Mexico City

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I'm going to travel to Mexico City to see if it is a cool place. Perhaps I can teach English there, or something. But the city seems like a big monster and I'm really curious about it.

I've always had so much fun communicating with people in Spanish because they seem to think all my quirks and weird word choices are just because it's my second language and we don't share the same culture. It will be fun, I think.

My only worry is that I'm not perfect and while I have some family support, it's not all that much. I've been in a serious depression for the past three years. I haven't really gotten my life together. But anyway, as you can see I'm new to the forum, so this is just something I'm about to do.

Some bars in Mexico have a fixed price option for an evening drinks. One price covers all of your drinks for the night. I forget what the term is called. It's apparently popular with the young because they can drink all evening without having to pay more.

As I understand it, the bars do it by mixing in the cheapest tequila they can find and maybe add some fruit. And if a patron at the bar doesn't finish his drink, that typically gets added to the mix as well.

Have fun.

Mexico sounds like a dangerous place to me, I'd be terrified of going. Which is a shame, I love Mexican food. My father went there and seldomly left the confines of his hotel complex. Whenever he did, he said there were guns in abundance.

Kidnapping is rife, and if you are a white westerner they'll put a pretty bounty on your head as its implied you must be well off.

Rumours abound that horrific things happen to hostages whose next of kin can't pay up.

As I understand it, they pretty much target the wealthy who they have already checked out and are reasonably sure have money. I don't think there is much kidnapping for ransom purposes at random.

I've been told that in Mexico City, you should never flag a taxi down on the street. Instead, go to a hotel or other place with a designated taxi stand and get a taxi there. It seems that some people in Mexico City operate illegal taxis that pick people up on the street so that they can rob them.

Supposedly, one of the safest places to go is Merida. The drug war has left the city alone, but there is still a problem with kidnappings. Of course, if you aren't wealthy, you probably aren't going to be kidnapped there.

Even if there were no drug war, there would still be plenty of petty crime throughout much of the country, but you could easily live there for years without any serious problems.

Unless you're Mexican yourself, and especially if you're white, you may be presumed to be wealthy just by someone glancing at you. Don't presume you're safe one bit.

If you are driving around in a $100,000 car, maybe. But they aren't kidnapping people at random to hold for ransom.

Of course, there are other reasons than ransom to kidnap someone. For example, it has been reported that the cartels are kidnapping technicians and engineers and forcing them to work for them.

The one case I know of where someone was kidnapped for ransom that did not have the funds, the family had put everything they had into a ranch in Mexico. Looking at the ranch and the operations, it appeared that they likely had additional funds. Of course, since they couldn't pay, the guy was kept captive for something like a year or two before the ransom was reduced to some low amount that they could pay.

I have been to mexico a couple of times - the small villages are really nice but the towns and cities are not safe not talking about kidnapping but everything else. In less you are one of those extreme chance takers - I can read spanish really well and speak it not so bad but I have a really hard time hearing it but in mexico itself the slang is way worse - think about it twice - you may have a perfectly good time and then theres the other - aspies can have a much harder time outside of their oun invironment - my thoughts

I've heard Mexico City is one of the most polluted cities on the planet. Also seems extremely dangerous as a non local.

So, you want to risk this?

I have no hard figures but would be tempted to lean towards reports of kidnappings being overplayed. It makes exciting news stories as opposed to reporting about all the people who had a nice time there and came back without any bother. Then again my baromater for danger has always been a bit off so best look into things like that yourself and weigh up risks.

It sounds like it could be very much a sink or swim kind of situation especially for an aspie. I could picture it making me massively stressed and overwhelmed or it could go the other way and be a life-changing confidence booster where I discovered I was capable of things I never imagined. Sometimes I think the only way to move forward is putting yourself out of your comfort zone and going for it - though my aspie brain often talks me out of that idea.

I was reading Born on A Blue Day by fellow aspie David Tammet who described, at 18, moving to some distant contry as a volunteer english teacher for a year and how, through neccesity, he found the resources to cope on his own and develop skills he didnt realise he had.

If you choose to go, let us know how it works out.

Might be best to check out someplace like San Miguel de Allende instead. They have a sizable American and Canadian expatriate population. Petty crimes are not unusual, but they have apparently been fairly free of many of the drug cartel problems.

One of my trips in mexico the military went through everyones stuff on the bus if wrapped opened anyway and took what they wanted out side on the road and if you wanted it back you had to pay for it - we were stopped by the military a lot. I kissed the ground when I got back to the states!

Unless you've lived in Louisiana or France the legal system there will be especially foreign to you as they use the Napoleonic Code wherein the burden of proof is on the accused to determine their innocence. Given the well-documented pattern of Aspies becoming targets of false accusations I do not see how that could possibly end well

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