Mexico- any issues bringing gear in and out?

[Brian K]

I'm considering a trip to Mexico and I was wondering if there are any issues bringing in a good sized case full of camera gear and film. Flight wise it'll all be carry-on, but many years ago I heard horror stories about bringing gear there so I figured I'd see if anyone had more recent experiences.

Thanks.

[BradS]

travel to/in mexico...horror stories? Really? :o

[C_Remington]

travel to/in mexico...horror stories? Really? :o

Ha! No kidding. I was thinking the exact same thing as I read this.

[ataim]

Quick search found this: http://yucalandia.com/answers-to-common-questions/what-can-i-bring-into-mexico-mexican-customs-rules-the-article/

"2.Two photographic cameras or video recorders, 12 rolls of film or videocassettes; photographic material; three portable cell phone or other wireless networks; global positioning equipment (GPS); a portatil typewriter; an electronic calendar; a portable computer (laptop), notebook, omnibook or similar items; a copier or portable printer; a portable projector, and their accessories."

[Tori Nelson]

The gear should be the least of your worries!

[Drew Wiley]

I had a family member who led small Euro tour groups to various remote places in Mexico for about a decade. There was never a problem with photo gear. But he
was kidnapped once and held hostage a few weeks until pymt arrived via courier, did have the entire tour group stopped and hustled by local police a few times - and they take only cash, not film, and was dogbitten once and had to quickly return to the states for rabies treatment. Hope this information makes you feel safer
about your gear.

[AtlantaTerry]

One thing anyone in the world can do prior to travel is to register your equipment and serial numbers with your customs office. Then you have "official" paperwork proving you crossed any border. The reason you want to do this is some countries will try to say you are bringing a piece of equipment across their border that you bought in a different country therefore you owe a duty or tax.

[Dan Fromm]

Terry, I started leaving the US with photographic equipment in 1972. I read the same nonsense you repeated, dutifully registered my camera gear with US Customs, kept this up for years. 30 trips by air out of the country, driving trips to Canada and Mexico. I've never been asked to present the inventory, duly registered, on re-entry. I was once harassed by Canada Customs because I was looked like a bearded hippie freak but they weren't interested in my cameras; I was driving my parents to visit friends of theirs in Toronto and the officers wanted to unwrap their gift packages. I've not been harassed by Mexican Customs, or on entering the Common Market, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay or Peru.

I bought my first set of camera gear in Germany in 1970, declared it on entry on my way home to muster out of the Army. At the time we were told firmly that Nikon gear with logos intact couldn't be brought into the US. This wasn't true for me. All the customs agent said to me was "Welcome home, sir." That's all most of them have said to me.

[Brian K]

Thanks for all the replies!! It's appreciated.

[Daniel Stone]

Enjoy a margarita for me while you're there :)!

I remember going to the pyramids just outside of Mexico City. Magical place. Treading where people did hundreds to thousands of years ago put tingles up my spine! I seem to remember that tripods were not allowed there, maybe that's changed, but probably good to check nonetheless.

Have a safe trip!

-Dan

[sanking]

You won't be able to use a tripod in any of the archaelogical sites in Mexico under the jurisdiction of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, INHA. And virtually all such sites are under INHA. There is a permit process for use of tripod, but personally I would recommend you don't waste your time. No problem with any kind of camera, however, so long as it is used hand-held.

Sandy






Enjoy a margarita for me while you're there :)!

I remember going to the pyramids just outside of Mexico City. Magical place. Treading where people did hundreds to thousands of years ago put tingles up my spine! I seem to remember that tripods were not allowed there, maybe that's changed, but probably good to check nonetheless.

Have a safe trip!

-Dan

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Brian,

Contact Wayne Lambert who is a member of this forum, or via his web site. He has done a great deal of LF work in Mexico and can give you much information.

Have fun.

[John Olsen]

If you need a tripod and a heavy camera, I don't think you're going to be happy. When I did a lot of shooting in Mexico, if I couldn't carry it with me, it was a goner. So I carried my 35mm stuff (a HEAVY bag) with me everywhere, even into the restrooms. Anything that I left in a room or my truck was pretty well picked over after a few days. We've got to remember that we are thinking of carrying around fabulous wealth in front of people who have nothing. Travel light and leave the worries about theft behind - it'll spoil your trip otherwise.
And tip well, pay for local "guides" even when you know where you're going. They need your money and it just might protect you.
Good luck!

[Wayne Lambert]

Although for many years I drove to Mexico almost annually I haven't been in several years but do attempt to keep up with friends there. Michoacan state, the state which Mexicans themselves have always considered their most beautiful and interesting, and where I have worked most recently, is now exceedingly dangerous, undoubtedly the most dangerous in Mexico...a volatile mix of three warring cartels, the Mexican army, corrupt police and elected officials, and armed, but poorly trained, civilian militia. It's in the headlines almost constantly now. Michoacan was selected early by the cartels for its sparsely populated coastline, perfect for drug transhipment, and for remote fertile mountains and valleys ideal for marijuana and opium agriculture and hidden meth labs. It is now basically a failed state. Just last week the U. S. State Department issued an updated travel warning for Michoacan noting that only the capital, Morelia, and Lazaro Cardenas, an important port held by the military, should be visited and those only by air. I mention this because many U. S. citizens do not realize how serious the problems are in Mexico. Other states to avoid include Guerrero, Morelos, Zacatecas, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora.

There are areas, of course, that are relatively safe such as Mexico City, Cabo, and the states of Queretaro, Puebla, Tlaxacala, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo. But even in safe areas petty, and major, crime has increased---mugging, robbery, extortion, kidnapping---due to lack of criminal prosecution and a general sense of lawlessness. And for those of us who remember an older and happier Mexico, there now seems to be a general malaise or pall; the people are afraid. Tourists in major tourist sites, such as well-known archaeological sites, are probably fairly safe, but even then make sure you more or less stay with the crowds. A few years ago I was photographing alone with a hand-held camera in a remote area of a major archaeological site in Michoacan, and was accosted by five or six teenagers, boys and girls, with robbery on their mind...only by pretending to be an INAH researcher, which I once was, and dropping the names of INAH officials was I able to talk them out of it, so to speak.

I hate to paint such a gloomy picture, but I have decided until things improve, should they ever, I will only go back as a typical tourist, not as a large-format photographer whose equipment invites mischief at best and raises cartel eyebrows at worst. And yet I'm sure that in many cases one could be lucky and have a wonderful, productive large-format photography trip to Mexico with no unhappy incidents whatsoever. It's just sort of the luck of the draw.

Sandy mentioned the perennial problem of tripods at INAH-managed archaeological sites (which include most major sites). INAH imposed the no-tripod-without-a-permit rule years ago so that the local caretakers could more-or-less distinguish between professional and amateur photographers. In INAH's mind only professional photographers use tripods and because professional photographers were going to make money on the photograph INAH should also make money. Too, they did not want unauthorized photographs of Mexican archaeological and historic features appearing in advertisements, and only professional photographers make photos for advertisements. So yes you can use a tripod at INAH sites, but you must have an official permit from INAH. You should start the permit process months before you want the permit and be prepared to pay considerably, about $300-$400 U. S. dollars per day of photographing. Their website tells how to apply for a permit. Of course most professional photographers don't use tripods now, and I had this conversation with a caretaker who fully understood that and remarked "Pero todavia es la regla." "But it's still the rule."

Wayne

[goamules]

More people have been killed in just Juarez in ONE year in the drug battles, than in all of Iraq and Afghanistan. Quaint shakedowns and necessary small police bribes have gone the way of armed gangs kidnapping bus loads of central American immigrants, rapes, and bodies hanging from bridges. I spent 20 years going to mexico, before this. Not now. Last I heard the State Department recommended against tourism in most of Mexico. Again, I've been there more than most people have been to their mailboxes....but don't anymore. It's like taking a vacation as an American in Pakistan.

[Drew Wiley]

We have a neighbor who grew up in Mexico and for quite awhile made her living going back there, buying things and reselling them here. She told us that all the border towns were always rough, but that in the past, the residents always knew which neighborhoods to avoid. But now, the problem is not that violence is
really ubiquitous, but unpredictable. You just never know where it might turn up. So even she never crosses the border anymore.

[tgtaylor]

A few years back the taxi carrying a California climbing party to their hotel from the airport (Mexico City) was stopped by the police and the occupants robbed. After the robbery the taxi continued on to its destination only to be stopped by a second police car and robbed. The taxi driver gave complaint saying that his passengers had already been robbed only to have guns drawn and pointed at him. At the hotel they were accosted by a third group of banditos with the younger ones wanting the blond girl and the older ones the money. The climbers responded that they weren't getting either and barricaded the room. The bandits responded by firing a shot into the room which puncture a juice can in a backpack and then left.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

But I also know people who spend a lot of time in true Mexican wilderness, including remote parts of Baja, that have no issues at all, other than the normal logistical
ones of extended desert terrain. It's the highways and cities that are the issue - or reasonably, any kind of road. I think this whole subject can a bit out of hand.
I know people who live in Mexico city and have no problem with crime. There are neighborhoods in every city around here I wouldn't drive thru either, even in daylight. But I don't have personal experience with current Mexican conditions, have indeed heard a number of first-person horror stories, so don't plan on going there myself.

[Michael S]

Sure, go ahead, let fear rule your life. If you are so concerned about crime, why don't you take a look at your own country. One word of advise, don't text in a movie theater or you will most assuredly be shot.

[Drew Wiley]

Sometimes fear equates with common sense. It's a survival instinct given to us for a reason. There are a lot of places in the world I wouldn't care to visit, including some places in the US. We walk around in our neighborhood at night without worries. On the other side of our same town I wouldn't want to walk around even in broad daylight.

[Michael S]

There is no "common sense" in fearing an entire country, especially a country as vast and varied as Mexico, with some of the friendliest and most beautiful people I have ever met in my whole life. And by the way, the "other side of town" isn't scary unless you want it to be. But hang onto your fear, I'm sure it has served you well.

[Drew Wiley]

If you're as macho about running around our towns here, all willy-nilly, as you're are in Mexico, think I'll bypass you're advice. Even though my office where I am right now if considered a very safe area during daytime daylight hours, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it at night, when the ghouls come out. As the saying goes,
fools run where angels fear to tread. ... I do certainly agree with you that one cannot proscript an entire country based upon the bad reputation of certain areas.
But I'd certainly want to know the specifics before wandering off just anywhere. I've known just too many people who've gotten kidnapped or murdered - including
some murdered within mere yards of this business off hours. .. and I did have a family member kidnapped and held hostage from one of those allegedly safe tourist areas of Mayan heritage - he was never abused or even threatened, in fact, they treated him rather politely - but neither was he going anywhere until the ransom
money came through.

[goamules]

I'll buy that for a dollar, Drew.
Michael, It's called weighing the risk versus reward. Risk has skyrocketed. Reward (cheap, restful vacations) has plummeted. When I first when to Ensenada in 1986 a hotel cost me $13 and breakfast $1.25. A few years later I rode my BMW motorcycle down the length of Baja, put it on a ferry with myself, and my girlfriend, and paid $6.50 to get to Mazatlan. We had a cabin too. I spent weeks and weeks driving all over the interior of Mexico on a motorcycle back then.

Flash forward to today. That same room is $50, and the doorknobs still fall off in your hands. The hot water still barely works. Breakfast is $10. The ferry, last time I checked in Guaymas to La Paz, about 10 years ago, had risen to $75. In a nutshell, you'll pay more than in America for almost everything, and get about 10% the quality and safety. And things are often cancelled, or late, or .... It's Mexico still. Do I want to pay top dollar to go get "adventure" and risk kidnapping or getting gunned down in a restaurant battle? Or would I rather go to Yellowstone, San Diego, Alaska, Paris, London.....where everything works and I don't risk all that?

[Drew Wiley]

Well, I have been held hostage once in this country ... and a very very small mistake could have ended up fatal to one of us. I'm close to any number of people who routinely went to the Pakistan Karakorum to trek and climb. No more. One of them got kidnapped and went thru an incredible ordeal escaping - and that was just from the crazed official liason officer, not the Taliban. No difference here. I know exactly which transit stations are safe, and which are not, which streets are drug territory lines with frequent gun battle, and which are normally quiet. Heck, certain street are on the local news almost every nite, with somebody getting shot by a stray bullet. So you have 99 to 1 odds that it won't happen to you a particular day. ... Is it worth the gamble, when there are thousands of safer places to go? I did enough foolish things as a kid. No need for any more of that.

[hsteeves]

just be careful about the two camera/person body restriction - they will charge you duty if you bring 3 (30% after allowing the first $300) or more. No restrictions on lenses. The larger, more touristy ruin sites like Chichen Itza will deny a tripod.