Back to Mexico.

I’m back in Mexico for 5 lovely months. Here: sea, sand, sunshine, outdoor pools, beachside restaurants… In Ontario: snow, frost, ice, slippery roads, cleaning car windows daily, taking ten minutes to put on boots, coat, scarf, hat, gloves; if you have children, much longer…

Those are some of the reasons that I love Mexico. I have probably been coming here for months at a time for nearly thirty years. And here is another reason I love it: the people.

When people learn I have been going to Mexico for so many years, most will ask an inevitable question. (Even before Covid.) ‘Do you feel safe?’ I will leave aside the implication that I am so stupid as to go somewhere where I feel unsafe and limit myself to saying that I have only once felt unsafe. No need to go into that as nothing came of it.

There is a feeling among people who haven’t been here that the Mexican people are all thieves who will rob you at the drop of a hat. So, a couple of anecdotes to refute that piece of anal waste.

I once left my camera in a bar and headed off. When I realised I had forgotten it, my husband and I drove back and asked the person behind the bar. He told me another guy was working at that time and sent someone to fetch him. This guy, young, maybe early twenties, showed up with my camera. I tried to reward him with a few pesos, but he wouldn’t accept it. We had to buy drinks and give him a larger tip than usual. That he accepted.

On another occasion, my husband unknowingly dropped his keys on the beach. Someone found them and then found the car by beeping it. Obviously, he had a perfect opportunity to steal it. Instead, he wrote a note in the dust on the back giving his telephone number! Not satisfied with that, he then figured if we were no longer on the beach, we were probably in one of the beachside bar/restaurants and he went among them asking if anyone had lost keys until he found us. Again, he refused a reward.

I could go on, not only with my own experiences but also with people with whom we have swapped anecdotes over the years. We have never had a negative experience with the people of our community.

Yes, there are cops who try to hustle us if they catch us doing something on the roads that Mexicans would get away with. And yes, there is certainly a drug trade. But there are bad people everywhere. And there are good. I think the Mexican people get a bad rap.

If you disagree, come down and find out for yourself.