The Lonely Road to Puerto Vallarta

The blood was flowing in the ditches. The sidewalks were strewn with decapitated bodies. As we traveled the main highway, first through Nogales, then Hermosillo, and Ciudad Obregon, bullet riddled bodies swayed in the breeze attached by ropes to freeway overpasses. Yes, we knew we were back in Mexico. The Mexico of 2010. Well, at least that’s the image so many Americans have based on news coverage of the drug wars here. It makes for titilating headlines and stories of horror. But ... the reality is something quite different.

I will admit that after being in the United States and Canada for the past five months, I became increasingly concerned about how safe it would be to drive back home to Puerto Vallarta this fall. The news coverage of the violence along the border was incessant. The evidence was overwhelming. Anyone thinking about going to Mexico, particularly those driving through the war town northern states, without a doubt possessed a death wish.

Not to discount the tremendous toll violence has taken. I don’t need to go into that since the media has done a yeoman’s job depicting Mexico as nearly Afghanistan-like. But as we passed the border today, stopped at immigration, waited along with a dozen other Americans and Canadians waiting to get their car permits, then headed south on 15D, the newly paved four lane toll road, we realized the Mexico we know and love is still intact, still very inviting, and still very much alive. However, there are a few differences.

One thing we did notice is that the traffic here, at least on the highway between cities, is much lighter than normal. There are still the caravans of Mexican trucks and buses, but the cars, and trucks, and RVs with plates from California, Arizona, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta are significantly fewer than before. There were stretches where we would go for 10 to 15 minutes and barely see another vehicle.

Tonight, we are staying in the Del Rio Hotel in the small town of Navojoa. It’s clean, comfortable, pretty good Internet, great restaurant, and Mexican cable TV that has the Giants game (in Spanish). We are happy. But unlike the three times we have stayed here before, the hotel is not very busy. And while we did see one car with a Colorado plate in the parking lot here, the rest here are from Mexico … Sonora, Jalisco, Aguascalientes. The media has made Mexico a place of fear. And Americans and Canadians, some of whom are "afraid of their own shadows," have responded by refraining ... refraining to visit a truly welcoming neighbor.

Granted, we have not made it back to Puerto Vallarta yet. There are two more days of five to six hour journeys. We could be car jacked, we could be shot (oh wait, that's Oakland). But being back in Mexico, with its beauty, its culture, and most important its people, makes me feel that I have already come home.