Sunday, March 8, 2026

MEXICO: Guadalajara Lockdown

On Sunday Feb 22nd, 2026 we were having a “work day” in the apartment and working hard planning, blogging, doing paperwork, booking etc.

We were totally oblivious to what was going on outside until our AirBnb landlady sent us a message and suggested that we stay in.

Then we realized there was silence outside.

The streets were empty. Zero cars and zero pedestrians. It was eerily silent.

 

It turns out there was a little excitement in the state of Jalisco. As a matter of fact, throughout Mexico.

There was a Mexican military operation in the nearby town of Tapalpa that resulted in the death of the leader of one of the cartels. In response, cartel members launched widespread retaliatory attacks. People were told to shelter in place. 

We quickly looked for a recent photo of us together and posted on FB and Instagram that we were safe and sound.


The next day we hunkered down again in our apartment. It was another day of complete silence outside. We posted a selfie on FB and Instagram that we were safe.


By Tuesday shelter in place warnings had been lifted and there was traffic and pedestrians. We ventured ½ block to go to John’s favourite coffee shop and took a selfie to post.


By Wednesday we ventured to the grocery store. When we got back we posted another selfie.

By Thursday everything was life as usual. We walked into the centro and the city had not missed a beat. We posted our last day of selfies to show that our world was back to “normal”.







John and I are not into selfies, but, it did give us an opportunity to work on our skills. We did have a lot of “out takes” that went into the delete pile.


We felt very fortunate to have a nice bright Airbnb with a rooftop patio to hunker down in and that we had a fridge with (limited) food. 

Bottom line, we never felt frightened or unsafe. 

Last but not least, many thanks to those people that reached out to check in on us. Your concern was appreciated. 

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