Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
The North, broadly speaking
Most visitors don't actually visit much in this area, other than the border towns. The most dangerous is Ciudad Juarez, the most visited - tens of thousands of pedestrians from the U.S. every day, including many who prefer low-cost domestic air travel - Tijuana.
Unfortunately, the border means the nexus for illegal activity. Desperate people living under such danger and poverty they'll risk their lives to cross to the USA are much in the news, but drug cartels vie for remote crossings and even build sophisticated tunnels to smuggle drugs. Of course, there is a turf problem, and several gangs vie to control areas and recruit "mules" to smuggle in their drugs, and smuggle back guns and ammunition from the USA.
Nobody I know drives the highways up north at night. It can be dangerous, ranging from assaults to witnessing illicit activity by those who don't like leaving witnesses.
Some business people visit maquiladoras (across the border assembly and fabrication plants) and industrial sites, but other than Baja California and some parts of coastal Sonora, you won't find many touristic reasons to visit.
More to come...