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Booked a Trip in Oct - What about Travel Advisory?


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After doing a lot of research on places to retire to, my wife and I (both Canadians but have lived in the USA for the past 20 years) booked a trip to visit Lake Chapala in early Oct.  The wife is now concerned because the state dept. issued a travel advisory (http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/08/mexico_travel_warning_state_de.html).

"Jalisco (includes Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, and Lake Chapala): U.S. citizens should defer non-essential travel to areas that border the states of Michoacan and Zacatecas because of continued instability. U.S. government personnel are prohibited from personal travel to areas of Jalisco that border Zacatecas, intercity travel after hours, and from using Highway 80 between Cocula and La Huerta. U.S. government personnel are authorized to use Federal toll road 15D for travel to Mexico City; however, they may not stop in the town of La Barca or Ocotlan for any reason."

We are getting picked up at GDL by a shuttle from the place where we are staying and don't plan to travel after hours or on Hwy 80.  I find it odd that I haven't seen any events occurring in the past 6 months that would warrant such as travel advisory.  Should we have any reason for concern?

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I believe that if you ask most expats that live in Lake Chapala and most expats that live throughout much of Mexico, they will tell you that they feel as safe here or safer than they did in most US cities.  Mexico has and has had violent problems related to drug cartels fighting other drug cartels.  Usually much of the violence has ocurred in rural areas and sporadically in certain specific cities.  And in those specific cities much (of course not all) of the violence has ocurred on the rough sides of town and at hours you most likely will be home asleep (kind of like back home!) I personally feel that you are more likely to be affected or harmed in the many daily shootouts that occur in the US than being murdered here in Mexico.  In Mexico, you are more likely going to be robbed, scammed, or taken advantage of, money wise, your first year until you learn the ropes of what to do and what never to do while in a foreign country.  After the first year, it should be pretty easy sailing.  Just don't walk down dark alleys in the middle of the night, drunk, and try to score some drugs, that is a recipe for an eventual disaster.  By not doing asinine stuff like that you dramatically reduce the chances of becoming a casualty in Mexico.  Life here is sweet if you use common sense!

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2 hours ago, MarkEliot said:

Most crime is not reported. Be concerned. Very dangerous. Cancel trip

I think what MarkEliot was trying to say is that we don't need any more expats or others of any sorts coming here - the place is full up ... find somewhere else .... we want to enjoy the paradise we found without any more infiltration. So - it's very dangerous and don't even think about it! 

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These warning  are really just telling there have been problems in those areas.. We go through Ocotlan to go to the Mexico freeway and never had a problem in the last 17 years however the road to Ocotlan before it was fixed  had the most number of assaults on trucks so obviously there are bad guys around but I do not remember any incidents with foreigners going through there.. 

La Barca.. they find lots of bodies around there, if narcs so unless you are a narc you should be ok..

However I can tell you that some of the road in Chiapas have a lot of assaults of regular people and until now it has never been published. 

THe warnings are blanket warnings and do not reflect the dangers to the tourists or foreigners who mind their own business.

The Chapala area and Guadalajara are very safe for foreigners as a rule.

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14 hours ago, tomgates said:

Nothing to be concerned here. We have been here for 12 years. 

He's probably trying to scare people into not coming here.  The traffic is already awful and it's not even Oct. and currently the rentals are very few. 

(quote edited by mod to remove personal slur)

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4 hours ago, snaimpally said:

Thanks!  That is why I expected (e.g., no cause for concern).  Seems a coincidence that the advisory happened just as NAFTA is being renegotiated, doesn't it?

NAFTA won't affect the cartel's trade it isn't covered by NAFTA. There has never been a state department warning for Lakeside Jalisco.

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