Note to Readers: Using a 1000 X binocular microscope, Kaliher can be seen through the White House window on the back of a twenty dollar bill, taking a snooze.
I just finished a rapid bus trip through Mexico. I traveled a little over two weeks, mainly in Guadalajara, Tapalpa and Puerto Peñasco. I took night buses to maximize my time in the country. As usual, Mexico provided insights most Americans don’t expect.
1. I felt far safer in Mexico than in America.
2. My only personal safety concern was near the border. A drug-using, fellow American concerned me.
3. I spoke to a dozen Mexicans concerning Presidente Fox. Every one of them expressed the opinion he’s got a small mind or is a man of very limited intellect. Amazingly, this included his supporters, who also claimed he was a good man, with his heart in the right place.
4. Half the Mexicans expressed the view his wife’s ambitions are the driving force behind Fox’s presidency. She’s viewed as greedy, power-hungry and grasping. She’s wasn’t compared with Hillary Clinton, as I had expected, but with Eva Peron.
5. One Mexican expressed the thought that Fox conceded to everything Bush wanted. He thought it comical when I explained we had the exact opposite take on the Fox-Bush relationship.
6. I cannot believe how well-behaved young Mexican children are. I’ve made the observation before, but on a sixteen-hour bus ride a young mother easily managed her four children–all under six–without any disturbance for other passengers.
7. I met several Mexicans who had been illegals. All of them had good memories of their time in America.
8. I live in the American South, but our hospitality pales in comparison to Mexican hospitality.
9. As usual, Mexicans of every social stratum went out of their way to make certain this gringo was okay, comfortable and finding what he needed.
10. Retired Americans living on Social Security should definitely consider living in smaller Mexican cities. With care, a small home can be purchased at under $150 a month.
11. If one looks at the investment and building boom in Puerto Peñasco, it’s obvious a decision has already been made to merge our two countries. There’s no way those hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, are being invested without some security.
12. The entry into Mexico is much easier if traveling by bus.
13. The taste of bread, pancakes and hamburgers is better.
14. An attitude of benign neglect greets Americans wanting to just cross the border and visit on their own in Mexico. That tourist money might reach any Tomas, Ricardo or Harry. Instead, of touring independently, if Americans can be herded into controlled tourist traps big business can collect the dollars.
15. Away from the cities, the Milky Way is many times clearer than is now the case in America.
16. Talking to an elderly Mexican about the changes in Mexico over only the past thirty-five years, he observed “It was the time of the burro.” There’s no doubt that truthfully stereotypical time of Mexico has passed.
17. Many Mexicans now realize there is more freedom on many levels in Mexico than in America. Unfortunately, too many Americans no longer realize they’re less free than many people stuck in a corrupt, third-world country.
18. Physicians and pharmacists don’t hold a monopoly on medicine in Mexico. It is one reason many of their drugs are so much cheaper than ours.
19. Mexico has no such thing as a highway patrol. You drive at your own risk and are responsible for your own care if you have an accident. How much would we save in taxes and insurance costs if we transferred our highway patrol to police departments and left it up to drivers to have insurance only for their and their own passengers care?
20. Mexicans apparently do a better job of preventing illegal immigrants from getting over their southern border than we do ours. I wonder if we should out-source the protection of our border to Mexican patrols.
Look for Kaliher’s book Mexico by Motorcycle from the Motorcycle Publishing Company at your local bookstores in mid March. Reading it won’t cure warts but will provide a good adventure.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”