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Bubba

Mar 28, 2007, 8:16 AM

Post #26 of 33 (1074 views)

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Re: [hopalog] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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Jonna and Hopalog:

We are in agreement. I would drive the 186 route from Villahermosa to the Chetumal area as well. I think there has been a spate of druggie activity lately because of the ongoing war between drug cartels and the problems the narcos have had with other drug transport routes being shut off. I do believe Hopalog is right that The Herald was speaking primarily of the locals in Tabasco east of Villahermosa who were cautious on this route.

We can´t just hide under the bed. A couple of years ago we drove that lonely road from Coba to Tulum and when we got to Akumal read of two Europeans (I think) who were found along there with their throats cut. Still, we wouldn´t hesitate to drive that route again.

Just as Jonna warned about driving Route 200 in parts of Michoacan and Guerrero because of bandit activity - a warning that caused us to modify our plans to drive down the coast to Chiapas, accessing the sea at Acapulco (now with its own serious problems) rather than Colima, we, likewise will apprise the rest of you when we read of potential problems in other places. Then you can decide whether or not the news stories warrant attention. We all have our own appetites for risk.

It´s interesting. There are two relatively short drives that gave me pause at about the same time I was in the middle of each driving adventure. Both were on the Yucatan Peninsula. The inland drive from Majahual to Xcalac and the drive from Kinchil near Mérida to Celestun. We passed not a single car on either of those roads through wetlands both of which seemed to stretch on interminably. There was nothing but swamp and crocs on each side. No solid land in which to escape. About half way through each drive I suddenly realized we were on our own. It got real lonely so I sped up, as if that would help. Now, I grew up in the violent Kluxer, church burning, corpses at the bottom of the Chattahoochie River days of South Alabama in the 50s and, in the 70s, lived in the marijuana growing, wierd cult encampment back woods of Northern California´s Santa Cruz Mountains parts of which even sheriff´s deputies never visited alone and unarmed. I distinctly remember being seriously concerned in both places about what lay around the next bend in the road. I guess I never got over that but I still explored the backwoods all the time and I´m still here at 65.

As the French say, maybe I was "making my own cinema". I loved Xcalac and Celestun once I got to both places and would do both drives again.

hopalog

Mar 28, 2007, 8:28 AM

Post #27 of 33 (1070 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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In Reply To

bubba; you better know that before I disagreed with you I'd need to grow balls the size of diseased, bacteria-laden, terribly inflamed and swollen elephant balls. Not Disagreeing With The Bubba. :)

And you have a very good point of which we have become guilty; the complacency and "hiding under the bed" inadvertantly after a long spate of no problems in a country which at times is 1st world and at times struggles to make it up to 3rd world status. When we drive around in our van empty of possessions, we still have more wealth than the average resident on the penninsula. We are lucky and wealthy beyond our comprehension.

Hell's Half Acre

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wendy devlin

Mar 28, 2007, 10:18 AM

Post #28 of 33 (1052 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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Bubba sez:
"We all have our own appetites for risk."

Think this an appropriate comment to this discussion.

Also think that appetite for risk, gets 'tested' when a person experiences serious harm to their person or someone they care about. Or accumulates experience over time to critical emergencies.

Basing the above observation on both personal and professional experience.

As an RN/industrial first aid attendent, my work in emergency first aid was in a construction camp, chain-saw factory, hydro-electric dam and pulp and paper mill etc. Legally, I was only allowed to administer oxygen in the work-place. This was not para-medical treatment. Several of these work situations were more than '45 minutes road surface time' from the hospital.

And even if we succeeded in transporting the patient in the ambulance to the closest hospital, it was then often, another helicopter or plane ride to a major medical center for critical care.

After those years, went into the much 'softer' environment of teaching:
training of ambulance, nursing students and the general public through the private sector, the college system and the RED CROSS. During travels in Mexico, accumulated another range of experiences, some of a serious nature.

Often one reads someone's account of their first-time safe journey through one of Mexico's more riskier regions. Say, like the coast-line of Guerrero.

The person often then becomes an instant travel advisor to others to ignore common cautionary reports and advise. In their opinion, the region is 'perfectly' safe. And the cautionary tales either overblown or alarmist etc.

The person can be quite unaware of what happened the day before or perhaps the day after on that same road/town/beach etc. to a local or extrajerno. We always talk with travellers/or locals who have just come from the road direction, we are travelling towards. We ask about road conditions and perceived safety conditions. Try to ask more than one person or set of persons.

Travel to me, has long involved risk assessment. However been wilderness exploring, camping/ rural living/farming/working since my parents put me to bed in the boot of their Austin in 1956 on a mountainous fishing/camping trip.

Heck! Life itself, seems about risk assessment:)

Ignorance, however, is often bliss.

Although one can always hope...not of the eternal kind.

sfmacaws

Mar 28, 2007, 10:50 AM

Post #29 of 33 (1046 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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Yes, complacency may play a big part in my attitude. I appreciate the reminder to take nothing for granted. I am going to do some inquiring on our next trip through there instead of assuming someone would volunteer the info.

As for the other parts of the Yucatan, I feel safer here in the Yucatan (estado) than in any other part of the Republic. Even for a large city of over a million, Mérida has a very low rate of violent crime. Quintana Roo is different because there are very few Quintanarouense (sp?) compared to the number of people from all over the Republic and the world. It's quite wide open in many ways, and of course there are the narcos around as well.

The Euros who had their throats slit on the Cobá road a couple years ago were living there, not visitors, and it's said that they knew their killers, that there was a connection to some business deal. Still, I would be leery of living way out in an isolated area in QRoo. As Kathy says, what little you have is a lot more than your neighbors have. We just drove the Cobá road in our RV 2 days ago, leaving Tulum at 10pm and arriving in Mérida at 2am. It's isolated and we did see a police roadblock, they searched the local car in front of us even looking in the trunk. They waved us on. Who knows. Here in Progresso, narcos shot up the police station in January I think, they were caught within days and it was reported they were from Tabasco. But then, everything bad here comes from Tabasco :) maybe that's why the state voted for Calderon.

The secret to driving the road from Majajual or Limón to Xcalak is to ignore anything you see washed up on the beach as well as any other activity you see. Make like the monkeys and see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing. If you do that you will be about as safe as anywhere in life that's interesting and pretty much ignored by the bad guys.

I'm still dubious about MX200 through Guerrero and parts of Michoacan, that's a road we have purposely avoided. I see reports of a lot of RVers going that way lately, Zihua has become very popular with RVs. Maybe one year we'll do it, or maybe not.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

sfmacaws

Mar 28, 2007, 10:56 AM

Post #30 of 33 (1042 views)

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Re: [wendy devlin] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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Our posts crossed in cyberspace Wendy. I agree with you that listening to one person say they had no problems doesn't mean much, you have to read the press and see the input from a lot of people to start getting a read on the situation. Even then, it is a throw of the dice because you could be the first.

Good advice.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Bloviator

Mar 28, 2007, 11:43 AM

Post #31 of 33 (1034 views)

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Re: [sfmacaws] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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I've driven every dirt and out of the way road in Northern Arizona except some of those on the Navajo reservation. I've driven almost every such road in the CA Sierras, Oregon Cascades and Idaho Panhandle. I've driven lots of backroads in Mississippi - where they don't have signs telling you where you are because you either know where you are or don't belong there - and delta and mountain Arkansas. I've driven dirt roads all along the Arizona and New Mexico border.

When I came here, I continued my propensity to drive back roads. Several incidents, however, have made me decide not to drive back roads in Mexico. I can't advise others, but for me, it just isn't worth the feeling of isolation and potential trouble.

Like several above, I will continue to drive main roads, being careful to check on current local conditions, and avoiding places where there have been recent problems. According to his recent posting, however, I will not ask Bubba where to drive in Chiapas. SC Marcos seems like an interesting person, but I wouldn't want to meet him on a dark road in the Yucatan.

I think that on the hiways, tourists are not likely to be bothered as long as they use good common sense and mind their own business.

(This post was edited by dlyman6500 on Mar 28, 2007, 11:46 AM)

wendy devlin

Mar 28, 2007, 3:04 PM

Post #32 of 33 (1013 views)

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Re: [sfmacaws] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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Dang! Just wrote out a description of the time, we visited a small remote bay, to buy fresh fish that veteran Rvers in the Baja campground told us, usually came in on the pangas, certain time, certain day of the week.

And our server went down, just at the moment, I pressed send.

Shorter version then. A few other tourists were on the beach also buying fish. There was also a young, unsmiling solder with a machine gun, standing around, as if on patrol. After we bought our fish, we lingered to beach comb and explore. The solder took off on foot.

Two new vehicles arrived after the other tourists left. Shiny, new, decked out.
Guys, flashy, bejewelled. Another panga approached the beach.

This time, a big box was being unloaded. Time to leave!

Didn't want to witness the transaction.

On our way back along the long dirt road towards the highway, the young solder flagged our van down for a lift. We stopped, loaded him in and dropped him off at the nearest town. He didn't say a word except thank-you when we left him off.

(This post was edited by wendy devlin on Mar 28, 2007, 3:06 PM)

Bubba

Apr 3, 2007, 8:37 AM

Post #33 of 33 (927 views)

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Re: [hopalog] Help I'm overwhelmed.......

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Hopalog wrote:

It could be that the fear and danger (regarding Highway 186 from Villahermosa to Chetumal) might be much closer to Villahermosa, but we saw NO-ONE forgoing a stop in Escareaga nor the Palenque area nor Xpuhil nor the Calakmul area.

In this morning´s El Universal, an article on the recent spike in drug smuggling and drug gang activity along the isolated Guatemala/Tabasco 120 kilometer border specifies that that activity is heaviest through the local municipalities of Tenosique and Balancán, Tabasco and drug traffic moves from local secondary roads to Highway 203 and on to Highway 186 near Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco from whence the drug traffic heads north. This route has been designated the Autopista de La Cocaína or Cocaine freeway by authorities and that part of Highway 186 that frightens locals is probably that 130 kilometer or so leg from the interesection of Highways 203 and 186 to Villahermosa. After Villahermosa, the highway is major autopista and that mitigates the danger somewhat. It would seem that travelers along that relatively short span of Highway 186 should exercise caution but not worry beyond the intersection of Highways 203 and 186 heading for Chetumal.

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