Safety in Guanajuato, MexicoFREE 6-Day Spanish Course!I still find it so hard to believe what some Americans do when visiting or expatriating to Guanajuato. You will read stories or hear hotel staff tell how these Americans will stay out until three in the morning and expect to be perfectly safe trying to walk back to their hotels. Expats will open the doors to just about anyone only to be beaten half to death, left for dead, and robbed of everything they own. Why do Americans move to Mexico and take this attitude that "Mexicans are so eager to please..."? This sounds like they are talking about a breed of dog and not humans. Americans really must come here thinking it is a Nirvana or Shangri La where nothing bad dwells. They will fork over money for a job without getting a signed receipt, the names or addresses of these so-called workers. A word of advice: Don't come here expecting a culture of perfection and sinlessness. Don't do here, whether tourists or expat, what you wouldn't do in Detroit, LA, New York, Miami, or any other crime-ridden American city. Living in Mexico, no matter which city and region, can be just a treacherous as any American city.
Mustard: Here's a common ploy that gets the unsuspecting gringo. At night, when the robbers think they are safe to commit their nefarious deeds under the cloak of darkness, they have this gig with which they target Gringos. You will be walking the street reveling in your self-perceived safety, when some Mexican (usually a male) will approach you to ask some innocuous question (like the time). Or, they will count on you not wanting to offend the locals and engage you in conversation about the city and how much you like it. While you are distracted, his partner, will squirt your back with mustard. They will instantly become apologetic and caring and almost like magic will have a wad of paper towels and proceed to clean what they will tell you is bird doo-doo from your clothes. That's when the "bait and switch" happens and when they leave, you will find you will have been relieved of your belongings when you get back to your hotel. I know two Gringos to whom this has happened and in one encountered this girl lost her Laptop. As a tourist, you are a target. Be prepared!!! Living in Mexico- Guanajuato Sidewalk Safety Try imagining a giant banana split bowl big enough to build a city inside. Imagine the bowl twisted into a crooked "S" shape. The next miracle is a city gets built along the winding and twisting bottom of the bowl and all up and down the sides. Living in Mexico - My Wife Was Attacked In our first book, "The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico," I wrote a chapter about crime. In that chapter, I tried to drive home the point that by "comparison," Mexico is safer than the United States. Mexico - Crime When I told my best friend, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, my wife and I were moving to Mexico, his reply was as follows: "I guess you won't have access to a telephone or the Internet." I was dumbfounded almost to the point of not being able to make a coherent reply! Mexican Living - Sidewalk Rules # If I had to point to just one cross-cultural similarity between Mexico and America, it would be this: How they walk on sidewalks. They do it absolutely the same way!
Mexico is not famous for thinking about things having to do with "Preventive Maintenance". They routinely wait until something breaks before they will move to fix it. An excellent book to read about this aspect of Mexican culture is: Mexicans & Americans: Cracking the Culture Code by Ned Crouch. You should read this book even though it applies mostly to those trying to do business in Mexico. It will give you priceless insights that will be highly applicable to the potential expat. Applying this book and its thesis to the tourist works too. 1. Always ask to see a room before laying your pesos on the front desk for a room. 2. Check locks on doors and if any are on the windows. 3. Always assume that as a gringo, and the locals, especially the sidewalks vendors will know you are a tourist, will target you. Assume that if a thief can he or she will get into your room. Windows are a cinch for the would-be robber so take a look at them. 4. Leave nothing in your room, when you go out to do the tourist thing, that is of any value. If you do, don't be shocked when you return and it is gone. 5. Check to make sure everything works in the room. 6. Now here is the best of all: You would think that what I've written so far should be self-evident but apparently not. Gringos come here and I suppose they think Mexico is a place where the tourist can throw all caution to the wind. Gringo, and I mean those of the American variety, will do all manner of things they wouldn't think of doing back home in their crime ridden cities. Anywhere in this country, I am convinced, those who would rob you and pillage your hotel room, are attracted to the Gringo like Ducks on a June-Bug. Look: Would you go out walking the street of Detroit at three o'clock in the morning? No? Then, don't do it here either!
1. Never ever eat on the streets. In case you've never heard, most cities in Mexico will have food vendors who sit on the sidewalks and in plazas selling everything from tacos (real tacos), gorditas, tamales, and almost everything else you can imagine. Don't eat these. You literally don't have the stomach for it. These little food stands are almost never clean and you are almost certainly guaranteed to get sick. I did this during the second month of living in Guanajuato and ended up in the hospital. We were told it could take 18 months before we developed the intestines for eating on the street. We have one vendor we frequent and we never get sick. But, of course, we've lived here for more than five years. 2. Picturesque sidewalk cafes are not going to necessarily be the place you want to eat either. One establishment in the center of Guanajuato "pre-sets" the tables with settings. Consequently all manner of fowl from pigeons to sparrows hop all over the plates that sit on the tables waiting for the unsuspecting gringo to come by and perchance eat there. I've seen folks run to the bathroom to wash up just when the food arrives. This, of course, signals the birds to come and dine on the buffet sitting on your table. We've watched the waiters just stare at this feathered feast and do nothing to shoo the flying gourmands from the tables.
Mexican Survival - Water A typical day in the life of an American expat living in Mexico will include trying to find drinking water. You might be surprised by this but everyone knows that you cannot "drink the water in Mexico."
Mexican Living - Doctors, Doctors, Doctors # am sick. I don't know what's wrong nor if what I have has an official name. Maybe they call it, "Ah-ha-now-you-can't-breathe-well-and-feel-like-you-are-going-to-die virus". I don't know. I will probably go to the doctor tomorrow if I am not feeling better.
Mexico - Creepy Dangerous Things I am happy as a peacock to report that Mexico does not have much in the way of Creepy Dangerous Things that come out in the night to do you in while you sleep. There are, however, some things that can give one pause.
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