Are Americans safer in Mexico than at home?

Robert Reid Lonely Planet author

Every week or so I get asked, ‘Is it safe to go to Mexico?’ I had always said, if you’re thoughtful about where you go, yes. But after my most recent trip there, I’m changing my answer… to a question:

Do you think it’s safe to go to Texas?

To be clear, violence in Mexico is no joke. There have been over 47,000 drug-related murders alone in the past five years. Its murder rate – 18 per 100,000 according to this United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime report – is more than three times the US rate of 4.8 per 100,000. Though Mexican tourism is starting to bounce back, Americans appear more reluctant to return than Canadians and Brits (5.7 million Americans visited in 2011, down 3% from 2010 – and, according to Expedia, more than four of five bookings were adults going without children). Many who don’t go cite violence as the reason.

What you don’t get from most reports in the US is statistical evidence that Americans are less likely to face violence on average in Mexico than at home, particularly when you zero in on Mexico’s most popular travel destinations. For example, the gateway to Disney World, Orlando, saw 7.5 murders per 100,000 residents in 2010 per the FBI; this is higher than Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, with rates of 1.83 and 5.9 respectively, per a Stanford University report (see data visualization here, summarized on this chart, page 21). Yet in March, the Texas Department of Public Safety advised against ‘spring break’ travel anywhere in Mexico, a country the size of the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy combined. Never mind that popular destinations like the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica have far higher homicide rates (36, 42 and 52 per 100,000). Why the singular focus?

Before you nix Mexico altogether, consider these five things:

1. Mexico may be more dangerous than the US overall, but not for Americans.

According to FBI crime statistics, 4.8 Americans per 100,000 were murdered in the US in 2010. The US State Department reports that 120 Americans of the 5.7 million who visited Mexico last year were murdered, which is a rate of 2.1 of 100,000 visitors. Regardless of whether they were or weren’t connected to drug trafficking, which is often not clear, it’s less than half the US national rate.

2. Texans are twice as safe in Mexico, and three times safer than in Houston.

Looking at the numbers, it might be wise for Texans to ignore their Public Safety department’s advice against Mexico travel. Five per 100,000 Texans were homicide victims in 2010, per the FBI. Houston was worse, with 143 murders, or a rate of 6.8 – over three times the rate for Americans in Mexico.

3. And it’s not just Texas.

It’s interesting comparing each of the countries’ most dangerous cities. New Orleans, host city of next year’s Super Bowl, broke its own tourism record last year with 8 million visitors. Yet the Big Easy has ten times the US homicide rate, close to triple Mexico’s national rate.

Few go to Ciudad Juarez, a border town of 1.3 million that saw 8 to 11 murders a day in 2010 (accounts differ – CNN went with 8). It’s unlikely to ever be a tourism hostpot, but things have been quietly improving there. By 2011, CNN reported, the homicide rate dropped by 45%, and the first six weeks of this year saw an additional 57% drop, per this BBC story.

If that trend in Juarez continues all year, and it might not, the number of homicides would have dropped from over 3000 in 2010 to 710 in 2012. Meanwhile New Orleans’ homicide rate is increasing, up to 199 murders last year, equivalent to 736 in a city with the population of Juarez.

4. By the way, most of Mexico is not on the State Department’s travel warning.

The best of Mexico, in terms of travel, isn’t on the warning. The US warns against ‘non-essential travel’ to just four of Mexico’s 31 states (all in the north: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango and Tamaulipas). The warning goes on to recommend against travel to select parts of other states, but not including many popular destinations such as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, the Riviera Nayarit, Cancun, Cozumel and Tulum.

Meanwhile, 13 states are fully free from the State Department’s warning, including Baja California Sur, Yucatan, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guanajuato and others.

5. Malia Obama ignored the Texas advice.

Of all people, President Obama and first lady said ‘OK’ to their 13-year-old daughter’s spring break destination this year: Oaxaca. Then Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made snide remarks over that, perhaps overlooking that Oaxaca state has a smaller body count from the drug war than his home state’s murder rate (Oaxaca’s 4.39 per 100,000 to Pennsylvania’s 5.2).

Oaxaca state, not on the US travel warning, is famed for its colonial city, Zapotec ruins and emerging beach destinations like Huatulco. Lonely Planet author Greg Benchwick even tried grasshoppers with the local mezcal (Malia apparently stuck with vanilla shakes.)

So, can you go to Mexico?

Yes. As the US State Department says, ‘millions of US citizens safely visit Mexico each year.’ Last year, when I took on the subject for CNN, one commenter suggested Lonely Planet was being paid to promote travel there. No we weren’t. We took on the subject simply because – as travelers so often know – there is another story beyond the perception back home, be it Vietnam welcoming Americans in the ’90s or Colombia’s dramatic safety improvements in the ’00s. And, equally as importantly, Mexico makes for some of the world’s greatest travel experiences – it’s honestly why I’m in this line of work.

So yes, you can go to Mexico, just as you can go to Texas, or New Orleans, or Orlando, or the Bahamas. It’s simply up to you to decide whether you want to.

Robert Reid is Lonely Planet’s New York–based US Travel Editor and has been going to Mexico since he was three (most recently to Chacala).

Read more: http://www.lonelypla…/#ixzz1uVuwkKEl

Here is a review from TripAdvisor: “A personal golf course opened to the public this winter without any marketing. It is a nine hole par 34 very challenging course in San Pancho north of Puerto Vallarta. This course is perfectly maintained with water and sand hazards. The greens are perfect. The course is hilly, so use one of the new golf carts. 400 pesos for 9 and 700 pesos for 18. Just one last point: this is NOT a housing development; check out the ocean views and beautiful vegetation.”

Virtualvallarta.com recently featured Cielo Rojo’s THAI MOJITO as one of “Three Essential Cocktails” stating that ”…a meal (and a Thai Mojito) at the restaurant alone is worth a visit to San Pancho”.

Now we know there are plenty of reasons to go to San Pancho – the beauty, the quiet, the empty beach, many great restaurants and of course the amazing infinity pool at Casa Melissa!  So add the Thai mojito to the list.

The next day we went on the whale watching boat tour with Vallarta Adventures.  We came upon a large pod, between 10 and 12 whales. For quite a while there was a pod of dolphins  swimming with them.

The guide said there was one female and the rest were males competing for the primary swimming spot right next to the female.  Then another male whale came into the area, breaching and making lots of splashing noise to announce his presence as a new suitor. It was very cool.  Though the law requires that the boat stay about 30 feet away from the whales, I guess the whales didn’t know the law. They even swam under our boat.  At another point the guide put a hydrophone into the water and we were able to listen to whale sounds. It was a memorable day.

The months of August and September are the peak nesting season for endangered Olive Ridley Sea Turtles in Mexico.  If you walk the beach any  night this month after midnight you might be rewarded by the sight of one of these amazing creatures making a nest hole and laying eggs in San Pancho’s warm Pacific sand.

So far this season, Grupo Ecologico de la Costa Verde has recorded 514 nests– which is 139 nests more than last year at this time.  Grupo Eco volunteers patrol the beaches every night to collect and move the nests to one of two incubation nurseries here in town where they are monitored and protected for 45 days until they hatch.
Early turtle nests that were collected in July are now beginning to hatch at the Main Nursery and hatchlings releases are being performed every night at sunset.  The secondary beach nursery was severely damaged by the huge storm swells last week and repairs are currently underway to make that nursery fully operational again.

The 3,000 eggs that were incubating there when the waves hit are still in place, but it is unlikely they survived the 3 days of salt water inundation. Those nests are not due to hatch until the second week of October, so at this point, all we can do is wait and hope.  Luckily there are still over 300 nests safe and dry at the Main Nursery where they are hatching at a rate of about 200 hatchlings a day.

For more information, visit San Pancho Turtles on Facebook  or  www.project-tortuga.org

Also check out my very short video of baby turtles on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brWPOKpAo7kbaby turtles from San Pancho nursery ]]> http://casamelissa.com/turtle-rescue-and-nursery-in-san-pancho/feed 0 http://casamelissa.com/new-ice-cream-and-frozen-water-shop-in-nearby-sayulita http://casamelissa.com/new-ice-cream-and-frozen-water-shop-in-nearby-sayulita#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:57:34 +0000 Melissa http://casamelissa.com/?p=482 Just heard about a delicious ice cream and frozen water shop in Sayulita. I thought I would pass it on to all of you.

Tamara says  ” I’ve found the yummiest ice creams and fruit waters in Sayulita. The shop is called “Wakiki” and is right in main street a bit before the plaza, opposite side of the street. I had a Kiwi/Alfalfa water the other day that was out of this world. Stop by and try their goodies”.

Can’t wait to try it myself!

San Pancho Top Hideaway Vacation Destination on Mexican Riviera Nayarit

Tennis Court

Bring the whole tennis team!

This court is made of astroturf and sand.  It is great for the summer (rainy) season because it is ready for play 15 minutes after the rain stops.   And no need to roll  out the puddles!

This is a great court if you are a mature player,  as it is easy on the joints.   Also it plays like clay so it tends to even out the match if you are playing mixed doubles.

One man, that was interviewed on the video,  commented his son spends all of  his time is Sayulita because San Pancho is too quiet.  Just the way we like it!!!

http://redguide.com/mexico/puerto-vallarta-nayarit/san-pancho

At sunset last night we saw a pod of dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water – just about 1/4 mile out in the ocean. I could see them jumping with the naked eye!

And whales, everyday we have seen whales spouting and showing their fins. Some in small groups, some seem alone. This is the best year for seeing whales since we started coming to San Pancho.

The resident iguana is hanging out in a tree over the ocean

And the resident iguana is back. This year he likes sunning himself in the branches of a tree that hangs right over the water. When you come, look at the tree to the right of the pool just over the ocean. What an amazing spot he picked to perch!