Just fyi we heard about a little, uh, altercation while we were there. First I can remember hearing about on Isla. Dude from Texas got his ass kicked pretty bad by two 'locals' & woke up in the hospital. His friends said that he said he just went for a walk and these two dudes jumped him. It was out on the east side waterfront area adjacent to the square, up the hill from the hoops court (the old, pretty much abandoned boardwalk-ish area). He said it was unprovoked, but according to other witnesses, he was talking a lot of shit to some guys on Hidalgo not long before it happened. I also wonder why he was walking in that dark area that nobody really goes to at night. We were told by some actual locals that the guys who did it were new to the island and were bad guys, heavy drug users, etc. They said covid brought a lot of people to the island from the mainland, looking for work, and that some of them aren't the best people to have around. They are not impressed.
As for myself, during that May trip I had probably the only negative interaction I've ever had with a 'local' (who's probably also not actually from IM). I'd never seen him before, but some of y'all may have seen him - short guy on Hidalgo, kinda jacked, with jailhouse tats all over. On his face, everywhere. Always aggressively selling shit, if you know what I mean. I saw him every single time we went down Hidalgo on this trip, day or night. Offered me pot. I said no. Then he doubled down, "What, I bet you want cocaine? I got it." Me: Nope. Gracias. "You want crack? I got fentanyl, too". Me: 'No. Thanks'. I'm tryna move on but he kinda had me backed into a corner by the store I was coming out of, and really close-talking me, not in a friendly way. Finally, getting more and more in my face, he says "Oh you want a girl? Or a boy? I got little boys". By this point I'm starting to show my irritation, but not wanting to give the obvious ex-con who seemed pretty fucked up atm a reason to lose his shit. Me: "I said no", and I gtfo. This was right in the middle of the strip on Hidalgo at like 8 or 9pm, with people all around us. Pretty crazy. I love Isla and Mx, and I love the people, and they seem to love me back, but that dude is literally scary af. He has the kind of ojos locos you rarely see. I just stayed away from him the rest of the trip.