The guy down the street just got back from Mexico on business. He has traveled all over Latin America and says Mexicans are the friendliest of all latin Americans he's met. I told him they were mainly friendly because they wanted big tips. Are Mexicans generally friendlier to visitors than other latin Americans.

The other thing this guy told me was that he was surprised to see two brand new S430s cruising around in Mexico City. I thought crime was real bad down there so that was a shocker to me.

NARWHAL, what kinds of crimes have you witnessed down there?

Aside from this guy who goes down there on business, I know lots of people who go on junkits to Cancun and Cabo and they've never mentioned seeing any criminal activity, although when I read the papers or tour guides they talk about crime nonstop.

I heard Argentina has turned into a real crime zone

I also dont consider Cancun to be Mexico. Its so darned American-ized, that you dont get to experience Mexican stuff. I get more out of going to my local authentic Mexican restaruant than I did going to Cancun. Everywhere you go, you have 87billion peddlers trying to get your attention. In the airport, they have erected booths to keep the peddlers behind and out of the way of tourists. The peddlers of vacations and other crap in the airport all but lasso you to get you to come over there. "Excuse me, sir, sir, come here, you need to come here...Why? So you wont get ripped off by the locals..." Excuse me, but arent YOU a local?

I was walking thru the shops in Cancun when I stopped and had a beer, cooling off in the shade. The next thing I know, a guy is trying to sell me weed for my hat. He started off with trinkets and worked his way up thru Cuban cigars and right up to weed. After the 47th 'no thanks, it was the last one like it' he finally gave up. If you are white, you are fair game in Cancun.

Wow, that was quite a rant.

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I haven't been to Mexico, but I suppose stuff like that is everywhere in the world.

Recently, in Naples Italy, a friend and I were approached by someone who said they worked on one of the cruise ships. We were merely trying to find a good cigar store and were walking down an allyway.

The guy wanted to sell us two cell phones and a video recorder. He followed us down the ally until I yelled at him to leave us alone.

The worst for me was a day in Tangier. The locals there would get angry with you and call you "capitalist pigs" if you didn't buy crap from them. Later we were "robbed" by being told that our ship was cancelled to take us back to Spain. We bought another round of tickets for another ship. Then the guy asked me to give him a big tip for "helping" us out. I had smelled a rat from the beginning and refused to give him a dime. My siblings agreed to getting new tickets, so I had to go along with them.

As our "new" ship left the harbor, we saw our original ship pulling in. It hadn't been cancelled, only delayed. These guys were in "cahoots" with the security guards and everything.

Needless to say, I'll NEVER set foot in Tangier again. (But I did return home with a nice silk rug, which is in my bedroom.)

Yes, most Mexicans are very nice. I dont doubt that one bit, as most of the Mexicans I have met are nice people. My rant was only about the market in Cancun and Cancun itself.

This reminds me, I had a friend in high school that looked at me like I had blasphemed against the Lord when I called Mexicans "Mexicans". "They are Hispanic, and its pure bigotry if you dont call them that. Are you some sort of racist Mike?" I tried to explain that its not derrogatory, and just a word. I am an American, people from Germany are Germans, from Spain are Spanish or Spaniards, Finland-Finnish, Austrailia-Australian, etc etc etc. She to this day still thinks its racist. THe scary part is that she was one of 6 valedictorians !

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