What you need to know before traveling to BAJA
Is this the time for a vacation in Baja?
California’s governor says no, backed by local and state health officials who discourage nonessential travel and are alarmed by the continued spread of COVID-19 on both sides of the border.
But scores of Mexican hoteliers and travel industry workers, desperate for income and eager to explain new safety measures, say yes.
Check with the U.S. government, and the answer depends on which agency you ask – and whether you’re driving or flying.
Meanwhile, scores of hotels in Baja California have opened in recent weeks, betting that thousands of Americans are ready to head south. Airlines are adding Baja flights, too.
Baja California Sur’s governor, Carlos Mendoza Davis, said these reopening rules would stay in effect.
Baja California Sur includes Los Cabos, La Paz, Loreto and the southern portion of the Baja peninsula. The northern portion of the peninsula is the state of Baja California, which includes Tijuana, Ensenada and Mexicali.
WHAT U.S. AGENCIES SAY
If you’re flying from Los Angeles to Los Cabos, you’re defying the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warns “against nonessential international travel” because it “increases your chances of getting and spreading” COVID-19.
You’re also ignoring the U.S. State Department’s global health advisory, which advises U.S. citizens to “avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.”
But as long as you fly, you’re not breaking any laws. When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Mexico agreed in March to forbid nonessential travel across their borders, the ban included cars, commuter rail and ferry travel, but it left out travel by “air, rail or sea.”
U.S. and Mexican officials agreed recently to renew that pact through Aug. 20.
HOW MUCH IS REOPENING IN SOUTHERN BAJA
Since early June, 72 of 85 major hotels have opened in
Los Cabos, many promising stricter safety standards and more flexible reservations. Los Cabos Tourist Board’s managing director, Rodrigo Esponda, estimated that room prices are largely unchanged from pre-pandemic levels, with an average daily rate of about $300.
Government officials have urged people to wear cubrebocas in public areas. The Los Cabos Tourism Board said visitors should expect to answer a health questionnaire and have their temperature taken at the airport and at 22 local beaches where authorities say they are enforcing limits on crowding.
Though bars that don’t serve food are closed, Esponda said 16 of the area’s 18 golf courses and about 300 of its 2,000 restaurants are now open.
Hotels, allowed to rent up to 30% of their rooms, have already reached 20% occupancy, Esponda said, and roughly two of every five guests are from California.
Novel coronavirus infections, however, have increased in recent weeks. In municipalities outside Los Cabos, including La Paz, Comondú and Mulegé, authorities have closed beaches.
“It’s a very tricky situation, and we’re at the confluence of health and the economy,” said Bryan Jáuregui, who co-owns Los Colibris Casitas in the beach town of Todos Santos.
Jáuregui, whose guests in summer are mostly from Mexico, said she and others in the area have had dual missions: adding workplace health measures and helping local charities feed thousands of families in Los Cabos, Todos Santos and beyond whose tourism jobs have not yet returned.
HOW INFECTION RATES COMPARE
California has the worst rate of recent reported infections per capita, followed by Baja California Sur and then Baja California.
In the state of Baja California (the more populous northern half of the peninsula), a New York Times tally showed 12,053 reported cases and 2,397 deaths as of July 21, including 35 new cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days.
In Baja California Sur, the same count showed 3,217 cases and 118 deaths, including 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days.
Meanwhile, in California, the July 21 count showed 400,195 cases and 7,764 deaths, including 162 new cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days.
WHO IS FLYING BETWEEN LAX AND LOS CABOS
In April, just 1,200 international passengers arrived at Los Cabos airport, followed by 1,550 in May, by the count of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico. The number in June was 11,350 – well short of the 158,650 that arrived in June 2019, but rising fast.
By early July, Alaska, American and Delta were flying daily between LAX and Los Cabos. Alaska (which also flies to Los Cabos from San Jose and San Diego and from LAX to Loreto twice week
ly) in August plans to add a San Francisco-Los Cabos flight and a second LAXLos Cabos flight. United on Aug. 3 will start flying five times a week between Los Cabos and LAX, and also between Los Cabos and San Francisco.
RESTRICTIONS IN BAJA AND BAJA SUR
As in the U.S., health assessments and pandemic rules vary between states and within states and have changed frequently. However, 30% capacity limits are common in hotels and restaurants in both states. In Baja California state, which includes Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada and Guadalupe Valley wine country, higher rates of infection and death in the spring prompted tighter federal restrictions. In Ensenada, transit was limited and a curfew imposed.
On July 15, Rosarito officials announced that all municipal beaches would be closed on Saturdays and Sundays, with limited open hours on weekdays, until further notice.
“Different municipalities are doing different things,” said Shauna Hill, customer service manager at Baja Bound Mexican Insurance, which sells policies online to Americans driving across the border. Because things change so frequently, Hill suggested prospective visitors follow social media posts by local governments.
U.S.-BAJA CRUISES
Cruises won’t be happening this summer. The CDC has had a “no sail order” in effect in U.S. waters since March; it is expected to last at least through Sept. 30.
PEOPLE DRIVING ACROSS THE BORDER
U.S. Transportation Department statistics show that in May, more than 1 million vehicles crossed into the U.S. at San Ysidro. That’s less than half as many as in May 2019 but suggests that many binational commuters in San Diego and Tijuana have resumed their cross-border journeys. (The U.S. Transportation Department doesn’t count vehicles driving into Mexico.)
CRIME NUMBERS
By Mexican government count, Tijuana was the nation’s No. 1 homicide site in 2019. The city, with 1.3 million residents, saw more than 2,100 homicides last year. Los Angeles, with 4 million residents, had fewer than 300 last year. State-by-state homicide statistics for the first half of 2020 show Baja California Sur among those with the fewest killings and Baja California among those with the most.