Puerat Vallarta... wow

[hillegom]

Originally Posted by unclesalty

I picked Cuba for my trip as I didn't have the balls to go to Mexico these days!

Where in Cuba?

[unclesalty]

Originally Posted by hillegom

Where in Cuba?

We are going to Varedero next month as the beaches look beautiful with crystal clear water with lots of snorkelling and dive excursions to go on. Food is not so great in Cuba I hear but I would rather eat lousy food and feel safer. My wife actually wanted to go to PV or Cozumel but I said "no way I'm going there" so she gave in to Cuba!

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by unclesalty

We are going to Varedero next month as the beaches look beautiful with crystal clear water with lots of snorkelling and dive excursions to go on. Food is not so great in Cuba I hear but I would rather eat lousy food and feel safer. My wife actually wanted to go to PV or Cozumel but I said "no way I'm going there" so she gave in to Cuba!

The food in Cuba is fine, as long as you eat Cuban food If you're looking for a good steak, forget it. Lots of good restaurants, and if you can, try to arrange a home cooked meal at one of the casa particulars in town. Any of the staff at the resorts should be able to hook you up.

[asylumdown]

I wish I had pics of the underwater stuff, but my under water camera was stolen when i was in Honduras a couple of years ago and I haven't been near an ocean you can swim in until now.

As for the safety situation... the mental image I had of Mexico was formed and nurtured by too many hours watching American news so I was really nervous about it. However, I've travelled all over the planet and not once has the common media characterization of a place I've been to ever been accurate, so I really should have known better.

I was twisting myself in knots, hoping we'd make it to the hotel before some bandit kidnapped us and mailed our body parts back to our families, then I looked out the plane window as we were landing and the first thing I saw was a bright, shiny, orange Home Depot. Nuevo Vallarta where we stayed looked more like Miami or the nice parts of LA than the desperate favelas the news wants you to believe everyone lives in, complete with wrinkly old white people jogging with their small dogs everywhere. The old part of Puerta Vallarta was beautiful, vibrant, charming, full of laughing people eating in restaurants and cafes, and waaaaaaaay too many gay people for me to believe that anything bad ever really happens there. I'm sure there are parts of town you wouldn't want to walk through at night, as there are in any city in the world, but I sure didn't see one. I think it was when we were driving past the Vallarta Galleria mall (that could put any affluent American shopping mall to shame) when I realized I'd been an idiot for putting off going there fore so long.

Even the beach vendors that hawk trinkety crap to tourists on the beach are regulated there.

As far as the rest of Mexico is concerned... The murder per capita rate in Yucatan makes most of Canada look like a war zone. The dangerous parts are pretty specific, so you can reduce your chances of bodily harm or death by 99% by going to Mexico and NOT being involved in the illegal drug trade.