My wife, family and I have been to Mexico a half a dozen times over the past 11 years. As a vacation spot Mexico has much to offer and it has only gotten better. Many of our American friends react in similar ways when we mention we are going back to Mexico for vacation from ‘don’t drink the water’ and more recently ‘watch out for swine flu’ or worse yet ‘don’t get shot by the drug lords’.

There is a great deal of American ignorance when it comes to Mexico. As a vacation spot aside from the great weather it has a tremendous amount of beautiful coastline and beaches. The resorts vary but many are top notch with ‘A’ quality food, beverage and accommodations. Oh and then there’s tequila – and a lot more than Cuervo exists – more than 100 varieties.

Mexico has more than 110,000,000 people making it the most populated Spanish speaking nation on the planet. And the stereotype of the lazy Mexican is so hackneyed and is simply incorrect. I’ve met some business people from Mexico and they are among the hardest working people I’ve met. And on the resort side I see only people that are pleasant, hard-working and want nothing more than to help the guests have a great time. There are plenty of lazy people all over the world and the United States has its fair share without a doubt so can we drop that one on behalf of Mexico?

President Felipe Calderon has taken on a huge task in attempting to control the flow of drugs in Mexico and the strife along with kidnapping and general unrest in the highly impacted areas is serious business. But he is to be admired for his courage in taking this on – it is no doubt a key aspect of continuing to help make Mexico move forward on its way to becoming a more significant power in the world.

Mexico has a vast array of natural resources like petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber, and water. (fresh and salt) Mexico has no glaciers, all the water is melted). As a regional power and the only Latin American member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since 1994, Mexico is firmly established as an upper middle-income country, considered as a newly industrialized country and has the 11th largest economy in the world by GDP by purchasing power parity, and also the largest GDP per capita in Latin America according to the International Monetary Fund[19]. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners. (Source – Wikipedia)

Maybe you will look at Mexico a little differently now. I know I do.