Spring vacations are already underway and are due to peak in a couple of weeks during mid-March, continuing through early April. Children generally receive time off from school close to the Easter holidays and college students a bit earlier. The college crowd has made Orlando, Florida, the top Spring break destination in the US, and Cancun, Mexico, the most popular international get-away for this spring vacation season.

And I say: any college kids leaving the US have got to be nuts. Particularly going with groups. Particularly if they’re going to be Drinking.

Do you know the numbers reported attacked, robbed, drugged and sexually assaulted at Cancun resorts just since Christmas and New Year’s? Staggering.

Do you know the numbers who could not get resort security or the Mexican police to respond to their calls for help? Unbelievable.

Do you know the numbers of hotel staff who spoke perfect English and then claimed they did not understand a word of English when problems arose? Horrific.

Last June, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel started reporting on the scores of tragedies befalling American and Canadian vacationers in Mexico. Numerous tourists reported blacking out after imbibing one possibly-tainted drink or contaminated food. They awakened hours later, in other locations, partially clothed and bruised from attacks, with some of their belongings gone. Often, the resorts would not call police.  https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/mexico-blackouts/2018/02/21/mexico-blackout-mothers-nightmare-daughter-disappears/355233002/.

Remember Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Why won’t the the State Department issue travel warnings for places like these? Do we truly believe that it’s everyone’s own fault, that these Young people are drinking and drinking and drinking until they pass out and then are victimized?

I’m sure it happens. But according to all reports, young tourists are blacking-out at alarming rates that have little to do with drugs or alcohol.

Call me old and cranky, but young people and crowds and drinking are never a good idea. Even if a student is not drinking, who’s to say that someone can’t put a drug in their Diet Coke?

Think about it. There’s a whole lot less chance of being intentionally harmed in America: you speak the language, you know the laws, the police are generally trying to protect… you. And not the criminals.

I’m all for going abroad and yes, I’ve been to Mexico (with disturbing experiences all my own to share) and I’ve been to the Caribbean where I definitely see how something terrible could have happened, but I tend to be on high alert and averted a few potentially-dangerous situations…. Thank you, Lord.

This spring break, be safe. Be smart. Stay in the US, stay in your right mind, and just enjoy being with friends in beautiful weather. It will be good for the economy and you’ll have a long, beautiful life ahead of you.

After speaking of all of the above with our late teens and early twenties sons and daughters, no more than two minutes later, I received a travel offer to my inbox: an all-inclusive trip with airfare, hotel, all meals and alcohol at a discounted price… in Cancun!

As they say: Just say no… to Mexi-co….

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