Information For Your Vacation In Puerto Morelos
“At Mightnight” the film that was shot right here in Puerto Morelos has been released.
Our little town even made the credits!
Read all about the filming here!
For information on where to see it, click here.
Puerto Morelos loves a good party, and everyone loves a parade, so Carnaval is our kind of thing! (Click any photo for a full-screen view)
Carnaval in Puerto Morelos has come a long way since we first arrived 20 years ago. At that time Carnaval was so small that they would run the parade once and then run all the floats past us again with all new revellers on board… then they would switch riders and do it again! There were more people in the parade than watching.
This year, Carnaval started last week in Puerto Morelos. Normally Carnaval celebrations around the world occur just before the liturgical season of Lent. Since our town is rather small, we can’t attract the big bands and midway attractions during the official dates, (they play the big cities at that time) so we always celebrate Carnaval a little early or a little late. This year we are early.
Celebrations have been lower-key in the past few years due to pandemic restrictions, but this year’s celebrations have been big.
The town erected a giant stage at the rodeo grounds in the Colonia and lots of midway attractions and food stands have moved in. The music plays until the wee hours.
On Superbowl Sunday, the town staged the Carnaval parade. We were tied up with Superbowl preps, but Casa de los Viajeros guest June from Minnesota took in the festivities and loaned us these great pictures.
Carnaval wraps up soon in Puerto Morelos, but celebrations will begin shortly in Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Cozumel has a particularly big celebration, as does Merida. If you play your cards right, you could hit several celebrations in one season!
And again a special thanks to June for taking all these great photos! Plan to be here next year!
Since 2016, Puerto Morelos has held a mass wedding for the residents of our town on Valentine’s Day and this year is no exception. The collective ceremony will be held on Tuesday, February 14th at 4:30 pm, in the municipal DIF facilities, on the beach side of Puerto Morelos. The event will follow all health protocols and health safety measures will be strictly followed.
The ceremony is free and intended for Mexican citizens. It’s always fun to see.
Puerto Morelos celebrated its first Valentine’s Day as its own municipality with a valentine for the residents. On February 14th, 2016 the town married 30 couples on the Malecon in front of the town square. Hundreds of people turned out to take part in the celebration.
Advertised ahead of time, the ceremony was for Mexican citizens and allowed both opposite or same-sex couples. Participants were asked to gather all of their official documents, register and get their blood work done ahead of time. The fee for the wedding for $250 pesos ($13.21USD/$18.30CAD), which was great value.
The price included the brides having their makeup done and a bouquet of flowers. Plus, there was a big cake and snacks afterward. A real celebration. The couples ranged in age from very young to “more experienced”.
It was a beautiful sight and we hope that this will become an annual event.
Are you still looking for a Valentine’s gift for your sweetie? Take them to Casa de los Viajeros in Puerto Morelos. We are now taking bookings for 2023!
Things just got a little more inconvenient for smokers.
Effective immediately, Puerto Morelos along with the entire country of Mexico, has new smoking laws.
Beaches (yes beaches), resorts, restaurants, bars… ALL public spaces are now smoke-free. YES, ALL PUBLIC SPACES.
Basically, the only places you can smoke are in your home (some vacation rentals may allow this) or your yard. And if you are a tourist staying at a resort or hotel, chances are they are smoke-free as well. Hotels will no longer offer smoking rooms and you are not permitted to smoke on your hotel balcony. Also in some cases, you cannot smoke in your own car. For a deep dive into this, read here.
One of the first comments we heard after this law went into effect from tourists was, “Oh, I know Juan, he owns the bar, he will let me smoke there….” No, no he won’t. Juan can’t even smoke at his own bar. And if Juan does let you smoke in his bar, his business can face fines of up to $2000 USD! and temporary or permanent closure.
The fines for individuals caught smoking are really steep as well. They start at around 1000 pesos or $50 USD and could go as high as 1100 pesos or $550 USD!!! and/or up to 36 hours in jail! That is one expensive smoke!
With the new rules, you can smoke on the streets as long as you stay away from other non-smokers and don’t form large groups. This would mean, in Puerto Morelos, you can smoke on the streets, but you cannot smoke on the beach or in the town squares.
This no-smoking law comes as Mexico tries to get its own population to cut back on smoking. Mexico’s legislation is one of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world. The Pan American Health Organization has applauded the Mexican Government for the new laws. The ban also applies to advertising and sponsorships. You will notice that stores can’t even display cigarettes for sale now.
For non-smokers, this all comes as a breath of fresh air.
Frigatebirds over Puerto Morelos, by William Neville.
We are very lucky to have many wonderful guests stay with us at Casa de los Viajeros in Puerto Morelos.
Last season we featured Iris who brought you wonderful photos of the birds of Puerto Morelos.
This season we were lucky enough to have William Neville and Betty Haskin, two wonderful artists from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, stay with us for more than a month. While they were at our casa they were inspired by the surroundings. They were also nice enough to share some of their wonderful work with us.
Please note that these are studies for future paintings. They were done small in size, (about 12×15”) so they could be put in their suitcases for transport home.
From Betty Haskin. You can see more of her work here.
A brightly coloured casa on Niños Heroes by Betty Haskin.
One of the original Mayan huts that are still left in town, by Betty Haskin.
A lovely front gate, by Betty Haskin.
A colourful bungalow, by Betty Haskin.
From William Neville. You can see more of his artwork and woodwork here.
Gardens of Puerto Morelos, by William Neville.
Plants in the garden of Casa de los Viajeros, by William Neville.
The balcony of Suite #1 at Casa de los Viajeros, by William Neville.
We want to thank William Neville and Betty Haskin for sharing their wonderful work with us and if you are interested in purchasing any of these please contact them via their websites.
Betty Haskin at www.bettyhaskinart.com
William Neville at caseworksart.com
Here are the cash exchange rates for January 5, 2023 at CI Banco on the highway in Puerto Morelos.
I post these rates occasionally so you can compare them with what your local bank or the ATM here may offer. These rates available in town will differ from those you see if you just google exchange rates, as that is the bank-to-bank rate, not available to us as mere mortals exchanging small sums of cash. To see where the rates have been in the last couple of years, search “exchange rates” on our page at InPuertoMorelos.com
| Cash Exchange Rates | Buy | Sell |
| US Dollar $ | 18.80 | 19.60 |
| Canadian Dollar $ | 13.35 | 14.75 |
| Euro € | 19.70 | 21.00 |
| Pound Sterling £ | 22.20 | 23.60 |
As a comparison, I took some Canuck cash out of the Scotiabank ATM at Chedraui on January 4, 2023. The rate I received was 13.83. I paid no fees as I have a Scotiabank account in Canada. Normally, you will get charged fees at both ends of the transaction, from your bank and the Mexican bank, making your rate a little worse. The “bank to bank” Canadian/Mexico rate today is around 14.27.
Decline the ATM rate and Save Money! As a side note, we always advise folks who use the ATM here to get their pesos, to DECLINE the machine’s exchange rate. It is usually very much in the ATM’s favour. Here’s a recent example. We withdrew $7000 pesos from our Scotiabank account in Canada. (Scotiabank has no ATM fees for their Canadian customers, which is a great deal.)
If we had accepted the exchange rate the machine offered us, it would have cost us $526.64 CAD for our pesos, an exchange rate of 1 MXN = 0.07523 CAD. Instead, we let our bank in Canada work out the exchange rate and the cost to us was $498.63. That is a $28 CAD difference! Huge! That rate worked out to 1 MXN = 0.07123)
Always decline the machine’s rate!
Also see our recent article about getting cash at your home bank or in Mexico. What’s the best deal?
As 2022 comes to a close and we welcome the New Year, it’s traditional to have a wee look back at the year that was.
Your favourite beach town fared pretty well in 2022. We got new stamped concrete roads and then closed them to traffic every night. We had a very quiet storm season. Hurricane Ian came by, but he just rolled on by us. Lucky for us, less lucky for our friends in Cuba and Florida. We unplugged the Covid traffic light and the Cancun airport set new records for visitors. The lighthouse continued to lean.
So, let me load up the slide show carousel here, get comfy and let’s look at our favourite photos of 2022. (click any photo for a full-screen view)
Want to see more? Follow this link to see all of our updates from 2022.
Also, we’ve been producing a lot more short videos these days. Check out our new YouTube channel and visit Puerto Morelos anytime you wish!
In 2022 our Beach Reads Blog grew by leaps and bounds, with over 800,000 post views. So we thought we would take a look back at your top 10 most popular blog posts of 2022.
Just a bit of history first… We started Beach Reads back in December 2002 as a newsletter. Back then there was no such thing as “blogs” so Beach Reads was a PDF that we used to e-mail to our subscribers. Our subscriber base came from people that signed up for our newsletter in a notebook on the desk at Alma Libre Bookstore.
If you are interested in reading the back issues from those very early years, they can still be found here on the old Alma Libre Bookstore website. After we sold the bookstore in 2017, we moved our content to a new website InPuertoMorelos.com and Beach Reads became Beach Reads Blog and was continued on our new site.
Now for the TOP 10 Beach Reads Blog Posts of 2022!
Starting from the summer with a sleeper photo blog post.
9) Valentine’s Day
Coming in at number 9, Puerto Morelos’ Annual Valentine’s Day Mass Wedding celebration.
8) Birds of Puerto Morelos
At number 8, a blog post with fantastic bird pictures that were taken by one of our guests at Casa de los Viajeros in our back garden!
7) Lights, Camera, Action
In February, a movie called “At Midnight” was shot in Puerto Morelos. They blocked off the main road of Rojo Gomez to traffic, inspiring the city to later do the same, and we told you about here. The movie will be released in February of 2023. Watch for it.
6) Tourist Tax Scams
In March we revealed to you a tourist tax scam that is sadly, still going on.
5) The Mexican Christmas Star
This month we filled you in on a cultural fact that we had missed.
4) Discounts and Deals
We always like to add some value for our readers and our business owner friends helped us share some discounts and deals with you here.
3) Covid UpDate
One of our most popular posts of 2022 was back in January and had to do with Covid. You wanted information on what to expect on your holiday, and we brought it to you. Hopefully, this is all behind us.
We try to stay on top of information that is important to you, so when the government made changes to the tourist visas, we let you know.
1) 20 Years in Puerto Morelos
And the number one post of 2022 was a look back at our 20 years of living in Puerto Morelos.
As for popular web pages (as opposed to blog posts) on our website…
THE most popular is the webcam page (people like to look at the beach).
Followed by our Puerto Morelos Restaurant Guide. The most complete list of Puerto Morelos Restaurants you will find anywhere.
Thank you to all of you for visiting our page and for all the wonderful feedback we have had over the years. We wish you all a wonderful and safe 2023 and hope that you will keep following along with us.
Happy New Year from InPuertoMorelos.com and Casa de los Viajeros.
At Navidad, one of the main decorations you see in Mexico is the Christmas Star Piñata. Even after being here for 20 years, we didn’t realize there was a meaning behind this 7 spiked star until our friend and cafe owner Ivette of Lola y Moya mentioned it the other day.
The original Christmas piñata is shaped like a star with seven different points. Each of the points represents one of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, envy and pride. The piñata’s bright colours are meant to attract you to these sins.
The stick used to break open the piñata is a symbol of goodness or virtue to overcome the seven deadly sins. And the blindfold the person wears, while using the stick to break open the piñata, represents blind faith, guided by a higher power to destroy evil. The breaking of the piñata is a symbol of good triumphing over evil. The candies and toys inside the piñata represent the riches of the kingdom of heaven.
Traditionally, a piñata is filled with candy and small toys. It is strung high above a yard or street on a rope that can be pulled to raise or lower the colourful paper maché star. As the children swing a stick like a baseball bat, trying to hit and eventually break open the piñata, the adults playfully raise, lower and swing the piñata while onlookers sing “Dale, Dale, Dale,” the traditional piñata song. You can hear it here and sing along!
Spanish
Dale, dale dale
No pierdas el tino
Por que si lo pierdes,
Pierdes el camino
Ya le diste uno
Ya le diste dos
Ya le diste tres
Y tu tiempo se acabo
English
Hit it, hit it, hit it
Don’t lose your aim
Because if you lose it
You will lose your way
You hit it once
You hit it twice
You hit it three times
And your time is up
When the piñata finally splits open, candy and toys scatter over the ground. The kids clammer to grab the colourful prizes.
We here at InPuertoMorelos.com and Casa de los Viajeros, hope that you have a wonderful holiday season! Merry Christmas from our home in Puerto Morelos to yours!
Here are the cash exchange rates for December 15, 2022 at CI Banco on the highway in Puerto Morelos.
I post these rates occasionally so you can compare them with what your local bank or the ATM here may offer. To see where the rates have been in the last couple of years, search “exchange rates” on our page at InPuertoMorelos.com
These rates are about the same as they were a month ago compared to the US and Canadian dollars. The Peso was showing some strength at the end of November but has since pulled back. The Euro and GBP have both climbed since their lows earlier this year.
| Cash Exchange Rates | Buy | Sell |
| US Dollar $ | 18.80 | 19.90 |
| Canadian Dollar $ | 13.50 | 15.00 |
| Euro € | 20.00 | 21.45 |
| Pound Sterling £ | 23.40 | 24.75 |
Decline the ATM rate and Save Money! As a side note, we always advise folks who use the ATM here to get their pesos, to DECLINE the machine’s exchange rate. It is usually very much in the ATM’s favour. Here’s a recent example. We withdrew $7000 pesos from our Scotiabank account in Canada. (Scotiabank has no ATM fees for their Canadian customers, which is a great deal.)
If we had accepted the exchange rate the machine offered us, it would have cost us $526.64 CAD for our pesos, an exchange rate of 1 MXN = 0.07523 CAD. Instead, we let our bank in Canada work out the exchange rate and the cost to us was $498.63. That is a $28 CAD difference! Huge! That rate worked out to 1 MXN = 0.07123)
Always decline the machine’s rate!
Also see our recent article about getting cash at your home bank or in Mexico. What’s the best deal?
