Corona Virus - Sayulita April 8, 2020

Things here are getting a little more intense in the effort to limit the spread of the Corona Virus.  Many of the coastal communities have taken to shutting down non-essential traffic entering their towns and Sayulita is done the same.  Check points are now set up at the front end and back end of town.  These check points turned away hundreds of vehicles during just the first day of the two week Semana Santa holiday.  The news about the situation was clear in advance.  Do not come here or anywhere along the coast thinking this will be your refuge. Stay home.  People still just figured they would show up anyway and are sent packing.  The videos of traffic leaving places like Guadalajara were surprising and concerning.  Where were all these people going when everything is shut down?

Check point entering Nayarit from Jalisco

Check points have been set up at the border of Nayarit/Jalisco as well and any tourist traffic traveling north along the coast to destinations like Guadalajara has been routed east through Mascota avoiding Nayarit.  Similar procedures have been set up for those traveling from the north towards PuertoVallarta and are being turned away.  Much of this traffic is from Guadalajara.  Puerto Vallarta's famous Malecon is even shut down, patrolled and barricaded.  No, do not come here.

Sayulita residents received car windshield stickers identifying the car as a "local" and cars entering town with the sticker do not have to wait long in any check point lines entering town.  This has become a challenge for anyone who works in town but lives in other communities as they have to prove why they need to enter town.  Many houses are left empty as the tourist traffic is gone and many owners are from other places. The check points are a round the clock operation and we are thankful for the volunteers organizing this and have donated to the efforts to secure the town.

Our "official" car sticker designating us a residents of Sayulita

Liquor stores are officially shut down until the end of the month.  This includes beer and liquor sales in grocery stores too.  The most popular surf breaks and beach access points are now being patrolled along the coast.  Only a few surfers are using the break in Sayulita.  They get chased off occasionally but seem to reappear once the beach patrols leave the area.  Sad to see the they think they are the exception to the effort and take advantage of an empty line up.  Most everyone has stayed away which is still encouraging considering this is a surf town and being in or on the water is part of the lifestyle for so many.

The BIG news came in yesterday.  There will be a mandatory total town lockdown for 5 days.  This means that there will be no one in and no one out.  All the streets will be washed during this time.  This will be during what normally would be the busiest weekend of the year for beach goers.  Ashley went off to be sure we had a few things in the house for the town being isolated into next week.  No big grocery store runs.  Our shelves are in good shape and we have not gone anywhere for pretty much three weeks anyway.  A mandatory town shut down will not effect us all that much.

State police keeping an eye on things at the highway 200 turn off to Sayulita.

Alex and Trace are officially on school vacation so there are no assignments to keep up with.  Alex' Chemistry class continues though.  This unfortunate situation has given her some time to catch up with her online class curriculum.  Hopefully she will complete a big chunk of the class with few other distractions but I am not betting on it.  Ashley is awaiting her confirmation from Delta Airline about taking a month's leave.  If approved she won't have to go back to the US until June.  That information won't be announced for almost another week so we will wait on that for now.

Empty Sayulita Streets

If you are interested in reading more then click on this link for Sayulita Life's El Sayulero Newsletter dated April 8th.  It talks about all things Sayulita during this time and might provide some additional color and details to what I have mentioned above.  All fine from here for now.  Just long days with few outlets but that seems to be the case for just about everyone out there in the world.

Quiet Sayulita morning with coffee.