A friend of mom's is getting married in Cancun so she decided to make it a trip for both me and her, and it's been interesting since we first got past TSA, which was interesting itself because the TSA at our first airport (the smaller local one only about 20-30 minutes from the house) had zero white people as staff, at least at the moment.
We flew American Airlines, with American Eagle for the connecting flight, and the one "interesting" thing about it was that the sole flight attendant, a black woman with short hair, once we landed at the larger airport we flew to Mexico from, decided to talk about an "all-female flight crew", which for that connecting flight was a grand total of herself, as the pilots were two white dudes. Just something I wanted to put in since it came to mind.
The flight to Mexico was itself uneventful, we had a crew of 4 white, female flight attendants and two white guys as the pilots.
Once we got to Mexico, there's a place to scan your passport and your face, or you could go in line to get the stamp. Once it scanned my face, I got a receipt paper printed out with a QR code that functions as the stamp, as we cannot get out of Mexico without scanning that QR code at the airport. Once we got the taxi van to the resort we're staying at though, we passed by like five or six trucks of fully armed Mexican feds brandishing assault rifles openly. I knew the cartel problem was bad, but I didn't think I was going to pass by that many feds. We also passed by a Nickelodeon themed water park, which looked interesting because at the top of the gate was Spongebob, Arnold, one of the Rugrats, Timmy Turner and Jimmy Neutron, simply due to the character selection as three of those series have been dead for over 10 years.
That's all for tonight, as I came back from dinner at the resort and am now in the room hanging out as I didn't really wanna hang out with mom's friends, but the trip to Mexico and the resort was a bit eye-opening, if only because of that one flight attendant.
What's funny is that was a long-held industry standard before gay men started becoming stewardesses.
Edit: I could be wrong here depending on "flight crew" vs. "cabin crew." But equal chance she's misusing.
I watched a Tasting History with Max Miller reviewing the history of flight attendants.
The airlines used to explicitly advertise to their male clients that they could potentially meet their future wife at 10,000 feet.
Women were forced to retire by the company as soon as they were wed or put out to pasture if they were still single and flying at 30.
The airlines also used to advertise male-only passenger executive flights so businessman could return home in peace.
we used to be a real country.
Only just saw this, but all four of those flight attendants on the flight to Mexico were visibly over the age of 30, so things have definitely changed.
Firstly, enjoy your trip!
As God intended!
That's interesting. I'd think they'd at the very least try to be more discrete in tourist areas.
No. They are more apparent than ever. Why would they want to give the impression that there are no cops?
If you're in a resort I don't know to what extent you can consider that "Mexico" since they by design keep you separate.
That said, when I was in Mexico City some years back there were Feds fucking everywhere. Someone asked in the thread "how do you know they were Feds?", and the answer is "Because they were in a fucking
Humvee(ed. maybe they were Suburbans or something less expensive) with a machine gun mounted in the back driving around town, and no one else gets to do that in Mexico City but the Feds". The normal (eg.) bank security were just allowed to loiter about with shotguns, not drive around in fucking Technicals.They also wear uniforms with FEDERALÉ in big letters.
How did you know they were feds? Maybe they were cartel-in-training.
All the trucks had "guardia nacional" on them, which is their National Guard, as Mexico unified the Federal Police, Military Police and Naval Police into one branch, the National Guard/Guardia Nacional
Cool, just be aware that the military-cartel pipeline is a thing. Los Zetas in particular was founded by Mexican special forces. Just because they wear the uniform doesn't mean their allegiances are with the state.
Mexico can be pretty safe as long as you stay in your designated gringo zone. Bad tourist experience means less protection money from local businesses for the cartel, so they clamp down on petty crime. Unlike the bleeding vaginas in New York
ShCity or Los Angeles, they know what side their bread is butteredSame could be said of any country, including the UK and France. Just don't be a woman expecting the world to keep you safe and you'll be fine.
What's the difference?
One is hard on crime and generally cares about the welfare of the community, and the other is the feds.
Daaaaayuuum!
Por que no los dos?
There was an opt-out, I just didn't really care, as I had to get my face scanned before boarding the flight to Cancun to begin with. I didn't even show them my boarding pass, they somehow already had my face tied to my seat at the airplane.
If I ever end up making the trip to Japan that I want to however, I'm definitely waiting in line just to get the Japanese stamp.
When visiting Mexico always pack extra heads.
this tracks with a church trip I did to build a house in Tijuana. the whole place smelled like trash, and every few miles was a military checkpoint with machine guns pointed at you.
I almost went down there a few weeks ago. Maybe next year, I'd still like to trek down to Tulum for a couple days. The cenotes around there are really cool too. I may try a big resort next time, the last 5 years killed my adventurous spirit a bit, especially in sketchy countries. I'd still have to get away from it a bit though.
I don't remember any armed guards back then, but it's been a handful of years since I went to Mexico. Last time I remember armed guards was cops with MP5s in Denmark.
Tulum is a shitty new agey dump.
Is it? Oh well I was hoping to check out some ruins.
Way better would be Tikal in Guatemala
Oh, yeah. You and your mom. Are you still living with her? Does that mean you got the jab?
Idk who’s alt this is, but nah, ended up lying about it and getting a second bandage to pretend at the time
ALT? I merely politely asked about the resolution to a drama that you brought up when you came in here several months ago, whining about your mommy forcing you to take the jab and your world coming to an end. My sole comment to that thread IIRC was "LOL! This guy thinks his mom doesn't know when he's lying!" Why the fuck would anyone need an alt to hide behind over that shit? Do you use alts when you're being a meanie on the internet? Christ, you really are a little sniveling bitch. "Our Fucking Future", my ass.
I’m not trying to be a bitch lol, I just don’t recognize the account