I am a Gringa living in Culiacan...
Hi VanVader,
It was interesting for me to stumble upon your post. I just moved to Culiacan a few days ago. Let me start by saying that there don't appear to be any other gringos living here, so I hope I can serve as some source of advice for you, since I was looking for some before I came here and didn't find any.. I looked online and found two girls who had been here teaching English and left because they hated it, and shared horror stories about it...
I came to live with my boyfriend, who is Mexican, and is currently living here for work. He's been living here since January, and to date, hasn't seen any shoot outs or dead bodies or anything like that. I've only been here a few days so I can't give extensive advice, but I would say I probably wouldn't want to live here if I didn't already know someone here. He's great because he can drive me everywhere and accompany me everywhere, which makes me feel safer. I don't know if you are a guy or a girl, but I think it would be more difficult to be a single female living here. The people don't strike me as friendly as in other parts of the country (I've lived and traveled in other cities in Mexico so I speak from experience).
I agree to an extent about what RV ****** says - that if you are not involved with buying, selling, or taking drugs, you wouldn't be a target for violence, which is usually very targeted...the narcos know who they are killing and usually have their own reasons for it. However, one of the girls who taught English told me she had been in a sushi restaurant that got held up by armed robbers....that was the final straw for her.
However, I would say that if you had the option to go to another city, you probably should go somewhere else over Culiacan (that is coming from my boyfriend). I can't give more advice since I haven't been here that long so I haven't seen anything scary....and hopefully I won't....in general it is quite a modern city (the drug money shows - lots of new and modern buildings...stores...etc...which is nice)...but is lacks the colonial charm of a lot of other Mexican cities. I think it might be more difficult to make friends and feel safe going out at night, which is a definite con. But if you don't mind keeping to yourself, staying inside during the evenings, being careful what you do and say when you are out, you would probably be fine. But do you want to live like that? I wouldn't want to long term and hopefully we will only be here for another 6-8 months.
Again, though, from what I've seen so far, it isn't an all out war zone in the streets or anything. To that extent I think the media exaggerates it. But then again, in a moment's notice I could have an experience that changes my point of view. I mostly keep to myself though and work at home and stay inside and only go out with my boyfriend. Not an ideal life, but when we do go out, it's fine, and the restaurants and malls are nice.
If you do come, let me know - it would be nice to have another ******/a friend! I hope this advice helps.