# Navojoa, Sonora Safety



## jle

Does anyone know if this town in Sonora is safe. Any drug cartel action going on here?


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## chicois8

There are many cartels right on the main street driving through town during the daylight hours, you stop at a traffic light and they swarm all around your car spraying some liquid on the windows,wiping with dirty towels and then expect to get paid for their "service"...

Well Really, I drive and stay in Navajoa 2 nights a year on my way North and South and in 5 years have never had any type of problem whatsoever... I stay at the Best Western Rio ( they take dogs) which is right after you cross the bridge driving South... They have secure parking with a couple of guards on duty all night and a very good restaurant... 

Navajoa is the area with the Mayo Indians who do the famous deer dance and has a crafts market mid town....I will be staying there Friday night.............enjoy


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## moisheh

Actually there is some drug cartel activity in that area. However if you are driving in the daylight the risk of a problem is almost nill. From San Carlos south there have been incidents. I would worry more about Sinaloa than Sonora. The times they are a changing.


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## 1PVMan

jle said:


> Does anyone know if this town in Sonora is safe. Any drug cartel action going on here?


Chicois8 is right. We stay 2-4 times a year in Navojoa when driving back and forth between the US and Puerto Vallarta. Always stay at the Best Western Rio. It's clean, secure, comfortable, and has a good restaurant. Never saw any sign of cartel action. We'll actually be there the last week of Oct.


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## telcoman

There was a nasty incident on the Cuota last week north of Celestino. The government has been running patrols to discourage any hijacking. 8 police offices were shot on the side of the Cuota. See Sinaloa ambush.

This one is giving me some pause for thought as I always assumed the Cuota was reasonably safe. However the target is once again police, not tourists. I would think twice about taking an SUV or pickup truck across the border as those appear to be the hijacking targets. I do drive a PU truck, but it has a camper on board, which makes it less attractive as it stands out like a sore thumb until they manage to remove it, if it is hijacked. The controller for the jacks is well hidden to slow things down. I am seriously considering installing a device that shuts down the truck 3 min after it is driven off. I would obviously have to judge the situation as to whether or not to activate it. The threat of hijacking means I will now carry some money & my documentation incl. a copy of the vehicle registration, in a money belt while on the road. Loosing your vehicle is one thing, having your passport still in it is another.

I have to admit I am more paranoid this year than in previous ones. it will not stop me from going however. I will just be looking for travel partners for segments. One reason i started a matching service (Thread on that elsewhere in here)


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## chicois8

I left Navojoa at 7 AM, 2 bridges out south of town but paved detour, rest of the road was fine, no problems,2 highway patrol check points, waived through....glad I came its 94 degrees and time for a swim...........


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## telcoman

chicois8 said:


> I left Navojoa at 7 AM, 2 bridges out south of town but paved detour, rest of the road was fine, no problems,2 highway patrol check points, waived through....glad I came its 94 degrees and time for a swim...........


Did I ever mention how much I hate you?

My wife makes me stay here til after Christmas.


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## chicois8

Tomorrow I will be in Tonala for a couple days then San Miguel de Allende visiting friends then to Chiapas and the Yucatan all by myself, thats right! I drive solo all over Mexico, I do not wait around for others to caravan, i do not circle the wagons at night and rely on a wagon master, I am cautious and aware of my surroundings but refuse to let US or Canadian press releases stop me for doing something I enjoy....suerte y paz


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## RVGRINGO

Chicois has the right attitude; live life normally, because you only go around once. Most of those who 'live scared' are probably more at risk in their home surroundings than travelling in Mexico; they just don't realize it.


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## chicois8

Well I made it through another day driving the dangerous roads of Mexico, arrived in Tonala this afternoon, I have not seen any tourists on the road, I guess they are massing at the boarders waiting for Ward Bond or John Wayne to lead them on...It seems ther are less topes around and more of the smaller viabrator types which does not cut down speed very much.....next update Wenesday when I cross to San Miguel de Allende, I bet there will be a few tourists in GringoLandia..............

P.S. I am willing to bet that when these groups of folks get to their destination they reflect back and say to themselfs how silly it was wasting time at Nogales or Lukeville because they had no problems on the trip, except being paranoid............


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## Salto_jorge

My motto has always been to drive fast and careful and never look back. I never drive faster then the road conditions or weave in and out of traffic. I also tend to drive down the middle of the road. 

What bothers me the most is non-military check points by thugs wearing cowboy or baseball caps claiming that they are police. Ran into one of these on my last trip heading south where the east bound highway to durango starts. 

One thing that I learned years ago was to stop if I notice that all the semi traffic is stopping. Truckers communicate with each other and know when something is going on.


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## sunnyvmx

I was a long distance trucker for five years and that's good advice. I'll be taking a bus to Matamoros and meeting with a lady at the bridge who is moving here to Catemaco. She is understandably nervous driving alone and crossing the border for the first time.

I never pay modida. This is one time it is advantageous to be a gray haired old lady who is looking at the cops like she's from another planet. They usually let me go when they become intensely frustrated. I'll report back on the trip.


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## telcoman

Good idea re the semis. Easy enough to tuck in behind one of those. I have yet to encounter a phony road block. What do you do if you think there is one? Just keep driving?


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## ReefHound

telcoman said:


> Good idea re the semis. Easy enough to tuck in behind one of those. I have yet to encounter a phony road block. What do you do if you think there is one? Just keep driving?


Only if you're willing to bet they will not open fire on you with automatic weapons, which they have been known to do pretty often.


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## RVGRINGO

Please, always stop for any roadblock. Sometimes, they are nothing more than a local union protest or even the truckers, themselves, protesting the routine increase in fuel prices. Generally, they'll let you through without more than a short delay. Sometimes a small donation may be requested.


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## telcoman

Good advice.


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## chicois8

*Solo Travelers update*

Well I am in Merida now enjoying Day of the Dead festivities, after driving from SMA through the pretty new Arco Norte Toll Road which bypasses DF and the state of Mexico I visited San Cristobal and Palenque without any bandidos on the roads except the 10 peso charge for C. Marcos group....Lots of German, French, Italian and British tourists, no Americans or Canadians, what a suprise! Off to the Caribean beaches tomorrow......talk at you later, chicois8


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## dstan

*Nogales to PV*



moisheh said:


> Actually there is some drug cartel activity in that area. However if you are driving in the daylight the risk of a problem is almost nill. From San Carlos south there have been incidents. I would worry more about Sinaloa than Sonora. The times they are a changing.


I am driving from Nogales to PV mid December. I am planning on hitting the boarder early in the morning. As I do not want to drive at night (how late can I safely be on the road?), where do you recommend I stop at night and any recommendations on places to stay? 
I am also mildly disturbed to read the post about not taking pick-ups or SUVs because we are driving an older Ford Explorer. Are we at higher risk?


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## telcoman

dstan said:


> I am driving from Nogales to PV mid December. I am planning on hitting the boarder early in the morning. As I do not want to drive at night (how late can I safely be on the road?), where do you recommend I stop at night and any recommendations on places to stay?
> I am also mildly disturbed to read the post about not taking pick-ups or SUVs because we are driving an older Ford Explorer. Are we at higher risk?


You can easily make San Carlos by dark (6:30-7PM) if you cross by 8AM, even including the car permit stop at Km 21. Stick to the toll highway & you should be fine.

I take an RV, but I like Hotel Mirador in Huatabampito ( W 109.59031 N 26.69408)
for the next night, Villa Celeste RV Park (W 106.88000 N 23.80667) & rooms the 3rd night, then you can make PV from there in a long day.


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## dstan

telcoman said:


> You can easily make San Carlos by dark (6:30-7PM) if you cross by 8AM, even including the car permit stop at Km 21. Stick to the toll highway & you should be fine.
> 
> I take an RV, but I like Hotel Mirador in Huatabampito ( W 109.59031 N 26.69408)
> for the next night, Villa Celeste RV Park (W 106.88000 N 23.80667) & rooms the 3rd night, then you can make PV from there in a long day.



Thanks for the ideas. In what towns do you spend your 2nd and 3rd nights?


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## RVGRINGO

Dstan,
Please don't "hit the boarders in the morning." They won't like it, may hit back and certainly won't pay the rent. You may cross the borders into Mexico at any time of the day.
Have a great trip.  Couldn't resist that one!


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## kcowan

We came through Nogales at 7am in our Ford Explorer. There was a drug take-down going on and the main highway was blocked. It took an hour to get through town but otherwise the trip was uneventful.


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## Hound Dog

chicois8 said:


> There are many cartels right on the main street driving through town during the daylight hours, you stop at a traffic light and they swarm all around your car spraying some liquid on the windows,wiping with dirty towels and then expect to get paid for their "service"...


Dawg fretted about this for some time while living at Lake Chapala and then bought a houme in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas - the coldesyt town in the poorest state in Mexico - and discovered the intersection entrepreneurs there were far more industrious than in Jalisco. A stop at a traffic light in San Cristóbal or Tuxtla Gutierrez or Tapachula is an invitation to much amateur entertainment provided by some who have not entered the mainstream economy which, in Chiapas, means mugging Guatemalans on their way to the harvest in Puebla or Guanajuato or even the United States or Canada , better still, on their way back from any of those places with pocketsful of dinero. 

I must admit that if a street entertainer has been particulalry talented or original I hand them some money based upon how impressed I was by the performance. 

Well, upon returning to Jalisco I was, one day taking a taxi across town in Guadalajara and the taxi driver showed me exactly how to deal with these streetside guys attempting, sometimes rather forcefully and aggressively , to clean one´s windshield. An irritant even though I understand the compelling need to survive in a hard economy. This was a rather lengthy drive from my car dealer at the intersection of Lopez Mateos and Lázaro Cardenas to the Chapala bus station and this guy must have had his windshield "cleaned" ten times at all times totally ignoring those street vendors when, in the past, I had effusively demanded their cessation of that activity. He never acknowledged their existance nor paid them even one centavo. I am not excusing his callousness but, after all, he drives those big city streets every day trying to eke out a living and I guess there is a time beyond which one´s patience is exhausted.


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## kcowan

We give the performers some pesos but never the window cleaners. They usually leave the windshield worse than when they start.


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## dstan

kcowan said:


> We came through Nogales at 7am in our Ford Explorer. There was a drug take-down going on and the main highway was blocked. It took an hour to get through town but otherwise the trip was uneventful.


We arrived at the border at 8am Dec 17th and after a 2 1/2 hour line up (every legal Mexican was returning home for the holidays, it seemed) we had an eventless trip to San Francisco, Nayarite, except in Tepic. There we encountered several road blocks by large groups of federales...sporting banners that said something about "...contra Corruption" ...They all looked pretty intimidating, but when they saw we were a couple of old gringos, said " vayase" or something like that. No military checks or federales anywhere else along the entire route. We did try to stay amongst some of the caravans of LOADED cars with Californina plates heading "home for the holidays" Even they travelled in groups. Glad to be here!


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## kcowan

dstan said:


> ...except in Tepic. There we encountered several road blocks by large groups of federales...sporting banners that said something about "...contra Corruption" ...


Since they put that new federal prison nearby, all the drug lords family and friends have moved to Tepic. My Spanish teacher has family there and she says it is not fun anymore.


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