Everyone is a safety officer

The wall at Nogales, AZ

We crossed into Mexico a week ago-- drove south across the border at noon on a Tuesday and no one even asked to see our IDs. However, we did get a good look at THE WALL.

There really is a huge wall at the border of Arizona and Mexico. I'm not shy to say that, as a descendent of immigrants, I am a fan of open borders-- both for humanitarian and economical reasons. Also, one need only ask Hadrian, the Ming Dynasty, or Gorbachev to find out that walls don't work. Living in a country that would wall our international border (especially selected borders) makes me ashamed.  I can't believe the leaders of the so-called "Free World" aren't saying "Mr. Obama--tear down that wall!"

Permiso de Importacion

Once you're past the wall and the border town of Nogales, about 20 miles into Mexico, you have to stop and get a sticker put on your car. It takes lots of copies and US$200 to put this sticker on your car. This sticker is the Permiso de Importacion-- proof that you have paid the deposit so that you won't leave your junky car in Mexico. I don't know how all the junky cars that are in Mexico got here-- maybe they need to up the ante.

After many warnings to "be careful," we read the state department website for Mexico travel warnings. I  don't care where you are traveling, this is always a BAD idea. They make it sound like you are going to get robbed, mugged, killed, raped, murdered and ambushed by humans, dogs and crocodiles the second you leave the safety of the United States. They make the south side of Chicago look like paradise. The only place you can find violence worse than described on the State Department website is on video games played by American children and sub-adults. The State Department concludes that the majority of violence in Mexico is near the US border (seems like thinly veiled justification for the wall, doesn't it?)

We heeded the advice with many grains of salt and distanced ourselves from the USA as quickly as possible. We witnessed no blood baths, ninjas, or genocide-- only that the food got better and cheaper. However, it actually is unsafe to drive at night in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. We can report that NOT driving at night is only slightly less sketchy.  When we pulled off the road to sleep for the night, we dodged getting hit by a semi, someone called the police on us, and a man with a machete knocked on the window. When a man with a machete tells you to move, you do.

note that Forrest is wearing shoes-- safe.

Having learned some lessons, we made it all the way to the coast in just 2 days, and found a whole bunch of gringos hanging out at the beach. We stayed in the surf town of Sayulita for two days visiting friends and shopping for surfboards. Our hostel was full of Canadian 20-year-olds that don't wear shoes. I can appreciated relaxing and being on vacation, but I don't need to read a website to know that walking around Mexico without shoes on is very unsafe.

The people of Mexico do NOT agree with the US State Department that violence is worst around the border. In the state of Michoacan, the people have gotten so fed up with paying bribes for "safety" to drug cartels (and to police who are on the bank roll of drug cartels) that citizens have armed themselves and are operating as vigilantes trying to restore security for their families. The government has sent the military, but the vigilantes are refusing to put down arms until the government arrests the leaders of the drug cartel. We are gathering information from locals about the safety of travel in Michoacan, as it is the next state south and home to some good surf breaks. So far, it seems agreed that non-cartel members (especially pale ones from Alaska) will be pretty safe.