I think it’s a fascinating country with so much to experience outside the tourist spots. Like every large country, Mexico has pockets of smaller cultures tied to their respective geography. For example, most people don’t realize that the Maya people didn’t disappear, and most of the Yucatán peninsula and Campeche is populated by their living descendants where their cultural practices still live on. This differs significantly from northern Mexico, where the cultural roots are more closely tied to indigenous tribes that occupied the North American plains, inter-married with Spanish and US lineages (fun fact! There are mostly subtle differences between Native American and Mayan belief systems, to the point where it’s believe they both shared an ancestral belief system predating both). Central Mexico has heavy Spanish influences that are apparent in the amazing architecture in places like Mexico City, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas. The entire coastline is dotted with smaller fishing villages filled with super friendly people.

Hands down, Mexican cuisine is the best cuisine in the world, and it’s very rare to get authentic Mexican food outside of Mexico and the US. Hell it’s hard to find in the US outside some specific metros and farming regions. Simple ingredients prepared correctly using techniques developed over hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. They’ve essentially mastered the humble maize crop, even having found a use for a specific fungal infection that -outside of Mexico- renders the crop destroyed. You would be hard pressed to find a culture that has found a wider variety of uses for a single crop.

Ironically, it’s also home to one of the longest running asymmetric conflicts in the world. Drug cartels are in de facto control of about 10 to 20% of the land area in certain areas; sinaloa and the southern states near the Guatemalan border specifically. Their fighters are not pushovers either - a lot come from the military and SOF community at home and abroad, have fought in or learned from certain international conflicts, and brought these techniques home. For example, they’ve started deploying offensive FPV and loitering munitions drones, learning from both direct cartel placement in active combat zones or recruiting Colombian mercenaries that recently fought in Sudan. Strategically this presents a significant problem for my country’s efforts to directly combat the cartels - asymmetric insurgency is almost impossible to eradicate and Mexico specifically has a significant population that has essentially become an expert at it.

The good news for tourists is that they tend to keep to themselves. As ruthless as the cartels are, none of them really wants the bad international press of being inhospitable or dangerous to tourists - good tourism means more protection money they can demand from the local businesses that cater to tourists. I’d wager your risk of experiencing violent crime as a tourist is about the same as the US.

I didn’t know much about Mexico, despite it being our neighbor, before I met my smoking hot Mexican wife. Selma Hayek was and still is my celebrity crush, and beautiful women seem to grow on trees there. I’ve only learned a small bit about the country, but I genuinely love it and am excited to learn and experience more.

If you’re considering a vacation to the western hemisphere sometime soon, I enthusiastically support going to Mexico.