Posted on 06/05/2018 8:18:05 AM PDT by BBell
SAN DIEGO -- Like their fellow Americans in the coastal town of Bahia de los Angeles on the Gulf of California, Jo Anne Butler and Ray Ball kept returning, year after year, drawn by the small-town feel, the area's stark natural beauty, the warm waters that lapped almost at their door, friends said.
But the shooting deaths of the two U.S. retirees together with their dog early Saturday at their waterfront house south of town has shattered the tranquillity of this quiet community some 380 miles from the U.S. border. Sustained largely by tourism and fishing, Bahia has a year-round population of 1,000, but is also a part-time residence for more than 100 Americans, according to local authorities.
"We have no memory of having a shooting here," said Tom Mitchell, a San Diego resident who has had a home in Bahia de los Angeles for four decades. "This has taken it to a level that no one here has experienced."
Friends and authorities said Monday that the killings appear to be over a boat -- a 22-foot McKee Craft with a Yamaha 250 outboard motor that the couple kept at their house and frequently used for fishing excursions.
"It was an attempted robbery, and an individual went to defend his property, and that's when they shot him," said Octavio Lopez, the delegado, or top local government official, in a telephone interview from Bahia de los Angeles. "This is the first time we've had something like this happen."
A neighbor who remained fearful and asked that his name be withheld said he had been awakened at about midnight by gunfire that "sounded like somebody pounding on a metal roof." Looking outside, he saw a SUV pulling a boat toward the water, "and the thing just buried itself in the sand."
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I’m noticing that is true in Italy now too. Even in the small towns there are solid steel panels over all windows including second and third floors.
Anyone who wants to retire to Mexico...Please take your head out of your ass first!
Are retirees eligible for a Darwin Award?
They are animals.
Yes
The US is a safety valve for all of the resentment in Mexico...and for all the resentment here
There is no ban. Horses are still exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. The do gooders got the slaughter houses in the US closed. Now the horses no longer have the protection of US humane laws. They are hauled on double decker cattle trucks and suffer many injuries. Mexican slaughter houses are barbaric. The idiots are real proud that they stopped the slaughter in the US. Real sore subject with us horse people.
What does horse meat taste like? Beef?
"First rule of Leadership....Everything is your fault"
We are not only going to kill you...we are going to kill your wife and dog. Great place to live! What a shithole!
[Ever notice that pretty much every home that they feature has bars on the windows and doors? Not a chance I would visit Mexico and live there...no way!]
Totally agree.
I did 4 Mexican Cruises in the past and vow never to step foot into the shithole again.
Went there once......Once!
A couple decades ago, we used time shares to go to Mexico after Thanksgiving or New Year to warm up and enjoy a slower pace.
The people were good to us, up and down the coast. The food was excellent and the climate was great. We considered buying timeshares to spend a few weeks down there after both of us retired.
It seemed to change after 9/11. The lady who owned a cleaning agency and a citizen here had a brother in law kidnapped and held for ransom for about 2 years.
Dual citizens were often harassed and relieved of personal items during rude police checks while down there.
A friend of one of our adult sons, was shot in the arm while participating in an SUV race, he had participated in for about a decade with no problem. The same relative stopped going to Cabo for his annual fishing trips because of the lack of security.
We returned to a time share north of Mazatlan, and we were warned by the front managers not to be in town late and not to go on the day trip. We had scheduled a day trip and paid for it, so we went. Basically every place, we went to had young and armed security guards with what appeared to be M14’s. These armed young men were very nervous, and they didn’t make us feel safer.
Finally, we went on a cruise from So California to the coastal areas of Mexico during a January. A couple of off boat tours were cancelled due to potential problems.
We went on a whale watching smaller boat trip off of Cabo, and it was great. We saw a lot of whales. They brought us back to the ship that was now anchored instead at the dock. Shortly after we got up the sea gangway, the ship left the area.
One can only imagine how bad it is now with President Trump trying to keep the bad guys south of our border.
Meh-he-co, like Cuba, could be a tourist mecca if they got things under control down there.
40 years ago, as a young Airman stationed at NORAD in Colorado Springs, I, together with a couple of Hispanic Air Force friends, drove down I-25 to Cuidad Juarez.
We saw some amazing things: Juicy Lucy, Pancho Villa’s skull (several times in different places!) and the woman and the burro. Even then, it seemed creepy, like someone was constantly keeping tabs on us, and waiting for a quiet moment to rob us.
We went back to El Paso a few hours later.
Years later I ran into one of my buds on a TDY (late 80s). We talked about the time we went to Mexico. He remarked he’d never been back, nor wants to go back, after that night.
Somehow we escaped a very bad time, he said. I was the drunk Gringo, and probably the mark; thank God for Hispanic US Air Force buddies!
The government asks you to vote for it before it robs you blind.
It seems Mexican vacations are a good bang for the buck but everybtime I consider going there, I read an article like this and realize I have safer places to visit. I have never been to Mexico and I doubtbI ever will. The closest I will ever come is seeing it from a cabin on a cruise ship.
Its so nice that the sick horse industry has lots of Mexicans to feed. When I was in Mexico more than a decade ago, nothing was safe to eat. Even bottled drinks until we knew where they came from. One of my travel companions ended up in the hospital most likely from a carton of fruit drink from concentrate. Another got a digestive tract critter that never went away completely.
So, horse meat or not, I think I’ll pass on shithole countries just to save a few bucks.
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