The shop owners, waiters, cab drivers and folks on the street are uniformly hospitable, kind and will knock themselves out to help you.

It is routine for a Mexican to accompany us on a walk of several blocks to make sure we get to our destination. They drop what they are doing to take care of us.

Our alternator broke in Manzanillo, and a guy in line at Auto Zone who saw our plight spent the day with us, driving us in his truck for an hour to get to a good repair shop. He oversaw the entire repair to make sure nothing was lost in the translation between us and the mechanic. (I actually tell the full story here: http://roadslesstraveled.us/manzanillo-bay/)

When our our outboard engine propeller broke, the machinist who repaired it drove us in his car to a shop on the other side of town so he could get the stainless steel bolts needed to complete the repair. In other countries we would have been instructed to take a cab, buy the part ourselves, and return to the repair shop with the goods.

Despite the horrible way Mexicans are treated by Americans at the border, none of the Mexicans we met who had been harassed by American authorities ever held it against us as mere American travelers. Some had been jailed and deported and told us stories of unnecessarily poor treatment — but they unfailingly greeted us with warmth and kindness, something we have not found to be true in other countries.

If you are looking for a travel destination where the locals are truly warm-hearted and generous, visit Mexico!!