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Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle
Spot on comment. His portrayal of Mexico is quite ignorant, and a typical soap box comment from someone wanting to white knight on a discussion forum.
My buddy actually worked at a couple of the resorts down in Playa Del Carmen, and made a reasonable living doing so. Working at the resort also gave him the opportunity to learn English and move to other properties throughout the company which is how he ended up in Canada.
Did he make a fortune working at the resorts down there, nope. That said, he had an apartment, owned a car, and has disposable income. He actually gets quite offended when people find out he worked at those resorts and ask him about getting paid a couple dollars a day. His general response is that you must have a problem with going to Banff or Lake Louise then, because the service industry workers there get treated no different than the ones at these resorts in Mexico. Like most Mexicans i've met, my buddy is extremely proud and always encourages people to visit his home. In fact, the last time I was there he insisted I leave the resort to go have dinner with his family (all of whom are working class down there) and their house. Was the house up to Canadian standards, definitely not. Were they on the brink of poverty? Nope. Just very happy and proud people.
And even if Mexico was just this impoverished wasteland built to cater to North American tourists, what would not going do other than take much needed jobs away from the local economy?
If there is a reason to not go to Mexico, it's the crime and cartels. I've been there about 15 times and I see it getting worse and worse. Tourist areas were completely off limits before, but that has definitely changed over the past couple of years. Never worried me before, but now it's starting to make me second guess going there. We've spent a lot of time in Cabo and that area is especially bad now which is a shame because it's a beautiful area and the people are super hospitable. There was even a shooting in the lobby of the resort we generally stay at.
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I went to Cabo earlier this year, and the police/military have definitely cracked down there. There were battleships in the bay and you'd see soldiers in automatic weapons driving by every half hour or so on patrol.
My biggest problem with Cabo is that it's becoming like Las Vegas. The downtown is filed with crazy American clubs and seedy strip bars. It had a pretty good balance of Mexican and fun clubs even 3 years ago, but it's gotten out of control within the last couple of years.
That being said, there is quite a bit of real Mexican culture there. I went on a walking taco tour while I was there and had some pretty amazing tacos. We went to a family run tortilla factory as part of the tour. If you want a break from Mexican, for about $60 you can get a very high quality surf and turf at a restaurant along the dock.
I even noticed the quality of the resort food within the resorts had gotten better. More a la carte options. Higher quality food too. For example the resort I was in had an authentic taco restaurant and made to order Italian style pizza, both of which were top notch. I guess it's the good and bad of development.
It's less "Mexican" in some ways, but the quality of things has improved. You can always find the authentic Mexican outside of the tourist areas. We actually spent two nights in the "old town" for a change. After 5 days of the resort that was a pretty welcome change.