For travelers, Mexico is a delight and is safe too

Fear of the swine flu and drug trade violence are preventing foreigners from visiting Mexico. From all accounts in the Puerto Vallarta area, no one has the flu or knows of anyone with the flu, and drug related violence is not in evidence in this scenic Pacific coast tourist mecca.

Instead, American’s fears on these matters are harming our neighboring country. I recently returned with my young daughters from a once-in-a-lifetime, three-month immersion in Puerto Vallarta. All three of us were distraught that we had to leave our beloved, newly adopted home in Mexico.

Since our return, we keep hearing that Americans should not travel to Mexico. The warnings imply that American tourists will not be safe. We would like to go on record that the parts of Mexico to which we traveled are safe! And without American tourists, the Mexican economy is in great trouble.

Our family has traveled to Mexico with another family for the past seven years. During these trips, our two families, each with same-aged daughters (now 11 and 13), stayed in all-inclusive resorts. Last year, our family wandered off in search of a community where two moms and four girls could live for three months and the girls could enroll in a bilingual school for the ultimate plunge into another culture.

As 2009 dawned, my daughters and I landed in Puerto Vallarta. The other mother spoke Spanish well. I could get by with a fair vocabulary but very poor grammar. Our older daughters had taken beginning Spanish in their public middle school in Denver. The younger girls could barely count in Spanish, much less carry on a simple conversation.

Life was a bit unsettled at first. Our housing plan fell through a week before we arrived. So, our first order of business was to find housing for two families. This detail was settled fairly quickly, and we ended up renting condos across from the Cruise Ship Terminal and Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart. Within a week we were used to the colorful pesos and began to mentally calculate our true cost of living, based on the peso’s changing value.

Fortunately for us, the exchange rate for the peso ranged from 13.3 pesos to a low of 15 U.S. dollars during our stay. Public transportation was another huge learning experience, which was learned quickly and used voraciously!

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http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12859690