Those of us who travel a lot tend to pooh-pooh the question non-travelers seem to ask the most: “Is it safe there?”
“There” is usually anywhere outside the country where they currently live. The fear of the unknown is very strong. The murders and armed robberies one neighborhood over on the local nightly news are somehow less scary than the potential of being pickpocketed on a distant shore.
There are some travel destinations, however, where the danger is very real. The only way to find out for sure is to do your homework and get the whole picture. Do a little digging around and you’ll find that most of Mexico, for instance, is as safe as your home town. The border cities, however, are full-on gangland war zones. Picture the worst parts of Detroit, but with Spanish graffiti and better guns. The city of Tijuana fired its police chief in early December after 38 people were murdered in one weekend. Police officers just returned to work after some retraining time and deeper background checks. The death toll for the year has passed 800.
You’ve got to admire the honesty and cajones of the outgoing chief Alberto Capella though, who had this to say: “This war will continue so long as drugs are illegal and command high prices in the United States. Legalize the drugs, then the Americans can get high and we can live in peace.” (In the meantime, if you’re snorting coke you’re automatically a player in this drama. May I suggest B.C. bud instead? No turf wars in Canada.)
When the violence is not so over the top, the best information often comes from honest locals. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when talking with one of my Peru trekking partners and his daughter, who were from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“I don’t wear a watch and I never carry more than a little bit of cash,” said the father. “Sao Paulo is a good place to do business, but not a very nice city otherwise. I have been robbed four times at gunpoint. It is a scary feeling when a man is holding a gun to your head and his hands are shaking, his eyes glazed. You want to give him what you have as quickly as possible because you think the gun could go off by accident the way his hand is shaking.”
I had heard plenty of bad things about the city before, but when a local gives you this kind of graphic description, you know the reputation is for real. The funny thing is, one sentence ended this conversation. In unison, he and his daughter said, “Rio is worse!”
