Is Mexico Safe, Part II – Adventure Rider

A while back, I wrote this article, based off the back-and-forth of a long-running ADVrider forum thread:

Is Mexico Safe? The ADVrider Forum Answer

It seems this question is valid again, after news of a three-man surfing crew being murdered on the Baja Peninsula. In April, Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and American Jack Carter Rhoad were killed, with their bodies concealed in a well. It appears they were murdered during a robbery by locals, who hid their bodies in a well along with another victim of an earlier crime—read the BBC here for some details.

The story was particularly troubling to many travellers, as tourists might have gotten robbed occasionally, but this took the violence to a new level, one that many criminals previously avoided due to fear of law enforcement heat.

With that in mind, it’s worth checking out former motojournalist Wes Siler’s follow-up piece for Outside Online—Is it Still Safe for Me to Camp in Baja California?

Siler has spent a lot of time camping in Baja on his own expeditions, but that article isn’t just based on his past experiences. In conversations with locals, and with Ron Gomez Hoff (who runs the TalkBaja website), Siler gets a more up-to-date picture of the Baja Peninsula than what many travellers might have experienced in their trips before COVID-19. The end result: Hoff certainly doesn’t tell people to stop camping in Baja, but he says you need to do careful research to find a safe place away from criminal activity, looking for the most up-to-date and accurate information you can find, from multiple sources.

On that note, Siler says:

Multiple resources exist right now for people looking for good, remote campsites and other areas in Baja. I reference iOverlander, which is full of user generated content reviewing and locating campsites, taco stands, hostels, and similar. BajaNomad is a forum for the same that’s been operating for decades. Friends frequently share coordinates for spots they’ve stayed in or traveled through.

And there’s Hoff’s own TalkBaja, TalkBaja Road Conditions, TalkBaja Weather, and now, Safe Camping in Baja Mexico, a private Facebook group he started just this week, in response to the murders.

Read the article here, for a realistic picture of what to expect in Baja right now. Of course, for many ADVers, there will be no new information there, as they travel regularly to Baja and have their own opinions formed first-hand, without social media or the input of the US State Department. I have friends who travel through the Baja Peninsula regularly and their first-hand accounts of the dangerous or not-so-dangerous situations encountered are how I’ve made my own risk assessment.

And of course you can keep an eye on the ADVrider forum. The Is Mexico Safe? thread continues to be constantly updated with more information on what to expect, along with other threads in the Trip Planning forum and elsewhere. Once again, remember the words of inmate stormdog in the Mexican safety thread:

Seems like whenever there is some sort of news worthy violence in Mexico this thread turns into some sort of yes no argument.
Probably be better served if folks realized that the point of the thread is really…..
Where specifically is it unsafe to ride Right Now?
Why is it dangerous?
For How Long should the area in question be avoided?
How can the area be avoided?
Seeing a news article that mentions multiple murders in Salt Lake City shouldn’t be a reason to post in a thread telling people to avoid San Antonio.
In fact depending on the who what why and where of the murders, Salt Lake City could still be safe for tourists on motorcycles.