Sinoloa, Mexico Begs You To Gentrify It

Here’s something for all you hard-core backpackers who are down for the genuine, local experience.

Sinaloa, the northern Mexican state that spawned the country’s most fearsome drug cartel, hopes to lure tourists to rustic cabins in a rugged area infamous for opium fields and violent kingpins.

This is the international version of the local crack neighborhood getting appropriated by bohemian squatters, prompting real estate developers to buy the land from the government to build highrise, yuppie condos until finally no one can afford to live there anymore except rich douchebags, and everyone complains that it’s totally not as cool as it used to be when there were junkies and derelicts passed out in the park and not a Starbucks on every corner. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Pushing tourism in a drug stronghold [Yahoo! News]