the hill in this picture.
>>2706150>local park. He was paying 3000 pesos/month for his two-bedroom apartment, plus utilities. It had A/C, and I paid him 200 pesos to stay there for a few days. Picrel is the view from the rooftop. He constantly picked up garbage from the street outside, but people kept littering anyway.>>2706150I've met gringos, it's always gringos, like this in Mexico. They don't seem to realize the country just barely (literally) got out of the stone age and isn't going to change.
>>2706187White liberals will never accept that subhumans gonna subhuman. The entire world ran like clockwork when the British Empire understood this simple concept and Western enforced decorum. Now they managed to reverse it to such a point that you go to jail for even saying that.
>>2703677guadalajara
>>2703677all of them.
>>2705165For anyone else who may be interested in this, I just found out about the ruta chichimeca, whose itinieraries may be useful for your own route planning. Sounds like a cool event.
>>2706149The only drawback I see about Mazatlan is, that is filled with that noisy and loudly "banda", I say this because a lot of foreigners complain about how loud mexicans tend to be. So, if people don't mind that, then I agree.
>>2709206The young fellas of Maz are very coarse-mannered as well, constant friendly obscenities and slurs in their speech. Most of northern Mexico isn't known for its social & cultural refinement...the Mazatlan Carnival is dope, however.>>2706524Got no pics of GDL, unfortunately. It can't be honestly described as a cheap city, at least as far as lodging is concerned. Without a car, you'd have a much easier time staying in one of the city-center budget hotels. The night before visiting the city, I slept in my SUV in a squatter camp on the city outskirts, kek. Pulled off the highway after dark and didn't realize it was a squatter camp until dawn revealed the shanties in the brush. A friendly squatter with his dog came over to chat with me in the morning. Like many English-fluent Mexicans, he had worked in the US before being deported.Only spent one day passing through the city. Air pollution was bad. I had to park in a 30 peso all-day lot because the street parking situation was chaos and I didn't want to risk my car getting towed. Only time I ever paid for parking in Mexico. It's interesting how certain types of businesses cluster in certain blocks there. Ate one of the best Chinese food buffets in my life on a street full of Chinese buffets. Ended up going on to Jocotepec for the night, a much smaller and more relaxed place near the big lake.
What's the best place in Mexico for a gringo to buy a flat/apt/house just to eat good high quality Mexican food? I literally care about nothing but food and safety. A nice view would be a bonus. Not interested in whores. Thanks.
>>2711891Puebla is considered the culinary capital of Mexico.
>>2711919Oaxaca has a ton of boutique restaurants as well. Somewhat lower elevation than Puebla, more comfortable in winter. The locals are passive and won't give you trouble on the streets, as the entire city runs on tourism.
A lot of properties in Oaxaca have rooftop terraces, great for catching the cool morning sunshine. Lots of cute braless European chicks in long dresses spend the winter there.
>>2705198yes absolutely, very very few people take soccer as seriously as Argenchina
>>2703677I speak spanish and I would never step a foot in mexico lolI really don't understand how first worlders can even consider mexico as a tourist destination, especially outside of cartel ran tourist sites.
>>2713834Many Hispanics are too chickenshit to explore Mexico, for good reason. People in Morelia would tell me "Tamaulipas is very dangerous, don't go exploring there!" Then in Tampico, my friend tells me "I'd never go to Michoacan, it's very dangerous!"Cartels don't run tourist sites, they merely launder some of their dirty money through the cash-cow resorts and keep them safe for vacationing family members.
>>2713849Mexicans especially lower class rarely leave their hometowns unless it's to migrate somewhere else for work with plans to return, usually wherever is closest and easiest. For them it's a big deal to go their state capital let alone the national capital and very few grasp the concept of exploration, of going to another state just to see different things. They are the descendants of conquered people. White Americans are the descendants of explorers and settlers. We have an inherent drive to know what is beyond the next hill, in spite of, or maybe because of danger. Hispanics take the path of least resistance. Anglos go somewhere "not because it is easy, but because it is hard."
>>2712244The terrain and weather look like mountainous CA
How realistic is it to think I could work remotely for a month in Mexico? I work in tech but its a sales role where I have to call people all day in the United States. From this thread I get the impression that Mexico is great to travel through and adventure but that a lot of it is pretty 3rd world and dangerous with lack of adequate infrastructure, with the northern parts looking particularly desolate..
>>2713878Main difference is Oaxaca is dry in winter and wet in summer, but yeah, the central valleys do have that chaparral look, while the higher elevations go from pinyon - juniper scrub to full-fledged pine forest just like CA does. >>2715957You can get roaming coverage and use your US number from Mexico no problem. Cell coverage is rarely an issue in the country's populated regions.You should live in a desirable part of the city. Either the centro historico, or an affluent suburb with good aesthetics. Don't try to stay in a lower-class or even middle-class neighborhood, that's where you'll notice the ugly Third World aspects of the country.>desolateThere's some pretty spectacular scenery in the north, particularly around Monterrey. The Bajio is rather arid and plain-looking, but elsewhere in the central and southern region you can find plenty of beauty..>dangerousI've never really felt endangered by citizens on the street in Mexico. On the other hand, getting pulled over while driving always feels unsafe.
Another pic from a very dusty lower-class neighborhood in Oaxaca City, near Monte Alban.
>>2715960I mean I believe that their are beautiful sights in the rural parts of Mexico but they would be difficult to travel to without a car, no? Also a lot of the north is more rural and far from densely populated areas am I correct that would be better for working? I would be working all day from around 9 - 5. What cities would be the best to stay in that would offer reliable public transport and hotels that are relaxed enough and offer good wifi to work in all day? Would it be a good idea to try to rent a car even though I work a lot to travel to some more rural parts? If I got robbed of my labtop that would be disastrous for my job.
>>2715964Public transportation in Mexico is awful unless you're in one of the like 2 or 3 cities that have a rail system and ok public buses. Most Mexican cities public transportation is beat up jalopies where you pay the driver cash, are packed full of people, are unsafe and uncomfortable (usually no a/c). Similar to the shit they have in the Philippines.Most Mexican towns are ok to walk around however.
>>2715966What are 2 or 3 ok cities?
>>2715964>If I got robbed of my labtop that would be disastrous for my job.nta, but are you kidding? You have to plan for that. If you are traveling anywhere in Latin America, sssume your phone will be stolen, assume your laptop will be stolen. You will need to replace them at some point. Better not have any banking apps on your phone either if you're smart. Some of these criminals are clever enough to get into your phone or steal it while it's unlocked. Lots of people have been cleaned out.
>>2715972Mexico City has a subway network that would rival a European city. I think Monterrey and maybe Guad has a light rail of some kind.
>>2704372The white stuff is Mexican/Oaxaca cheese. I have traveled a fair bit from Mazatlan to Lazaro Cardenas on the coast and Morelia to Tepic in the more interior mountains. If you like surfing or saltwater fishing then the coast is the go. If you don't, I'd say elevate. You don't really need A/C at night in Morelia or Guad or Patzcuaro or Uruapan. Don't have a fancy watch. Don't lie. Be respectful. If people think you have nothing to steal, nothing to hide, and no offense to offer, you're good.
