Life in lockdown was fine at first, and he shared his time between working from home, exercising with his roommate, and watching everything on Netflix.
But as the coronavirus pandemic continued unabated, Rob George began to feel that the confinement in his West Hollywood home was unbearable.
“There were weeks when I just didn’t want to leave my house, I just worked all day and my mental health started to take its toll,” said George, 31, who runs the business of a tech startup.
So when a Mexican friend told him he would be traveling to Mexico City in November, George decided to join him. Now he decided to make the Mexican capital his home, and he is one of a growing number of foreigners, mostly Americans, who are fleeing confinement in their country and moving to the capital of Mexico for a short trip or longer stay. long.
They are drawn in part by the prospect of getting their lives back to normal in a place where the coronavirus restrictions were looser than at home, even as COVID-19 cases break records. Some of them have decided to stay, at least for a while, and take advantage of the six-month tourist visa granted to Americans upon arrival.
“I’m not interested in going back,” said George.
While coming to the country can be a relief for many foreigners, particularly those fleeing colder climates, some Mexicans consider these steps irresponsible in the midst of a pandemic, especially when the virus overwhelms Mexico City. and its hospitals. Others say the problem lies with the Mexican authorities, who have waited too long to implement strict containment measures, making places like Mexico City attractive to outsiders.
“If it were less attractive, people would come less,” said Xavier Tello, a health policy analyst in Mexico City. “But what we’re generating is a vicious circle where we receive potentially contagious or contaminated people from another place, and they keep mixing with the potentially contagious or contaminated people we have in Mexico City.”
According to official figures, more than half a million Americans arrived in Mexico in November; Of those, about 50,000 arrived at the Mexico City airport, less than half the number of US visitors who visited the country last November, but an increase from just 4,000 in April, when much of Mexico was closed. Since then, numbers have risen steadily, with US visitors more than doubling between June and August.
Most American visitors flew to seaside resorts such as Los Cabos and Cancun.
It is not clear how many are visiting and how many are planning to stay, even temporarily. Some may be Mexicans who have a US passport and are visiting relatives. But nowadays, walking the streets of the trendy areas of Mexico City can sometimes seem like English has become the official language.
“A lot of people come and visit to try and live here, or they just moved in,” said Cara Araneta, a former New Yorker who lived intermittently in Mexico City for two years and returned to the capital in June.
However, the increase in the number of foreigners comes as Mexico City entered a critical phase of the pandemic, hospitals are so crowded that many sick people stay at home while their families struggle to buy oxygen. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans not to travel to Mexico.
The capital’s health system “is actually already overwhelmed,” Tello said via a WhatsApp message. “The worst is yet to come”.
In mid-December, authorities raised Mexico City’s warning system to its highest level, red, requiring the immediate shutdown of all businesses except essential ones. But the shutdown came weeks after the numbers turned critical, even by the government’s own numbers, leaving shops full of Christmas shoppers and restaurants with dinner parties.
With its tree-lined streets and quaint cafes, the city’s exclusive Roma and Condesa neighborhoods attract expats who have spent years trying to escape skyrocketing rents in New York or Los Angeles. But with a growing number of young people working from home, the area known as the center of cool has become even more appealing, even as Mexico City residents face a public health crisis.
As is the case in much of the world, the richest are the least affected. In Roma Norte, the contrast was vivid: on a corner, working-class Mexicans queued for hours to buy oxygen tanks for family members sick at home from COVID-19 and, blocks away, people rich women lined up to buy croissants .
Mexico City isn’t the only Mexican destination to see an increase in foreign visitors, especially Americans, who are not allowed to travel to many countries due to the rise of the pandemic in their country. While some Latin American countries have closed their borders completely, Mexico has imposed few restrictions and was the third most visited country in 2020, compared to the seventh last year, according to the Mexican government, citing preliminary statistics from the World Tourism Organization.
Many of these trips have focused on the country’s popular health resorts, where the restrictions of the coronavirus can be relaxed even more. Los Cabos welcomed nearly 100,000 Americans arriving in November, while Cancun had 236,000 American visitors, just 18 percent less than in 2019. The nearby resort of Tulum made headlines with an arts and music festival in November, where hundreds of people danced without masks in underground caves.
Authorities in the capital have called on residents to avoid parties and gatherings, and even before the most recent shutdown, the government had limited dining options in restaurants and banned the sale of alcohol after 7 a.m. However, those measures were a far cry from those imposed in American cities like Los Angeles, where cookouts and all public gatherings were completely banned in late November.
“Even with the limitations here, I can work from a cafe, while maintaining social distance, and I feel like I’m not on a break, which was very helpful,” said George, who lived in Los Angeles.
Like most foreigners who come to Mexico, George said he was aware of the risks of traveling during the pandemic, so he takes precautions like wearing masks and washing his hands. But having some freedom, as well as the excitement of living in a new country, makes it worth the risk for many.
“I know people who have lived in fear for the past year without leaving their homes and who have lost their jobs,” said Alexander Vignogna, 33, who visited Mexico City in October and plans to move full-time with his partner . , in January. “But instead of doing something cool and adventurous like my girlfriend and I, they just stayed home depressed.”
That laissez faire attitude of outsiders has angered many residents, both Mexican and foreign.
“Tourists (mostly from the United States, it seems) have come to Mexico to escape the restrictions imposed in their home state,” said Lauren Cocking, 26, a British blogger who has lived in Mexico for about five years. in an email.
“They seem to see Mexico as a kind of lawless and adventurous country, where they can escape the need to wear masks or stay at home.”
Others say the influx of foreigners is boosting Mexico City’s economy.
“What Mexico needs most is people to stimulate the economy,” said William Velázquez Yañez, 25, who worked as a parking assistant at an exclusive restaurant in Roma Norte before the latest shutdown was imposed.
Velázquez lost his job at the start of the pandemic, and although he was eventually recalled, his salary was cut and his health insurance was withdrawn. If more people eat out, your boss may start paying you more, he said.
But enjoying busy dining and other activities once considered normal carries its own risks.
Nicole Jodoin moved to Mexico City from Canada after finding a job in July. Her urge to move stems in part from the fact that, with the Canadian borders closed, she was estranged from her Scottish boyfriend. Mexico’s open borders and long tourist visas for Europeans made it possible for them to reunite.
But then she and her partner fell ill with COVID-19. They had been careful, Jodoin said, but they went out to dinner several times and took a few Uber’s before they got sick. The couple isolated and recovered, but Jodoin’s symptoms persisted.
Still, most foreigners say life in Mexico City is better than at home, even with the pandemic. Araneta, the former New Yorker, joined her family in San Diego in November, but found the United States challenging.
“It felt more isolated,” he said. “Many people are on their own.”