travel advisory?

i'm not sure about canada, but mexico has been getting a lot of bad press recently in the united states. the violence going on between the drug cartels has gotten out of control in some of the border towns (not near me here, don't worry!) and governments have put travel alerts up for traveling down here. while there are definitely some places in mexico that i would definitely not go right now, i feel, in general, quite safe.

i read an article this week that put mexico's violence into perspective:

*mexico's murder rate is five times less then jamaica and half of brazil.

*when looking at the murder rate in latin america's most violent countries, honduras has a rate of 61 murders per 100,000 inhabitants while costa rica and mexico have 11.5 per 100,000 people. in comparison, washington dc has a murder rate of 31 per 100,000 and new orleans has a rate of 74 per 100,000.

*over the past 10 years, mexico's murder rates have been consistently dropping.

all this to say. mexico is a huge country with lots of very safe places to be. it is no more unsafe here then it is in many other large cities in the US.

don't worry about me!