We had a sizable safe made of 1/2" steel on all of the sides, and a flange of 2" all around the base, with the lid of about 1" thick steel. It was glassed into the bottom of a hanging locker, which had a false bottom, so the safe was not easily exposed. It would have been almost impossiable to remove. I would recommend against ATM's in the Mexico/Central America venue. You may not get your money, your card numbers may be stolen and there may be excessive charges--what are the odds? Don't know for sure, but there are a fair number of stories about problems. I did have a credit card number stolen in Mexico--but my credit card company is kept well informed of our itiniary and to look for potential fraud (the card number showed up in a European charge, about 3 months after we were back in the US). We also let the credit card company know what limits we will be making--and if we are going to have a large expediture, we will notify the company. Cash; we carried adequate dollars in the safe, and kept a number of small demoniation bills out of the safe. We would get local currancy at a bank when we got into the country. There were times when we used dollars when we first arrived, but rarely was this necessary. We often carried travelers checks and exchanged for local currancy in the American Express office. We would also "shop" for the best exchange if we were looking for larger amounts of local currancy. When carrying money on our person we used a pouch which had a string around the neck, and the pouch was near the belt line. We did not bring the pouch (which also contained our credit card (if we had it) as well as ID out when in public places. Small amounts of local currancy was carried in our pockets. Bob Austin