Agreed, similar shakedowns to me and many of my friends in CUN.

Sadly the ones that perpetuate these shakedowns severly hurt the Mexican economy as the price is lower tourism from those who believe Mexico is a bit dangerous.

MEX trip cancelled
 

i feel terrible that i have wasted everyone's time, but i will not be going to MEX. however, i still eagerly anticipate going, so i feel this thread was not a waste.

the concierge at the W informed me yesterday (approx 30 hours before my dept. flight) that due to national elections (which i knew about), that alcohol sales in the entire country were banned from friday night to sunday night. basically three of our four nights. i cannot imagine this is true for the entire country, but he insisted. the hotel manager confimred and immediately and graciously refunded my 4 night pre-paid non refundable room. Continental however was not so gracious.

upon learning the news i immediately phoned CO to inquire about any possibilites of changing (i knew most flight were 100% booked). although we had a combo of Z, A, and Y (EXJ) fares, and were rebooked to BZE on all D, A and Y (EXJ) fares, they charged me $100 for each ticket change. rules are rules i guess. i figured CO may have been a bit more lenient being that Mexico city was basically shut down for the weekend. oh well.

I am however completely excited about my trip to san pedro in Belize.

Yes it is

During election they enact "ley seca" which restricts the commercial sale of alcohol

This is for everything, supermarkets, stores, restaurants, bars

They don't want people getting drunk during the elections.

holy crap....I'm here right now (leaving tomorrow morning though) and no cocktails tonight?!?

"Duty Free purchases of ample amounts of alcohol.....Don't Leave Home Without It" :p :D ^

And your still alive??? :)

:D :D :D :D :D

See, if you had read my post, you would have known that like five days ago....

The state of Quintana Roo has a high level of corruption, unfortunately, and the CUN police and other municipal employees go long stretches wihtout being paid due to "budget problems," so they have learned about corruption and are prone to "help themselves." It is hardly a singular case.

Side note to those who might raise the issue: I was raised in Mexico and still have plenty of family I visit - so please, don't raise the specter of racism or cultural isolationism. :)

too bad on the cancellation, but I hope you get a chance to visit MEX soon.

I was just there for a 5 day weekend in early June - absolutely loved it. My wife and I (in our 30s, I'm mixed Chinese American, she's Vietnamese American) probably stood out, but we didn't carry on loudly, carry around cameras, maps, etc. We don't wear expensive clothing (jeans, t-shirt, sombreros) or wear backpacks. We speak a little Spanish and can get around. We stayed right on the Zocalo, wandered the area as late as midnight, ate street food (but no tap water or uncooked veggies), took the subway, walked the parks, etc. Loved all the marketplaces! We had NO PROBLEMS. Not only were we not directly threatened, but everybody was extremely friendly to us. It's true that you will be harassed endlessly to buy things off the street, but that's part of the fun of being in a third world country.

IMO it is reasonable to take some precautions: no street taxis, no uncooked street food, don't walk alone, stay in the touristy areas (Zocalo, Zona Rosa, Coyoacan, etc), no fancy watches/jewelry/clothing. Then go for it! MEX has too much to offer in the way of culture, food, history to completely bypass. We can't wait to go back.

AVOID downtown Mexico City weekend of July 14-16.
 

This weekend (July 14 - 16,) there will be a huge demonstration by supporters of the PRD party, which is contestng the recent Presidential (and congressional) election. The main demonstration, predicted to have at least a half-million people, will be centered on the Zocalo (central square.) People who want to be part of the demonstration have begun pouring into the city as of Wednesday July 12 - this is going to be a very big one, folks. Expect traffic an dservice disruptions in the central city core, and probably on major arterials leading to it.

During last Sunday's election protest demonstration, some news crews were threatened, as were some Spanish visitors. This weekened, I suspect things will be very angry - the PRD is said at this point to have lost the election by 0.57%, and they are insistent there was massive fraud (though the EU observers and others did not see any serious fraud.)

Avoid any crowds this weekend in Mexico City. Sometimes demonstrators may be under the influence of alcohol, and the mob can get pretty worked up - this is the intent, to create a huge, newsworthy outpouring of feelings to motivate the electoral tribunal and courts to order a hand count. I can not emphasize strongly enough it is not worth the possible consequences to go to get a quick look, observe or participate in this mass event, especially so if you are American or appear it, or a national of countries who have already acknowledged the PAN candidate as winning - the UK, US, Spain in particular.

I am sincerely hoping Mr. López Obrador can keep control and hold his supporters to peaceful demonstration and that Mexico's budding democracy has matured - but Mexican politics have sometimes turned violent, with resulting deaths.

Well, I was in Mexico City (as part of a BA Tier Point run) last weekend, and luckily, the demonstrations appeared to be entirely peaceful while I was there (admittedly, I do go to a fair few protests, and am reasonably experienced at telling when things are going to get nasty). Chatted to a few people (the feelings really are running quite high), took a wander round the Zocálo area, and ended up (when it got too crowded for me) at a café, nicely situated behind some crowd control barriers, to get some excellent food while watching all that was going on.

Some photos of the protests here if you're interested.

Personally, I did watch my belongings pretty closely, but did not feel at all threatened in the city. The biggest problem was running out of breath on all those steps on the metro!

Folks,

I have spent a fair bit of time over the last 6 months in Mexico City and wrote a detailed analysis of the security situation in another post (see below).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...0&page=2&pp=15

Key message:
From a safety perspective if your smart and vigilant you will have no issues. I shopped in the open markets many times in the Centro Historico, Zona Rosa, and Polanco areas of the city and had no issues. That being said I also tried to blend in, even though I'm visibly Canadian , by not wearing flashy watches, etc, not carrying a visible camera, and not flashing wads of money.

Looks like those pictures of the protests at the Alameda are taken from the Sheraton Centro Historico??? :D

Indeed they were, and a very nice hotel it was too :)

The Zocalo ones were on site (bar one, from a rather nice café behind some convenient barricades...)