We've been invited to vacation in Mexico by several different friends.

One group is going to Sayulita; one group to Puerta Vallarta and points south, and two friends are going to Antigua and Quetzaltenango Gualtemala.

I've told them that we wouldn't go when they are (most of them only for two or three weeks straddling New Years; the Guatemala trip from Dec 1 to April or May.) In my experience the infrastrutura in both these countries is already shaky at best. I don't want to be caught up in y2k problems on top of all the other problems we normally experience there.

I read a post below here speaking of Jamaica and how it's a middle risk country with lots of unknowns. Much earlier I saw a report on Mexico which sounded fairly optimistic. Have heard nothing about Guatemala. I'm afraid things there might go from Guatemala to Guatepeor.

What do you think?

(Don't tell me anything too positive, though, 'cause I don't want you to get banned from this site :)

ALK

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), November 27, 1999

Answers

I think you're crazy to even consider it. Put off all travel planning until February, at least. You can travel into an area that is having a depression. You shouldn't travel into one that is having a disaster.

-- Dog Gone (layinglow@rollover.now), November 27, 1999.

Thanks Dog Gone. I'm not considering it, believe me. I'm trying to find out whether I'm likely to ever see my friends again, and how to convince them to go at a later time.

ALK

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), November 27, 1999.

That Sayulita place--is that pronounced "See Ya Later"? As in "maybe if Y2K is a BITR?

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), November 27, 1999.

Actually, it should be very safe. All of the Mexicans will be heading up to L.A. as soon as the border patrol abandon their posts.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), November 27, 1999.

----where we live, there's a large guatemalan immigrant population--I asked those doods, they said, sure go ahead and go, gringos taste jiss like pollo!

hehehehehehehehehehehe

got rice?

el zoggo, nemesis of e-vile, and disser of impure and boneheaded ideas...........

p.s. ok, that was a "negative", please stay home with friends and family on a nice cozy farm someplace, ok? No farm? get thee to q nbice remote campground in a rv or travel trailer, some place with well water and a stream or a lake. You got a month clean lead time, cut more firewood, build shutters for the windows, and go bury some assorted preps around. order some propane tanks. get some gasoline up. bolt some solar panels to the roof and score a few storage batts. stuff like that. That ought to keep ya busy enough. think of it as a "working vacation".

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 27, 1999.

The U.S. is going to be SCARY...Mexico is going to be worse. We're talking Mad Max goes south of the border.

-- Rational Doomer (doomer@big.time), November 27, 1999.

Over a year ago it was predicted that folks overseas were going to blame America for whatever Y2K problems arise. When America the country is blamed for a problem, any American citizen handy will be used as the local scapegoat. This has already begun with Iran and Iraq decrying Y2K as "another plot by the Great Satan" to assault the peoples of their countries. Expect to see such statements appear more frequently from many more countries.

And somehow I expect that there may be more than a few Cuban sympathizers trying to stir up anti-American sentiments over Y2K in Central and South American countries. These countries are not in good shape Y2K-wise and there will be problems. All it will take is some rable-rousers to point the finger of blame at "los Americanos" and there could be an angry mob out for your and your freinds' blood.

The old saying goes "The best way to get out of trouble is not to get into in the first place". Why allow yourself to be someplace where something you had no hand in (Y2K) will be blamed on you simply because of your nationality?

Better to wait a few months and go on tour when gringo touristas will be welcome because of their economic input.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), November 27, 1999.

Mexico should be just fine, that is if you don't mind drinking dog piss from a hubcap.

-- Reg (rhogg@hotmail.com), November 27, 1999.

Mexico--how safe to spend any day of any week of any year?

-- I would (say@not.very), November 27, 1999.

I gotta disagree, I think low tech has to equal low impact.

The lights go out in NYC or Denver, probably get cold and lonely. Lights go out in Puerto Vallarta, throw another log on the bonfire on the beach and have another pulque (con un poquito de carbonata y agua.)

Also, the little towns inland from the coast hardly have electricity anyway and still manage to scrape out a pretty good living, (maybe not the luxurious life of some of us, but not that bad either by Mexican standards.

Was I you, I'd go just for the adventure, (and maybe stake out a good sail-boat you could swipe to make the run up the gulf to Puerto Penasco if I'm way wrong.)

Don't know why everyone's so afraid of that part of Mexico, I sure like the people and the abalone (and the prices) in that neighborhood!

Good Luck!

-- Roger (pecosrog@earthlink.net), November 27, 1999.

"Don't know why everyone's so afraid of that part of Mexico..."

You don't? I've heard many, many horror stories about corrupt cops who enjoy intimidating, locking up, & shaking down tourists for money and/or sex.

Oh, yeah, & the government also enjoys harrassing American business owners down there & seizing their property. A couple I knew were forced to abandon a thriving business & a nice home. They managed to escape imprisonment by leaving the country with little more than the clothes they were wearing. There were no actual charges, of course.

I wouldn't go to any part of Mexico again, for any amount of money.

-- it's not that (hard@to.understand), November 27, 1999.

*a thriving business and a nice home*? Just what kind of business might that be? So now the cops down there are going after the folks who bring jobs and money to the local work force?

I've been visiting that neighborhood for over 30 years, (since high school), and the only time I ever had a problem with the local cops was one time driving drunk, and I got the same spanking you get here, go to jail, pay a fine, etc,etc.

Spent 10 days fishing and playing down there last year, hope to do it again next spring(if it all hasn't gone to hell in a bucket.)

Maybe I've just been lucky but I have spent much time in Mexico and have had no more (or less) shake-downs, getting pulled over or questioned than I have in Canada or France or the UK. (Or Kansas, for that matter.)

-- Roger (pecosrog@earthlink.net), November 28, 1999.

Having spent quite a bit of time working on networks in Mexico the last two years, let me give you some advice the plant managers at the various facilities gave me:

Get out.

There are all these rosey scenarious being posted about how "U.S." companies would never allow their plants in Mexico to become victimized by Y2K. Yeah, and everything is hunky-dorry here too. They have a mess down there now, with an ongoing civil war, which receives no press up here (6 states in various stages of violence). They have a work force which shows up when it wants to-throw Y2K on top of it and their fear of computers, etc. and see what happens. I anticipate Mexico to be one of the lynchpins which create the JIT depression as I like to call it now, as their economic collapse, with political instability, piled on with Y2K failures creating useless or substandard parts for final assembly in the U.S., will result in a degree of disaster for the U.S. and Canada. Would I go? Hell no. I've been there. I love driving through the farm fields and smelling raw sewage. I love pulling into a clients facility and it's surrounded by razor wire and gun towers. Yeah, wonderful place. And that's before the bug hits.

Always the optimist, and please, don't feed the pollys.
John 9.5

-- John 9.5 Galt (jgaltfla@hotmail.com), November 28, 1999.

John,

Try Cancun next time. The Caribbean coast is entirely different... paradise.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), November 28, 1999.

I'm not fool. I stopped in Cozumel for 2 days every trip out. It's closer to home anyways than Mexico "hell" City, LOL.

Please, for God's sake, don't feed the pollys.
John 9.5

-- John 9.5 Galt (jgaltfla@hotmail.com), November 28, 1999.

Sorry, guys, I'd just as soon go to el Lay as Cancun. That city was built for one reason: to appeal to tourists. I can see all the gringos I want without ever leaving the comfort of my own home.

Adventure, not Cancun. Not dizzyland.

Al K

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), November 28, 1999.