by Kenneth Bell

Created on: September 22, 2007

The first thing that you need to know about Mexico is that it isn't a part of the west. The mores are different, very different indeed. To give just one example of that - fifty per cent of the crimes in Mexico City are carried out by serving or former police officers.

That statistic doesn't just reflect the state of the police: it says a lot about the country as well. Basically, when a Mexican leaves his house he enters a world in which he feels little or no solidarity. The Arabs have a saying, which translates as "Me and my brother against my cousin; me, my brother and my cousin against everyone else". The Mexicans would understand that saying only too well, because it is how they live.

This basic attitude can create problems for you, if you travel around thinking that the police are there to protect you, and that only criminals commit crimes. A lot of crime in Mexico City is opportunistic. Leave a camera on a restaurant table and go to the toilet and anyone from the waiter to a customer could steal it. Sure, the same thing could happen in London, but there is more chance of it happening here, given the basic indifference that most Mexicans have to anyone outside their family circle. The police are not just corrupt, but indifferent as well. Unless someone in authority pushes them to investigate a crime, they will simply go through the motions. For you to get someone to do the pushing means that you have influential friends, and that isn't very likely for a tourist.

As a tourist, you don't speak the language and bring with you your basic, western set of values. It is far better if you leave those values at the airport and accept that you are in a different world right now.

Let's look at some areas where tourists get into trouble, and then offer you some advice on how to avoid trouble happening.

The Airport

The airport building is very safe as is the well-lit area just in front. Don't go walking around the airport district because it is one of the most dangerous parts of Mexico City. Don't, whatever you do, take one of the taxis that cruise around outside the airport. Most of the drivers are just men trying to make a living, but a few are part of criminal gangs. The driver loads you into his cab and then makes a sudden turn into a side street where his cohorts are waiting to relieve you of everything. Don't become one of those statistics. Inside the airport there are desks where you can order a cab. Using this system is more expensive than using a street taxi, but

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