MEX-PATRIOT - 04 - Where to Go

These are just my gut feeling, although I have done some research:

• The colonial and old gold mining cities are very attractive if you can afford long distance trips to the DMV and State Department. Their streets are narrow, their altitudes are high, and their water supplies may contain arsenic, lead or cyanide.
• Chapala, near Guadalajara on the shores of Lake Chapala (Mexico's Lake Erie), is a personal favorite. You can find Opera,literature, doctors and dentists in English in Guadalajara Chapala has book, writer's, artist's and card clubs. However, the lake receives effluents from a major river coming from Mexico City. The federal government is aggressively building water treatment plants, but we may not live long enough to drink safe lake water. In addition, drought seems to killing the lake.
• The seacoasts are the victims of hurricanes and malaria--all, except for the Pacific coast of the state of Baja California. This may change with global warming.
• The border towns have resentments against Gringos. Shooting drug wars run all along the border. Live lost near Ciudad Juarez rival deaths in Afghanistan. Even little Tecate has suffered shootouts at the border. Severed heads wash up on Rosarito Beach.
• For my money, the Tijuana crossing is the safest. I've walked across often. It could be dangerous. Know where you are going. Don't walk east from the pedestrian bridge. I lost my Blackfoot Indian friend in thee last year.
• Dom't trust Yahoo weather reports.