12 Aug 08
8 edits
The post that was quoted here has been removedNorthern Mexico.
We had to buy toilet paper at inflated prices from just people on the side of the road - not a shop or anything, and they weren't individually wrapped rolls - when we had to use the toilet at truck stops and the like.
The pool at the hotel had plants growing in it, and I got blood poisoning from having a still healing cut and going in that water.
The beach that the hotel was on was too dangerous for me to go in (I was still little) because of riptides and underwater pits of death. There was no sand, only rocks which got especially jagged right at the point where a body surfer hits the "sand" at the end of his wave riding.
Most of the gangsters in my home neighborhood here are from that region I believe. The Mexican Army has invaded since I left and there's been open warfare in the streets between the criminals and the Army.
I think this is close to where the Aztecs came from when they swept into Mesoamerica, set up their little Empire and began to murder locals to power the Sun. Mexicans illegal immigrants often self-identify with the Aztecs which explains the gangs to some extent.