Mexico isn't dangerous to solo travel around, I did it when I was 18 as my graduating high school trip. I drove from Minnesota to Belize- took all summer. If you respect the locals they'll respect you. (BTW you NEED insurance and it would've 100% helped you) Its guys that say all this bad stuff about overlanding through Mexico, how its so corrupt and dangerous that have never been there or traveled through Mexico (or just went about it the exact way you shouldn't have)- you guys just watch CNN and expect the worst because a news caster said it was bad, scaring individuals away from an amazing experience, so put some time in and go travel there- just be smart about it, so if you got your vehicle impounded and ordered to be sold off, you really messed something up (I saw a UNIDAN U1300L pulled over by a larger seeming to be militarized force, and i also saw the owner 4 hours later after he paid a $20.00USD bribe, the owner, Jamie, said they took tequila shots, traded some food items, laughed and he was on his way after just giving them some dough and showing some hospitality).
Oaxaca has the best surfing other than Indo, and you can get 3 huge meals for $2.00USD, another plus is the culture and that medical is extremely inexpensive. I had to get 9 stitches (took a surfboard to the face) and it was $6.00USD- No it wasn't in someones bamboo hut, it was a very small but clean and nice Hospital. - I also met 2 awesome solo traveling females from Norway, and Jersey (not in the US, apparently off the coast of France) they had no issues traveling alone.
Don't travel on the highways when high ranking political people are in town, I got pulled over 9 times in 2 hours so the military could search my vehicle- it was frustrating but I never felt threatened. I treated them all with respect, told them where I was headed and saw a few of them later that evening, they brought sea food so we immediately became friends.
Scared to solo through mexico with a nice rig? You see more Unicats, Actionmobile and unique high dollar rigs traveling the PanAm than you do around the states (not including overland expo)- When I was in Baja I saw a million dollar MAN KAT 6x6 being captained by a 72 year old German man and his wife that I'm guessing was an easy 30 years younger than himself- they started in Chile, only issues they had were loading the vehicle onto a container ship to bypass the Darien gap, they let a local yard worker drive it onto the ship, and he ran over some other US travelers GS1200 with their rig. Resulting in some plane tickets' and a new bike being bought.
You just have to be smart about traveling, stay away from the heavy cartel influenced areas, if a cop pulls you over for something you didn't do, say its on camera and you don't have any cash- they'll let you go, and will probably end up partying with you later that night. Just show them respect- there are bad people there, just like the US.
