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Cat Whisperer |
My wonderful wife finally booked our honeymoon. She's the type that wants the "authentic" experience AKA no resorts. She found us a "quaint" little villa in a town called Sayulita. Any experience with that area? Obviously I can't bring a gun, or likely a knife.. I was thinking of getting a cheap "disposable" pocket knife from a vendor there to carry then just throw it away when we leave. The place we're staying: https://villaamor.com/ It looks good, but I know that the general rule is "DON'T LEAVE THE RESORT"... except we aren't at a resort. ------------------------------------ 135 ├┼┼╕ 246R | ||
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| Member |
I'm sorry I can't offer any opinion on that location, but wonder why she thinks it will be in any way relaxing to stay in a crime ridden third world country without the benefit of a high fence and armed guards. | |||
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Not really from Vienna |
I dang sure wouldn't. I know many natives of Mexico who won't cross the border to go back, too. https://travel.state.gov/conte...-travel-warning.html In mexico, much of the the government IS the cartel | |||
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| Cat Whisperer |
oh I'm aware. 15 years ago we stayed in Baja and distinctly remember my dad paying off cops on more than one or two occasions ------------------------------------ 135 ├┼┼╕ 246R | |||
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Legalize the Constitution |
Hope you and your bride have a wonderful trip. I’m not familiar with that part of Mexico, but if I were that close to the tequila producing region of Mexico, I’d be for a side trip  _______________________________________________________ despite them | |||
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eh-TEE-oh-clez |
I can't say anything about that location, but the money situation there is bizarre. Prices are in Pesos, but the exchange rate to dollars is never consistent. For example, a cab ride from the airport to the hotel is a fixed price based on zones, but if you pay on dollars, they will only give you 70-80% of the true exchange value. My recommendation is to get to an ATM as early as possible and withdraw pesos to be used for small purchases and tipping. A 20 peso bill is roughly a dollar if you get it from an ATM, but if you hand someone a dollar bill, they'll only get 16 or 17 pesos out of it after they exchange it back to pesos to use. Also, have your wife bring a shawl or something for dinner, and treat it with permethrin insecticide, and bring a mosquito repellent with Picaridin (DEET is old school greasy stinky garbage in comparison). Zika, honeymoon, and babies in the next year, don't mix. | |||
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| Eschew Obfuscation |
It depends on what you're looking for. It looks like a nice little boutique hotel and definitely not a resort. But, from what I can see on Google Maps, there is no direct ocean access. There is a narrow road and Villa Amor is right on top of this road. (In fact, if you sit at the restaurant/bar, your chair is literally in the road.  ) There is a narrow strip of grass with some chairs on the other side of the road. There is no beach to speak of.Here are some links from Google Street View ( here, here, and here. Any time we head south, a good beach is a requirement for SWMBO, but ymmv. _____________________________________________________________________ “Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again." - Will Durant | |||
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quarter MOA visionary |
Mexico ain't what it used to be. I enjoyed it many years ago but I don't consider it safe ~ certainly not out in the quaint barrio. YMMV | |||
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| I believe in the principle of Due Process  |
This is a true story. Many years ago, a lawyer I worked with told me about his honeymoon. He married a Valley girl, the Jewish American Princess daughter of an extremely wealthy businessman. After investigating all the possibilities, his wife to be selected a plush resort in Ensenada, Baja California, about 50 miles south of San Diego, for their honeymoon. After an all day wedding, ceremony, socializing with a huge crowd of family and well wishers in Beverley Hills, they set off as man and wife, and made it to the resort, arriving about 10:30. To his chagrin, his wife refused to stay there, complaining that there were too many Mexicans. Nothing would do but that they drove back, crossed the border and ended up in a Motel 6 in Mission Valley. Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me. When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown | |||
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| Member |
There was a recent post about a trip to Egypt. My suggestion to them is the same one I have for you: Take a Marine Expeditionary Unit with you. End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles | |||
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| Good enough is neither good, nor enough |
I loved, Cabo, Cozumel, and Cancun. We mostly stayed at the resort, but did venture out. Cabo San Lucas is much more like US and there are no issues going downtown. Not sure of the other places. There are 3 kinds of people, those that understand numbers and those that don't. | |||
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| Oh stewardess, I speak jive.  |
Sketchy As Fuck (I like parts of Mexico just fine, but always with a larger group) | |||
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| Member |
Paying off the cops is just the beginning. You do not want to be caught in Mexico with any kind of weapon. Period. Besides what good is that dime store knife going to do against 2-15 cartel guys loaded with AK’, ARs, and body armor coming into the cafe you are at looking for protection money or to off the guy who is there because his cousin is from a rival cartel. They usually don’t leave witnesses around that part of the globe. Then you have to worry about the kidnappings. Or when it is time to let people know who is in control they block off every access point to the town and have a hay day. Military and cops can’t get in to rescue. If you guys are going to a small town, believe me, they will know where you are staying and what you two look like before you get your bags unpacked. After working a five year stint with an alphabet agency and daily updates and goings on in that country I would have to opine that you and your new bride should get your money back and think about somewhere else. Not trying to scare you or be over-reactive. Just have some knowledge of what happens everyday in every corner of that country. | |||
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thin skin can't win |
Perhaps N. Korea has a flight. In all seriousness, I love an adventure as much as most sane folks, but once citizens started getting shot in border rivers, kidnapped in country and the general cartel crime penetration and boldness ramped up to current levels, Mexico is off my list. Well, it's still on A list, along with N.Ko, Egypt, Afghanistan, China, etc. There are literally thousand of other places I can/would go with a lesser chance of being a headline. You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02 | |||
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| stupid beyond all belief  |
Ya I wouldnt do that. I would stick to the Cancun area, I think your odds are better. I got back from 9 days at El Dorado Royal Casitas in October. Been there 3 times, as a rule I avoid the west coast of Mexico. What man is a man that does not make the world better. -Balian of Ibelin Only boring people get bored. - Ruth Burke | |||
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| No Compromise |
Try the water. It's quite tasty.  Venture out in to the village alone often, especially after dark. Be sure to chat up any local cops, they are as friendly and accommodating as the Canadian Royal Mounted Police. Use American dollars everywhere you go, the locals won't take notice of you and your money at all. Try to score drugs as soon as possible, the locals aren't going to mess with you at all, and the cops will give you a pass. Rent an expensive car in San Diego and take it across the border, what could go wrong? Don't worry about paying for the extra insurance. Always accept invitations from strangers to accompany them to interesting areas of the city. H&K-Guy | |||
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Member |
A friend once asked me if I’d ever want to go to Mexico for a vacation. I replied, “Why would I want to go and see Mexico. Mexico is coming to see me.” Was down in Panama in the Air Force (Howard AFB) well after the hand-over of the Canal Zone. Multi-colored “chicken buses” everywhere. Swanky estancias behind high fences cheek-to-jowl with cardboard and sheet metal shanties. As long as there are such disparities among the population, there will be revolutions. Traveling in a “Turd World” country is NOT on my “bucket list”; no-how no-way! --------------------- LGBFJB "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." — Mark Twain “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H. L. Mencken | |||
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Member |
That looks like a resort to me. Have not been to Mexico since 1989, but one time we took a bus from Mazatlan south. On the bus we met a local who went to school at Berkeley and spoke good English. He recommended an off the beaten path hotel used by locals. We couldn’t have been happier. We got the real Mexican experience. Friendly people too. I got sick (it was actually dehydration that my girl friend diagnosed). While I was recouping, she walked up the street to a restaurant that probably doesn’t see many tourists to have some lunch. While there talking to them, she told them about me. They sent her back to the hotel with a very nice ceramic bowl of soup and silverware. The soup was excellent and I walked back to the restaurant with her to than them and return the bowl and silverware. The horror stories you hear about Mexico are true, but they are not everywhere just as there are people around the world that hear about all of our shootings and would never come to such a crime ridden country. You still need to be careful, just as you would traveling around this country, but don’t let it control your experience down there. We even hitchhiked a few times. --------------- Gary Will Fly for Food... and more Ammo Mosquito Lubrication Video If Guns Cause Crime, Mine Are Defective.... Ted Nugent | |||
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Member |
She didnt stock up n life insurance on you recently did she? | |||
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