So I'm in Mexico by choice right now...
In Playa del Carmen less than 300 miles from where I spent much of my childhood as a missionary kid. Still the exact same Mexico as 20 years ago, just slightly more developed. Same beggars, trinket vendors trying to sell you stuff, adorable little kids hawking homemade bracelets while their moms wait half a block away, amazing and awful smells at the same time, half finished cinder block buildings, cheap tourist traps... feels like home again
I didn't miss this place at all. Walking home at 0430 alone is one of the sketchiest things I've done lately