Well, I know it is almost August but here I am talking about July anyway. It has been a good and interesting month. Cancun is back up to about 85% occupancy with the highest occupancy being downtown. Half of the flights in are domestic flights and the Cancun airport reports June international arrivals down 31.31% so that is good news and bad news.

Domestic tourism is different than international tourism. First of all about 50% of the domestic visitors to Cancun do NOT stay in hotels. They stay with family and friends. They do help local restaurant business though and then there are Cancun people who do “staycations” also and just hang around town and the beaches here which are absolutely crammed with people these days. This is the time of year referred to as “Paisa-break” when instead of Spring or Summer breakers, Cancun fills up with paisanos.

For those who may remember 10 or so years ago when Americans hadn’t yet heard of all inclusive or Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya was still called the “corredor turístico”, the newest group heading to the Riviera Maya is now the domestic tourist–especially now with the big 1,000+-room hotels running big specials to fill up the empty rooms left by the international tourists who aren’t arriving. One week at a luxury Riviera Maya hotel per person airfare included from Monterrey, NL Mexico is $13,000 pesos or about $1000 usd.

Rain has been scarce, the kids out of school and the sun hot so beaches have been full. Malls, discos and streets are all getting back into the habit of having people walking around in them. Special discounts for hotels and airlines are continuing even more for the slower months of September and October so take advantage and head on down.

I am harvesting fresh white corn, all kinds of chili peppers, cilantro, zuchinni, radishes, green beans and nopal out at the ranch. I have also started working on the little artificial pond I have to get it ready for my experiment with growing tilapia. Work is plentiful and satisfying. I feel great after losing over 35 pounds. I live in Cancun and life is good.