cancel
Showing results forย 
Search instead forย 
Did you mean:ย 

Semana Santa

moisheh
Explorer
Explorer
This forum is almost ready to be pronounced dead. Where are all the regular posters: Chris, Tequila and more??? I will try to start a discussion: Describe what happens in your area for Easter Week.

Kino has transformed from a fishing village with American and Canadian tourists. The town has been gifted to Mexicans. Since Covid
construction of homes, hotels and rental units are being built everywhere. One can hardly see the beach as the homes are glued one to the other. Prices are out of sight. 99% of this development is by Mexicans for Mexicans. The Puente for Benito Juarez had 7000 visitors They are expecting 10,000 vehicles for the Easter weekend. Here are some of the changes for what used to be Sleepy Hollow:
5 garbage trucks and 100,s of contendors are coming from Hermosillo along with more workers to handle the tons of garbage. Instead of driving the 25km to the dump an intermediate temporary dump will be just outside Kino. 100's of police are coming from HMO. They have a highly technical Drone unit. A dedicated large van that also monitors some of the security cameras. There will be a "Green patrol". These are small vehicles that will issue tickets for environmental problems. The Red Cross will have a large crew. Extra Fire Trucks and Firefighters are also coming from HMO. The main street becomes one way on the weekend. We will be hunkered down in our home and using ear plugs at night.
The following weekend is Junior Week. The high school kids come here to be wild. Fortunately, the police started to crack down on the kids a few years so most go elsewhere. Fun!
40 REPLIES 40

moisheh
Explorer
Explorer
There are a lot of reasons for the lack of RV'rs. The Mexican Government has never encouraged rv'ing. They want the planes to land bsu the tourists to some hotel where they have a Mexico night(??) and maybe 5 days later send them back to Saskatchewan. Today's Rv'rs are not like the regulars on this forum. They expect USA style campgrounds, better highways and more. There is always the fear of violence. Nothing we can say or do will change their thinking. We are planning on returning to southern Mexico in December. Right now I am looking for a smaller MH for our travels. I really miss the Churches. It is hard to get up to date CG information. I googled and anything I found was useless. The Overlanders site is really not very good. Mexico Mike is decades behind There is not much current information on RV.NET. At one time every year there were posts about new and closed CG's, highway information and more. I tried to find a CG in Oaxaca and San Cristobal. There is one close to Oaxaca city but I see nothing in Chiapas that can take even a 30 ft. MH. 2 of your favorite spots. We do not bring a toad and that does help in getting through tight city streets. We overnight in Pemex's with no worries but I am not comfortable in leaving our unit anywhere that is not a CG or gated lot.

Wm_Elliot
Explorer
Explorer
We've been in Mexico nearly 3 weeks now. I've lost count of how many times we've been in Mexico - always for a month at a time. The number is between 15-20 times though. Practically every visit occurred around Easter. When I comment that there is a noticeable absence of people from the US and Canada there is some factual basis in my observation.
When we first started RVing in Mexico (1999) there were more campgrounds and more campers. First the campers from the US disappeared - it was then mostly Canadians - then those dropped off too, then the open campgrounds closed. Now even US & Canadian tourists seem to have absented themselves from Mexico.
I'm confident that the cruise ships will still be disgorging tourists at ports for a few hours at a time and passenger jets will be flying tourists in to Cancun, but out on the highways there is a very perceptible change.
Maybe it's Covid-19 nesting, media coverage which tends to ignore internal US violence in favor of Mexican violence, the economy, or societal changes away from Jack Kerouac's style of Mexican adventurism in favor of artificial Disney vacations... I don't know.
It is a shame that people will miss something that we've enjoyed so much, a shame that Mexico's tourist industry is now more internal than it was.

playaboy
Explorer
Explorer
Why would you expect to see a bunch of gringos during a very Mexican vacation period? Sure you would see a bunch of Spring breakers in places like Cancun or PV but not in places like Zihua, Morelia, Chapala.

Wm_Elliot
Explorer
Explorer
Morelia is very busy too. The hotel we're at is either full or nearly full every night. All Mexican nationals; families and business people. A noticeable scarcity of US or Canadians.

Talleyho69
Moderator
Moderator
They are all nationals here, too. As predicted, they started arriving late the Wednesday before Easter and left by Sunday morning.

Looks like we are picking up a few more for the weekend, arriving today. Then it will be the beginning of one of our very quiet seasons until school gets out the end of June.

Wm_Elliot
Explorer
Explorer
A hotel we've stayed at previously in Taxco was very busy a few days ago - possibly full. Town, of course was very crowded. The post Semanta Santa slowdown has yet to arrive. Still, after 16 days in Mexico I've not seen a US or Canadian plated vehicle. The crowds are all Nationals.

moisheh
Explorer
Explorer
We were watching the CNN show about eating in Mexico. Great show. When she went to Oaxaca my heart was racing! We started to talk about all the good times we had in Oaxaca and Chiapas. I am researching smaller MH's. Maybe a Class C or larger B. Our Dynasty is just too big for Mexico ! I really would like to find a Classic unit. Maybe a Superior. Or an Argosy. Nothing bigger than 28 ft. Our old Clark Cortez would have been perfect.

Talleyho69
Moderator
Moderator
Just spent the afternoon sitting on the beach in front of The Thompson on Playa la Ropa, Zihuatanejo. Took our chairs, umbrella, lunch and cocktails. It was wonderful! Because we spend the first 3.5 hours of our day on the beach, we don't get out in the afternoons more than every month or so. We make a point of going on Sunday so we'll have a lot of good people watching.

Today's people watching was great, and there were maybe a few more people on the beach than on a "normal" Sunday, but probably not. The Semana Santa crowd didn't hit la Ropa.

qtla9111
Nomad
Nomad
playaboy wrote:
qtla9111 wrote:
Surprising how much SUVs run these days. A new Durango? The next one will have to be used ๐Ÿ™‚ We're on the lookout!

SLDS


I am not sure what kind of tow vehicle you are looking. These guys have a large variety of diesel trucks with an ever changing inventory.

I bought my dually from them. They are good honest used car salesman:)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063697717254


Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out. We are looking for another Durango. New starts at about 800,000 pesos. ๐Ÿ™‚
2005 Dodge Durango Hemi
2008 Funfinder 230DS
Living and Boondocking Mexico Blog

playaboy
Explorer
Explorer
qtla9111 wrote:
Surprising how much SUVs run these days. A new Durango? The next one will have to be used ๐Ÿ™‚ We're on the lookout!

SLDS


I am not sure what kind of tow vehicle you are looking. These guys have a large variety of diesel trucks with an ever changing inventory.

I bought my dually from them. They are good honest used car salesman:)

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063697717254

playaboy
Explorer
Explorer
I am in Gringolandia (Lake Chapala). Lakeside is packed full of tourists. On Good Friday, the hot springs in San Juan Cosala were full, most restaurants were full, the Malecon in Jocotepec was almost overflowing yesterday with people. Traffic is backed up for miles to pass thru Ajijic (nice having a moto).

It is going to be a great weekend for tourist based businesses Lakeside.

Wm_Elliot
Explorer
Explorer
Puebla is busy. A few days ago we spoke with a National from DF - he laid my beliefs to rest that Nationals forsake the mountains for the coast on Semanta Santa. He said that money here is tight and many inland Nationals short of funds still travel but not to the beaches. Looking ahead to next week hotel availability still remains tight - Oaxaca hotels (the one I stay at) is mostly all booked through next week.
We encountered our first American yesterday. Still absolutely zero US or Canadian plated vehicles on the roads.

moisheh
Explorer
Explorer
This is the wrong time to buy a vehicle. Prices are slowly dropping due to lack of sales. Some mfrs. are starting the old rebate program. Funny how things can change so quickly

qtla9111
Nomad
Nomad
charlestonsouthern wrote:
Chris, I noticed on, I believe, your blog that you and Juan were thinking about shopping for another tow vehicle; good time to go shopping (with a wide selection) while on the US side of the border.


Surprising how much SUVs run these days. A new Durango? The next one will have to be used ๐Ÿ™‚ We're on the lookout!

SLDS
2005 Dodge Durango Hemi
2008 Funfinder 230DS
Living and Boondocking Mexico Blog

Talleyho69
Moderator
Moderator
But it can be difficult and very expensive to import them to Mexico!

This morning we went to our two grocery stores in Zihuatanejo for the weekly shopping. It's maid and gardener day so we leave the house. The stores were empty. Absolutely dead. The beach, so far this week has also been very quiet. If things are as in the past, the town will fill up tonight and tomorrow and it will be a normal Semana Santa. Time will tell.