Since many of you are not here right now (and we can tell by the lack of people on the streets), we thought we would do a quick post to show you what Puerto Morelos is like during Covid-19 times.
Our beach is closed! (and has been for two months!)
We are currently in Phase 3 of the lockdown. This means that only essential services are open. This includes grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores etc. Everything closes at 6:00PM.
Unfortunately for us and all of Mexico, it was determined that brewing beer was not an essential service, so after some panic buying, the stores quickly ran out of suds. We never had a shortage of wine or liquor…or toilet paper for that matter.
Our neighbouring state of Yucatan went completely dry for a couple of months, only recently selling any kind of hooch again in most cities. (Valladolid and Progresso remain dry). Thankfully, June saw the breweries in Mexico crank up again and we are slowly getting our beer back here in PM.
There are also a handful of restaurants open for take-out and delivery. They are not allowed to be open past 6 pm, which makes for very quiet evenings. The days are pretty quiet too.
Everyone in town remains friendly, we are slowly getting better at recognizing old friends and neighbours behind their masks. The population remains in good spirits, though looking forward to an end to all this. Hugs and handshakes are off the table for now, which is very strange for us.
Officially, if you don’t have reason to be on the streets you must be home. When you are out of your house, even driving alone in your car, you are required to wear a mask. A mask and a shot of hand sanitizer is required before entering any grocery store.
The state and town do not have a firm opening date. We have been told that we will be able to do a slow reopening, including the beach in the second week of June, but there are few details.
There are many people waiting and wanting to go back to work. Tourism is the top employer in our state of Quintana Roo and with more than 100,000 hotel rooms in our state currently closed, this means a lot of people do not have jobs.
A lot of local folks are inventing their own jobs. Suddenly we have several delivery companies in town that will do your grocery shopping for you, even making runs to Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Many amateur chefs and bakers are selling food out of their homes, everything from tamales to doughnuts can be purchased and delivered. Many are sewing masks, some featuring Mexican designs and fabrics.
In the meantime, we here at Casa de los Viajeros are implementing new policies to make your next stay safer, more relaxing and worry-free. Visit our website to see more about this.
We look forward to seeing everyone soon. In the meantime subscribe to our website for updates. Stay safe and be well from all of us at InPuertoMorelos.com and Casa de los Viajeros.
Hasta pronto!!
