InPuertoMorelos.com

Effective today, (Monday, September 7, 2020) Puerto Morelos moves from orange to yellow on the stoplight system.

What does this mean to you? Get ready to book your vacation!

Quintana Roo has been working very hard to stop the spread of Covid-19. Case numbers are posted at noon daily (local time) here on twitter. Puerto Morelos did not take the situation lightly. We began our lockdown in mid-March. Then in mid-June, we went from red on Mexico’s four stoplight system to orange. This opened us up to 30 percent. You can read more about that here.

Now we are moving from orange to yellow. Below is a list of what will be open and to what capacity. The best news is that our beach is now open to 60%.

As for hours, we don’t know how late businesses will be allowed to be open. Currently, shops and restaurants are required to be closed by 9 pm or 10 pm. Hours are determined by the local government and not the state. Bars are still not allowed to open. If you do want to order a drink in a restaurant, you must also order food.

So here is what you need to know: (English below)

ESSENTIAL SERVICES: 100% OPEN

• Police and Justice system
• Legislative activities
• Hospitals and medical services
• Retail food (Food markets, supermarkets, convenience stores, groceries, tortillerías, etc.)
• Banks and financial institutions
• Fishing and agriculture
• Laundries
• Water purifiers

80% OPEN
• Sales of appliances and computers

75% OPEN
• Administrative, professional and technicians

70% OPEN
• Gymnasiums and sports clubs (Outdoor areas 100%. Closed spaces 50%)

OPENING AT 60%
• Hotels, restaurants, historic sites, theme parks, golf courses, and travel services
• Beaches and public parks
• Religious services
• Theaters and cinemas
• Malls and department stores
• Manufacturing
• Real estate
• Hairdressers and beauty salons

NOT OPEN
• Schools
• Bars, nightclubs, discos, entertainment venues, etc.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION
Private vehicles: Max 4 people/car
Taxis: Max 3 people/car (including the driver)
Public transport: 50% capacity

You can read a more detailed description of what is to open here.

Despite these openings, you still must practice social distancing, wear a mask in public, have your temperature checked, and use hand gel when you enter any business. These precautions have become so normal for us now, we really don’t find they impact our daily lives here in Puerto Morelos.

So to all those people who have been emailing us and asking if they should make plans to visit Puerto Morelos this winter… This is one very positive step towards reopening. We look forward to seeing all of you behind your masks this winter.

For more information on vacation rentals, please visit our new website www.vacationrentalspm.com and we will see you soon.

We get questions all the time asking where a specific vacation rental is in Puerto Morelos. When we first came here in 2001, the town only consisted of two districts, the Port and La Colonia. Years later Villas Uno was added and later Villas Dos. In the last five years or so, many more neighbourhoods have sprung up. We created this map because we haven’t been able to find this information anywhere else, and we discovered that there were many more districts than what we thought there were.

Now we don’t claim to be cartographers, but this map will give you a very good idea of where things are in town. So the next time you plan to visit Puerto Morelos, you will have a better idea of where to stay.

With the growth of these new areas came the growth in vacation rentals that are available. If you book a place, it’s important to know where it is. A lot of places advertise their place as being “5 minutes from the beach” regardless of how far they are from it.

For example, we got an email in February (our highest of high seasons) from a woman who had rented a place in Bucaneros asking us to help her find new accommodations because she felt like she was too isolated. Bucaneros is a gated community on the highway almost 6 km (3.7 miles) from the town square. The district has no restaurants, no shops, no public transportation, and not an easy walk into town. You need either a car or a taxi to get anywhere. Now that may be a nice place to live, but may not be what you are looking for as a tourist.

To give you an idea of distances, we have created the following chart with distances from the main town square to all of the neighbourhoods on our map. We picked the closest point and the furthest point that you could possibly in these areas. For example, if you are staying on the beachside you could be steps from the main town square or you could be 1.2 km away. If you were staying in Villas La Playa the closest you are to the square, or the beach for that matter is 3.7 km or as much as 4.6 km away.

All the neighbourhoods are accessible by car and taxi. Most are accessible on foot or by bike, but we don’t recommend biking or walking on the busy Highway 307. Some areas are accessible by collectivo (city buses) which run a limited route around town.

So next time you are looking at a vacation rental in Puerto Morelos, make sure you ask which neighbourhood it is in and find out if that area meets your needs. We want everyone to have a wonderful stay in Puerto Morelos.

Today (June 8, 2020) we are officially moving from red light to orange light on the four stoplight system that has been put in place in our area for Covid-19. The new light means we can open up ever so slightly. The beautiful beach remains closed but restaurants and cafes are now allowed to open and seat up to 30% of their capacity. You can read a detailed description of what is allowed to open here.

Essential services like grocery stores can now be open up to 9:00 PM under the new rules, instead of the current 6:00 PM. This applies to food deliveries as well. A restaurant source tells us that they will be allowed to be open until 9:00 at night, but not serve alcohol after 5:00.

We still need to wear masks and only one person from each family can go to the grocery store.

After 12 weeks in self-quarantine, we are very excited that things are starting to loosen up. The first cafe to announce that they will be reopening is Lola y Moya. They have been open for delivery and takeout during the shutdown and will continue to do that, but will also now add 30% of their tables into the mix.

We chatted with Eduardo, owner of Al Chimichurri and they will be open beginning Tuesday at 30% capacity. Sunday they were cleaning, painting and freshening things up. We look forward to a nice big steak!

I just took a little bike ride around the port side. A few places like one of the T@cos.com locations has put their tables out on the street again. A couple of cafes like Le Cafe de Amancia and Local Coffee + Shop were open, but I saw no tables out. Mem Al Mare had its decorative bike out hanging again and was definitely prepping to reopen. Construction at The Fives is underway again and there is more traffic out on the streets.

I extended my bike ride to the Colonia. A lot of places had chairs and tables out and others were preparing. Micheladas del Semáforo had chairs and tables occupied in the early afternoon, they are running special hours, 11am-5pm to conform to the new rules. A few small stores were open too.

But not every owner is opening right away. We talked to a few, like Arturo at El Campanario (open for delivery and takeout – dining room to open June 16) and Karla at El Pirata and they are going to take a “wait and see” approach. Anthony over at La Sirena will be opening the airy rooftop area later in the week (Friday if all goes well). El Nicho is also open for delivery and take-out only right now.

Marco at I Wanna Pizza says they will continue to be open on a reduced schedule, Thursday to Sunday, for delivery and takeout only.

Under the stoplight system, bars and nightclubs are not allowed to open until there is a green light. So we are not sure what this means for most of our beach bars as many of them are restaurants as well. And with the beach remaining closed, it looks like we will have to wait a while longer before we see these establishments open.

Alma Libre Bookstore will be opening this week. They have taken advantage of the Covid-lull to renovate, and they now have air conditioning! If you have read (and reread) all of your books while in quarantine, you have a great local place to restock.

The other big news in Puerto Morelos is that the remodelling of our town square has begun. This controversial project, which was set to begin last February, at the height of the tourist season, was delayed due to push-back from the community. Many residents like the square and feel that the funds would be better spent elsewhere in the town. As a protest and to show their love for the square, a local group occupied the park and staged entertainment every night to the delight of visitors and residents alike. This worked well until the Covid-19 lockdown forced them to leave.

Late last Thursday night, during a tropical storm, city officials moved in with heavy equipment and began to tear down the square in Puerto Morelos and replace it with a new, modernized one. State police were called in to keep protesters away from the site.

So we say a sad farewell to our town square and we will have to wait to see what the new one will be like.

Last Friday we were visited by Tropical Storm Cristobal. We were on the outer edges of the storm so we had some high winds and a lot of rain. No damage was done and our beach was left looking beautiful.

That’s all for now. We will try to keep you up to date with what’s happening in your favourite little beach town. Until then, subscribe to our newsletter and when you want to visit Puerto Morelos, make sure you stay with us at Casa de los Viajeros.