What's Happening in Mexico Right Now?
| Tue, Mar 30, 11:27 AM (15 hours ago) |  | ||
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Hi Mexico-loving friends,
I hope this email finds you well.
The country continues to make progress with the roll-out of the vaccine and with the movement of states away from shutdowns and towards more openings. This week 7 states are now in the "green" which means schools can finally begin to reopen in those areas, something that hasn't been possible for an entire year in most of Mexico.
Traffic Light Changes
This is the 5th straight week without a single state in the "red" traffic light system.
If you are unfamiliar with the system that Mexico is using, there are four colors; red, orange, yellow, and green with red being almost complete lockdown and green being almost completely open with very few restrictions.
Although each state's color on the traffic light system is being determined by the federal government, the way that these colors are interpreted is up to the state government. So the exact meaning of what "yellow" or "orange" means varies from state-to-state. Many states have created their own internal traffic light systems so some areas of the state will have fewer restrictions than others.
If it sounds confusing, you're not alone. I've been attempting to understand the system and keep up to date with it since it was introduced last summer and since then it has changed quite a lot.
However, what I can be certain of is that restrictions are loosening across the entire country.
As of Monday the 29th of March, the following states are in the green: Jalisco, Nayarit, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Campeche, and Chiapas (the final two have now been green for over two weeks).
The following states are in the yellow traffic light: Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Morelos, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.
The rest of the states which are now currently in orange: Mexico City, Mexico state, Puebla, Querétaro, Chihuahua, Hidalgo, and Yucatán.
You can read more about it in this article from Mexico News Daily .
What Does Los Cabos Look Like Right Now?
We remain in level "3" on the Baja California Sur traffic light system. Since the state changed to yellow two weeks ago, I have noticed that there are a few more tables in restaurants and bars that we frequent with capacity now up to 50% in these places.
Masks are still required in all public spaces. Most bar-restaurants are still requiring that you order food with your drinks. I give a fuller picture of what life looks like in this video about what life in Los Cabos looks like in 2021 .
I spent the day in Cabo San Lucas on Sunday and it's beginning to look more like its former self. There are definitely more tourists around and restaurants and bars looked much busier than they did when I was there back in February.
Since my last email, we also did a little bit of a road trip which included a stop in this amazing hiking area near Santiago , eating an overpriced but delicious sandwich in the historical town of El Triunfo , and getting blown away literally and figuratively in the town of Los Barriles .
I also shared my experience renting a car with locally owned Cactus Rent a Car here .
Keep up with what's happening in other parts of Mexico
As things continue to change so quickly, the best way to know what's going on in the place you want to visit is to find people who are on the ground there now.
Even though Mexico City continues to be in Orange, I have heard a lot about continued reopenings.
For more updates about Mexico City, as always I recommend following Ubish Yaren on Instagram . He is doing regular weekly updates about the situation there both on his Instagram and on his YouTube channel .
For updates about what's going on in Oaxaca, Susan of Brooklyn Tropicali has been showing some great updates around the city. She has also begun doing a small amount of traveling around Oaxaca state and sharing her experiences about that on her Instagram.
For regular updates about life in Merida and around the Yucatan, check out Mexico Cassie .
To keep up with what's going on in and around Queretaro, follow Alex of the Backpacking Brunette.
Trisha of P.S. I'm on My Way regularly shares updates about life in Nayarit where she balances time between Nueva Vallarta where she lives and Sayulita where she works.
For updates about Acapulco, follow Raphael of Journey of Wonders .
As always, a great place to keep up to date with news about Mexico in English is Mexico News Daily . I've also recently discovered the Gringo Gazette website, which is a helpful resource for those that are interested in keeping up to date with things going on in Baja California Sur in English.
Catch up with Videos and Blog Posts
In case you've missed them, these are the blog posts and videos that I've shared in the last two weeks.
- The Best Restaurants in San Jose del Cabo (an ever-evolving article!)
- The Best Restaurants in Cabo San Lucas
- Amazing Tacos & Tamales in San Jose del Cabo
- Epic Cabo Day Trip
- Baja's Most Fascinating Historic Town
As always, you can find me most often on Instagram with daily updates and photos, but I also post very regularly on Facebook if you prefer following along there .
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to email me by simply hitting reply on this email.
Speak soon,
Laura
