Fuck Mexico-- Discover The Rest Of Central America!

According to mass media reports, surfers and kayakers are frightened to hit the waters of the northern Baja California peninsula (Mexico, for all you geographically challenged)-- long popular as a weekend destination for U.S. tourists. Weddings have been canceled. Lobster joints a few steps from the Pacific were almost empty on the usually busy New Year's weekend.

Americans have long tolerated shakedowns by police who boost salaries by pulling over motorists for alleged traffic violations, and tourists know parts of Baja are a hotbed of drug-related violence. But a handful of attacks since summer by masked, armed bandits — some of whom used flashing lights to appear like police — marks a new extreme that has spooked even longtime visitors.

Lori Hoffman, a San Diego-area emergency room nurse, said she was sexually assaulted in October by two masked men in front of her boyfriend, San Diego Surfing Academy owner Pat Weber, who was forced to kneel at gunpoint for 45 minutes. They were at a campground with about 30 tents, some 200 miles south of the border. The men shot out windows of the couple's trailer and forced their way inside, ransacked the cupboards and left with about $7,000 worth of gear, including computers, video equipment and a guitar. Weber, who has taught dozens of students in Mexico over the last 10 years, now plans to surf in Costa Rica or New Zealand. "No more Mexico," said Hoffman, who reported the attack to Mexican police. Being Mexico, naturally, no arrests have been made.

News of harrowing assaults on American tourists has begun to overshadow the appeal of the northern part of the peninsula, home to drug gangs and the seedy border city of Tijuana. The southern tip, known for its cliched and overrated Los Cabos resort, still looks safe-- albeit overgrown with Hollywood celebrities, ageing anglers and other foreign tourists.

Mexican officials have finally acknowledged crime has threatened the lifeblood of Baja's economy. It´s gotten so bad there that even local police officers were forced to surrender their weapons last month for testing to determine links to any local crimes. Just last week, the bullet-riddled bodies of a Tijuana police official and another man were found dumped near the beach. "We cannot minimize what's happening to public safety," said Oscar Escobedo Carignan, Baja's new secretary of tourism. "We're going to impose order. We're indignant about what's happening." (note from the Daily Dude: Yeah, right!)

In Rosarita Beach´s tourist enclave, restaurant managers said sales were down as much as 80 percent from last year. One Saturday afternoon in October, masked bandits wielding pistols openly walked the streets and kidnapped two men — an American and a Spanish citizen — who were later released unharmed. Two people who were with them were shot and wounded.

Omar Armendariz, who manages a Puerto Nuevo lobster restaurant, is counting on the new state and city governments to make tourists feel safer. He has never seen fewer visitors in his nine years on the job. "It's dead," he said.

Final note from the Daily Dude: If you want surfing, come to Panama-- gringos here say the waves on the southern coast are great.

(Truly) Final Note from the Daily Dude: I've been to Central Mexico, the Yucatan, Chiapas (southern Mexico), as well as Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. I've never felt even remotely threatened by any criminal element anywhere-- with the glaring exception of Mexico City.