enviroian

AA just came out with some really good fares to various Mexican cities. I'd like to head to PVR but don't know if restaurants and bars are open?

david55

I found this.....I also read somewhere that beaches are not open. Although may be hard to enforce.

https://www.mexicanist.com/l/coronav...erto-vallarta/

JDiver

Here’s a recent article on Puerto Vallarta’s reopening. https://www.mexicanist.com/l/coronav...erto-vallarta/

enviroian

Good info thanks!

Siempre Viajando

I was in Pto Vallarta earlier this week. I can't say that everything is open as we spent only a short time in the city, but we had lunch twice at two different seafood restaurants and had dinner as well, up the hill at San Sebastián del Oeste. So I think you'll find plenty to choose from, and with a complete absence of cruise ships in the harbor most places are relatively quiet.

david55

You can use google translate to get the English version. One person , a tourist , was killed in the attack.


https://www.am.com.mx/guanajuato/not...0725-0003.html

enviroian

Okay I have two reservations on hold and will confirm one of them after I get valuable feedback from my fellow flyertalkers.

I have a reservation for PVR and CUN. I’ve been to both and I know from a beach standpoint the latter is a no brainer. Airfares to each are $385 return and nice hotels are in the low 100’s per night so this sounds great. What I can’t decide is since I’m a walker and like to eat local food from authentic places Cancún might be an issue as they all seem to be expensive gringo restaurants catering to tourists.

I’m used to MEX or GDL when I can have authentic food within a few block walk. I’m looking at the Westin for both places. What’s a better choice for walkable late night take out authentic Mexican food?

JDiver

The group of twenty men (at least ten were small businessmen) from Guanajuato had driven in a group endeavor over the Sierra Occidental in a collection of 4WD and All Terrain Vehicles, passing through areas allegedly under the control of the CJNG, the Jalisco New Generation drugs cartel. They were set upon by a convoy of armed men in a subdivision on the outskirts between the PVR airport and downtown; one of the businessmen was shot. One (very believable) theory is the group were mistaken for members associated with another cartel, Cártel de Santa Rosa de Lima, whose leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, is known as “El Marro”, involved in drugs trafficking and as a “huachicolero”, a major thief and distributor of oil stolen from the oil pipelines in the area he controls out of Guanajuato - where this group of businessmen is from. “El Mencho”, leader of the very powerful Cáftel Nueva Generación Jalisco has openly declared war on “El Marro” just a few days ago.

The conventional wisdom is to stay the heck out of remote areas in the Sierra. It appears the group was “made” while traveling through the mountains and attacked toward the end of their trip under mistaken identity.

The mountainous areas inland of Puerto Vallarta have been dodgy for decades. The area was originally isolated from inland Mexico, but it became famous when the movie “Night of the Iguana” was made with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The previous secretary of tourism and onetime President (1946-52) Miguel Alemán is said to have staked his property interests here turfing our residents of an ejido or communal farm and land holding. Those people withdrew into the mountainous areas unhappy, and it’s assumed many have been growing opium poppy, etc. for the prevailing narco-cartel. Under Alemán, a jet airport to serve the new tourist infrastructure was built even before there was a paved road to Puerto Vallarta. We used to travel there in the 1970s and ‘80s via Tepíc, Nayarit when the coast north of Vallarta was totally undeveloped.



Point where group of tourists was ambushed


The group of tourists from Guanajuato

Physical geography of Jalisco state

comfortablynumb

I live in Vallarta. .

Please reconsider your trip to Vallarta at this time. While there are businesses open with protocols (restaurants and hotels at lower capacity, no bars open, food must he ordered with the 3 cocktail max limit, masks mandatory, shopping closed on weekends etc etc) cases and deaths are rising daily, we have alot International and Domestic tourists that are not respectful of the mandates, we have locals that to date don't believe Covid is real and never have respected the mandates. Reglamentos are finally starting to fine those not wearing masks, which are required everywhere including in hotel common areas.

I lost 3 ex-pat friends and one local bartender friend to Covid yesterday. The ex-pats were taking all precautions. The bartender...well he had a job to do... interacting with clients, he rode the bus to and from work etc.

The State of Jalisco regressed back to Red, we have 2 indicators (public hospital capacity and cases per million) set forth by Gov. Alfaro, that if we reach he will hit the "Emergency Button" and put us back into a stricter quarantine than we had March 18-June 1.

It is a complicated situation....tourism economy vs health...the health of Vallarta is not good now. It is in fact horrible.

Vallarta will wait for you.

The shooting of the guy from Guanajuato on the RZR happened on Av. Fluvial, a main avenue not 2 blocks from Costco (not in an outlying colonia) in the middle of the day. The mystery of what happened to his friends, who were the assailants, why did this happen etc will probably remain that way as no one is talking.

nnn

Thinking of going ahead with a trip to Four Seasons Punta Mita. Wear N95 masks through the flight and arrival process, take hotel's SUV service to/from the property (as we do anyway), all dining outdoors, and don't leave the property except maybe for dinners in our favorite spots in Punta Mita town (Av. Anclote). I'm thinking that would keep us generally out of harm's way. Decisions, decisions.

david55

Not sure if this bothers you or not but the State Department elevated their advisory for Mexico to level 4 ( DO NOT TRAVEL) yesterday because of covid and crime. The State of Jalisco is on the " reconsider travel" list if you drill down on the advisory.

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...-advisory.html

selvasuites

Yes, they are accepting tourists with the normal precautions of using masks and so on.