Where do Americans go to cut loose, have a good time and, oh, break a few foreign laws? Or, put another way, what foreign cities boast the most number of Americans taken into custody in 2006? Tijuana tops the list, with a whopping 520 Americans detained last year. Not surprisingly, many of them were young and drunk, according to Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, which published the list. Guadalajara ranked second with 416 arrests, and Nuevo Laredo ranked third, with 359. London and Mexico City followed, ranking fourth and fifth respectively. Only one Asian city made the list: Hong Kong ranked 10th, with 90 arrests.

The numbers for Tijuana look pretty bad, but the Chronicle notes that roughly 15 million to 17 million American visit the city each year, so it could be worse.

I’ve often found myself in Tijuana on a Friday or Saturday night, heading back across the border into the U.S. At around 11 p.m. or midnight, I inevitably pass a steady stream of teenagers heading south, bound for the bars on Avenida Revolución. Their night is only beginning, and for an unlucky few, their nightmare is only beginning.

There was one bit of good news in Christopher Reynolds’ report: Arrests of Americans in Tijuana dropped by more than 100 from the previous year.

Related on World Hum:
* Rick Steves, It’s Time for a Tijuana-Off!
* Rick Steves: ‘Happy Travels—Even to Tijuana’
* Smackdown in Tijuana

Photo by DavidDennis via Flickr, (Creative Commons).