Hi Mexico-loving friends,
I hope this email finds you well.
Things continue to improve in Mexico in regards to Covid. Cases numbers are reducing, there are much fewer hospitalizations, and this is being reflected in restrictions around the country.
For all of my fellow Baja California Sur lovers, this week marks the first time that the state has moved into the "green". A great thing for visitors and locals working in tourism. Let's have a look at what all of these changes mean.
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.
Currently, red means the highest risk of covid and that hospitals are near capacity. It means that capacity at restaurants and hotels is lowered. In some places, it will mean that you will not be able to sit inside a restaurant at all, but only place an order for take-out (unless they have outdoor seating available). For the next two weeks, there will continue to be no states in the high-risk "red" category.
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. There are only four states currently in orange and they are Colima, Morelos, Tabasco, and Tamaulipas.
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. The majority of the states in the country are now yellow. Those states in yellow are Aguascalientes, Baja California, Campeche, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico City, México state, Michoacán, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatán, and Zacatecas.
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 being taken, especially when going indoors. There are now four states currently in the green. Those states are Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Chiapas, and Chihuahua.
You can read more about the nation's traffic light changes in this article.
What's Happening Around Mexico?
Some of you may have heard that Baja California Sur was hit by a category 2 hurricane about 10 days ago. Many people evacuated their homes and spent the night in shelters that the government created for the situation. There were nearly 20,000 tourists hunkering down in their hotels.
Thankfully, there wasn't an enormous amount of damage, and many restaurants, shops, and bars were able to resume as normal the very next day.
However, not everyone was as lucky. Many local people have had enormous damage to their homes and businesses. I have reached out to my friend Kristian who is a tour guide in San Jose del Cabo and who is helping with the relief effort there. If you are interested in supporting this in a financial way, even just a small amount, please reply to this email and I can share the details with you further.
In happier news, Mexico celebrated its independence a few days ago. While things aren't completely back to normal, you can see in this video from the Kinetic Kennons that Mexico City still had plenty going on to celebrate.
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. What is now orange in Mexico City looks more like green in Jalisco. Yellow in Puerto Vallarta looks very different from Yellow in Guadalajara, even though they're in the same state.
In addition to the varying ways that the traffic light system is being policed, Mexico continues to have some pretty severe weather these last few weeks.
That's why I always recommend trying to find people who are on the ground in the location which you are hoping to visit or move to.
For information about what's going on in and around Puerto Vallarta, be sure to follow along with the Kinetic Kennons on YouTube.
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.
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.
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.
The Mexican government's Coronavirus website is a huge resource for those that are currently living in Mexico and want to know more about what's happening in their state.
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 (brand new and published in July 2021!), 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
