Cancun Today

St Cloud Times by Lisa Schwarz

The rules for fishing trips to Canada, beachcombing in Cancun and cruising the Caribbean change on Monday. Starting June 1, U.S. citizens returning from any foreign nation will need passports or other secure ID — passport cards, Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (which aren’t available in Minnesota) or “trusted traveler” cards — to cross back into the United States. The exceptions are few: travelers younger than 16, some cruises and some group travel.

Dallas News by Tom Parsons, BestFares.com

Travelers who want to go south of the border will find some great deals. The government has lifted its advisory against nonessential travel to Mexico, and it’s a good time for bargain hunters to visit.

We checked other Mexico air-hotel package prices, based on double occupancy, for travel in mid-July. Sample prices include $411 per person for travel to Puerto Vallarta with stays at the Fiesta Americana and $419 per person for travel to Cancún with stays at the Hilton Cancún Golf & Spa Resort. The above rates included all taxes and fees. Rates are typically cheapest for Monday through Thursday flights in both directions.

Armonia, Calle Quetzal number 4, in the hotel zone. Gabriela Ortiz opened this yoga center in October of 2004. Classes are offered mornings and evenings in exceptionally peaceful surroundings. The yoga salon looks out on Laguna Nichupté, and is situated directly behind the shops of Plaza Quetzal on Boulevard Kukulcan. Yoga classes for kids aged 5 to 9 are held on Wednesday afternoons. Armonia has an excellent supply of mats and support materials on hand. Telephone: 883 22 40.

Photograph by Anita Brown

By Chris Gray Faust, USA TODAY

In Cancun, most hotels and resorts are offering packages and deals to boost occupancy rates that dropped as low as 20% in early May. The bargains seem to be having an effect: The occupancy rate for Cancun’s hotel zone rose to 43% over Memorial Day weekend, but those numbers are still far from the 85% posted at the same time in 2008.

“Our main concern is to bring back the airlines,” says Jesus Almaguer, CEO of the Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau. While several American carriers cut their capacity, large European tour operators such as Thomas Cook canceled all trips until this past week — leading Cancun to lose an estimated $20 million every five days for much of May, Almaguer says.

Besides increasing airlift, the Cancun visitors bureau has been filming testimonials from visitors already in Mexico, hoping that word of mouth will entice last-minute summer bookings. Europeans have long booked holidays with little lead time; since the economic downturn last year, Americans and Canadians have adopted similar patterns, Almaguer says.

“We expect the numbers to get higher by July,” he says.

Go to original in USAToday.

We woke up to the bed shaking before dawn this morning and wondered WTF was happening. Now we know. An earthquake!

Powerful quake strikes off Honduras

Shacks collapse in Honduras and Belize. But no injuries are immediately reported. A tsunami warning is canceled.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A strong earthquake struck early today off the coast of Honduras, collapsing shacks in Honduras and Belize and sending people running into the streets in their pajamas as far away as Guatemala City. No injuries or deaths were immediately reported.

The magnitude-7.1 quake struck at 3:24 a.m. at the relatively shallow depth of 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo. The epicenter was 80 miles northeast of La Ceiba, Honduras, and 200 miles from the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Los Detenidos, Sergio Sony. Oil on canvas, .92 x 2.10.

Photography by Anita Brown

The Rincón del Arte Gallery is located in Plaza Kukulcán, at km. 13 of the hotel zone. One of its owners, Gerardo Escalante-Sosa, told me that the gallery is a collective and exhibits a roster of rotating artists. There are art shows with a portion of sales going to benefit various community groups throughout the year.

An exceptionally talented graffiti artist named Sergio Sony has various works on display. Originally from D.F., Sony now lives in Cancun, and is creating a set of murals for the plaza.

El Rincón del Arte is open daily from noon to 8 p.m.

Noted right wing savants such as Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann seem to think the White House inflamed the swine flu crisis in order to fast track Kathleen Sibelius for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Maybe they are on to something, but not in the way they think.

A lot of this just doesn’t seem to hang together very well. First of all, although travelers from Cancun (where I live) have been diagnosed with swine flu, there is one confirmed swine flu in Cancun. I will repeat that. There is exactly one confirmed swine flu in Cancun. One case. Is that just aporcalypto (as Mexicans are now calling it), or what? In fact, despite being called a pandemic, there really aren’t a lot of cases anywhere in the world, not even in Mexico City. So it would be understandable to wonder why total hazmat anti-terror precautions have been unleashed.

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By E. Eduardo Castillo, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY (AP)– A Foreign Relations Department official says Mexico will send a plane to China to bring back citizens after the Asian country quarantined more than 70 Mexican travelers in its fight against swine flu.