Why I Travel to Mexico by Peter Greenberg

Travel Detective Blog: Why I Travel to Mexico

FEATURED POSTS, MEXICO & CENTRAL AMERICA, SAFETY & SECURITY, TRAVEL DETECTIVE BLOG, TRAVEL NEWS — ON MARCH 22, 2012 8:16 AM 

This past week Peter was down in Ixtapa, Mexico to prepare for his upcoming radio broadcast. Even passing through Mexico City’s 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday didn’t to dampen his enthusiasm for travel within the country. Read his latest blog to find out why he is still traveling to Mexico and you should too.

Let me state something from the outset. I am not an unabashed apologist for Mexico, or its spokesman or an endorser. I am writing this as a veteran traveler to Mexico who has been going down there since 1973 without a single incident.

I am growing tired, and somewhat impatient with expressions of concern or worry — as well intentioned as they may be — about my traveling to Mexico.

Every time I am about to fly there — to Cancun, to Cabo, to Ixtapa, to Mexico City and many other locations — my friends, and sometimes even strangers advise me to “be careful,”, “be safe,” or worse…”watch out.”

Watch out for what? great people? great weather? great service? affordable, memorable experiences?

Most Americans share, as a group, two notable, and embarrassing traits: we are geographically ignorant and culturally insensitive. And, at every possible opportunity to travel, we embrace the worst four letter word that starts with “f”: fear.

It’s sad, it’s unfortunate, and at the very least, it’s embarrassing. Instead, we need to get out there and find a map. Then we need to study it to put things in proper perspective Yes, the drug cartel wars in Mexico have taken a terrible human toll. Depending on which figures you believe, upwards of 40,000 people have been killed in the last five years, as gangs fight other gangs. Often public displays of those deaths, those visually powerful images have created a serious public relations problem for Mexico and have allowed thousands of Americans to succumb to their fears.

The Megacable Grand Prix

We went to the 'new' racetrack just past San Pedro on the way to La Paz today to see the Megacable Grand Prix.  Donna's son Pat Ryan has a class 1 car and raced so we naturally had to go check it out. We've been to several races and in fact before I met Donna, I had gone to the track in Santa Anita a couple of times with friends.

The track at San Pedro is NICE.  Not a bad seat in the house. We could see most of the track apart from 2 curves. In the trophy truck race, the cars that came in 2nd and 3rd exchanged the lead 3 times. One car rolled but landed upright and continued to race.

If you've never gone to an off road track race, let me give you some pointers:
>Parking is generally chaotic.  Find a place that you can't be blocked in.  The best is to park as close to the entrance as possible and walk in to the track.  Then when there is a mile long line trying to leave, you walk past them, get in your car and bully your way into the line only meters from the highway.
>Don't assume there will be shade. take an umbrella or something suitable. At today's race, there were a BUNCH of shade kiosks set up and if you knew about them early, you could rent one. We had one and there was room for 30 people under it and it came with chairs!  Good thing since a whole bunch of friends showed up and joined us....
>Take coolers with drinks and food. There are always food booths but don't be caught short.
>Be careful where you decide to watch the race. Figure out if loose pieces of car or a runaway tire could be thrown into your midst. Standing close to the track on the outside of a curve for instance.

Wet Fun Water Park

I've featured the water park before but it is so cool that I'm going to post it again. We've been several times and it never gets old. If you've never been, you are missing a full day of fun for very little money. It's located about 15 minutes North of the San Jose del Cabo airport.