Tranquilidad AntiZIHpada

How about a current covid case report?

Well, since you asked so nicely...

Predictably numbers are going down because of less testing, while local deaths keep going up about a couple a day for the past month so, though Saturday there were 3 and Sunday there were 4, half of what the number of deaths was the previous weekend. Two of the deaths from Covid-19 during the past week were 13- and 14-year old children. Zihuatanejo currently registers 209 active cases of Covid-19, La Unión 13 and Petatlán 23. Again, I suspect these numbers are only about a third of actual cases.

The worst part about what's happening at the hospital is they do not have the supplies they need. Family members have to even buy the syringes their loved ones need to receive medicines that they also have to somehow locate and purchase. Frankly it's quite an unacceptable situation, but to our presidente municipal and gobernador the so-called remodelación of Paseo del Pescador was more important than the health and lives of the citizens in our region.

What is AlBlueFlag?

"No Al Blue Flag" is Spanish for "No to the Blue Flag". The Blue Flag is a designation used mostly by European travel agents to designate a beach as "clean" according to their standards. Several of the "rules" go against local customs and practices, and basically the result is it keeps poorer locals and visitors off these pseudo "exclusive" beaches as well as bans all pets, bonfires, cookouts or any glass containers such as a mayonnaise or mustard jars for making sandwiches for the family, or bottles of wine, beer or liquor in your cooler. The local government has been abusing the conditions of the pandemia to ban all foodstuffs, chairs and umbrellas from beaches, trying to force beachgoers to use beachfront restaurants or hotel installations, essentially banning poorer local families from Blue Flag beaches by making them feel unwelcome.

Europeans make up such a minor percentage of our tourists that there is no real justification for this designation. U.S. and Canadian tourists, who along with Mexicans make up the overwhelming majority of our tourists, have mostly never even heard of "certified clean beaches" or "Blue Flag beaches". It is a meaningless designation to them, and frankly as a local and pet lover I'd rather that people who refuse to go to beaches where people can take their pets went elsewhere instead of ruining the beach experience for locals and chasing away visitors who travel with their pets.

To date after over 10 years of Blue Flag in Ixtapa's Playa El Palmar I've not been able to confirm that Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa has received one single additional tourist due to any local Blue Flag designation, but I have documented a considerable number of people whom we have lost as visitors owing to the rules of the Blue Flag designation, some who were local property owners who sold and moved away, some who were yearly visitors who now go elsewhere, and many others simply inquiring before coming who decided not to come because they wanted to travel with their family pet. I believe we can keep our beaches clean and inviting without ruining the experience for anyone or running off tourists or locals.

We don't need outsiders telling us how to manage our beaches, and even less just so local politicians can pay political favors.