Hi Mexico-loving friends,
I hope this email finds you well.
Unfortunately, it appears as though Mexico is well and truly experiencing a third wave of the virus. Last week, things changed for the worse for most states. While there were at one point 19 states in the green, there are now only three.
Read about the surge in cases here.
Traffic Light Changes
For those that are new around here, last year Mexico's federal government created a traffic light system to help businesses and people understand the risks of Covid-19 in each state around Mexico. It was then up to the state governments to decide how to interpret these traffic light colors.
Stay tuned in two weeks' time when I will update you again. The government is talking about changing the traffic light system and how they decide what states should be what colors. I will keep you updated about those changes when they happen.
Currently, red means the highest risk of covid and that hospitals are near capacity. It has been interpreted in most states at total lockdown. For the first time in almost six months, a state has fallen back into the red risk level. Sinaloa is currently red.
Orange is a level below red status and means that there is still a high risk of covid-19 and many restrictions are still in place. The federal government have given control over to the state governments to decide how they implement these colors and what restrictions should be in place. These are the states that will remain in orange with a risk of possibly moving into the red because of continued increases in severe cases and hospitals becoming overrun: Mexico City, Mexico State, Baja California Sur, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Quintana Roo.
Yellow means lower risk level and most places are allowed to have up to 50% capacity. States in yellow are allowed to have fans at sporting events and bars are allowed to be open (in some states clubs are also open in Yellow). Museums and other tourist attractions can be back open with restrictions. All of the states currently in yellow include Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Michoacán, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatán.
Green means that there is a very low risk of Covid, that many places can have more than 75% capacity and almost all services can resume. Precautions like masks and temperature checks are still taken, especially indoors. There are only three states currently in the green. The states that are currently green in Mexico include Coahuila, Aguascalientes, and Chiapas.
These rankings will remain in place until August 8th, 2021. They will, as has been the case for several months, be assessed every two weeks. However, as I mentioned above, the government is overhauling the system. So I believe we will see some big changes to what these colors mean in the next few weeks.
You can read more about the nation's traffic light changes in this article.
Latest Mexico Content
My Baja California Sur guidebook is finally out! If you haven't received my emails recently or seen on social media, the book came out on July 1st and is available as a pdf download here or a paperback copy on Amazon here.
If you've already purchased the guidebook THANK YOU. I have never had such a successful launch of a guidebook before and it's all because of you! I am beyond grateful to all of you for your support, comments, emails, kind words, and feedback over the course of researching and writing this guidebook.
If you have purchased the book and enjoy what you've read so far, it would mean the world to me if you took a few moments to write an Amazon review here. Send me a screenshot of the review and I'll send you a 20% discount code for any of the other digital copies of the guidebook!
I have been hard at work catching up with blog posts from our travels around Mexico for the last several months. Here are some of the latest articles I've written to help you better explore Mexico:
I know I mentioned in last month's newsletter that these emails would be less frequent, but there are a lot of changes happening in Mexico at the moment with Coronavirus, so I think I will go back to emailing you every two weeks again while all of these new changes take place. I want to keep you all as up-to-date as I can on what's going on.
I have also recently created a new monthly newsletter where I will be sharing more personal stories of our travels and expat adventures. We have just started a very new and exciting adventure that I'll be sharing via those newsletters since they are not Mexico-focused. For those that are interested in joining that newsletter, please simply click here and you will be added to that list! (you don't need to fill out the form unless you want to be EXTRA sure you're on the list or you would prefer to use a different email address to the current one you are using).
Keep up with what's happening in other parts of Mexico
The traffic light is changing rapidly again and the way in which each state and municipality is interpreting the traffic light system varies enormously. Orange in Mexico City looks more like yellow in Jalisco. Yellow in Puerto Vallarta looks very different from Yellow in Guadalajara, even though they're in the same state.
So I highly recommend seeking out people who are currently located within the town or city in Mexico that you want to visit. Here are some of the people that I recommend following:
For updates about Mexico City, as always I recommend following Ubish Yaren on Instagram. You can also follow Anais of The Curious Mexican for updates on the restaurant and food scene in Mexico City and what is back open.
For updates about what's going on in Oaxaca, Susan of Brooklyn Tropicali has been sharing her updates of what's going on around the city and state of Oaxaca as more things open up there.
For regular updates about life in Merida and around the Yucatan, check out Mexico Cassie who has also recently written a fantastic guide about Traveling Yucatan with Kids. She also just wrote about her experience in Cancun, which is still very much welcoming tourists.
Shelley of Travel Mexico Solo also shares her experiences in Merida and around the Yucatan. Her Instagram is a particularly good resource for what she's seeing at the moment.
The Yucatan Times is the local English newspaper in Merida that shares local updates and news reports.
To keep up with what's going on in and around Querétaro, follow Alex of the Backpacking Brunette.
Vallarta Daily is the local English news there where you can learn about any changes in the situation in Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding Nayarit beach towns as well.
Janine Around the World is traveling around the Riviera Maya at the moment sharing her experiences on her blog and Instagram.
Riviera Maya News is the local English newspaper there where you can keep up with changes.
For updates about Acapulco, follow Raphael of Journey of Wonders.
As always, a great place to keep up to date with news about what's happening all over Mexico in English is Mexico News Daily.
Visiting Mexico Soon?
If you are planning a trip to Mexico soon, I hope you'll have a browse of the different locations on my blog or have a search through my YouTube videos to help you plan your trip!
I also have FOUR extensive guidebooks available for Baja California Sur, Mexico City (updated this year with tons of new content!), Merida, and Guanajuato!
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to email me by simply hitting reply on this email.
Speak soon and safe travels,
Laura
Pan American Health Organization warns that social distancing and other measures will be important during the summer vacation period.
