> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jacqualineroche.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Is Lo de Marcos Safe? An Honest Answer From Eight Years There - URL: https://www.jacqualineroche.com/is-lo-de-marcos-safe/ - Published: 2026-10-05T00:59:01.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-05T01:15:44.000Z - Description: For most visitors, on most days, yes. What the advisories and the numbers say about Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, what happened on this coast in 2026, and why living there is not the same as visiting. - Author: Jacqualine Roche - Tags: Mexico: Lo de Marcos, Personal Narrative Versión en español: [¿Es seguro Lo de Marcos? Una respuesta honesta tras ocho años allí](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/es/es-seguro-lo-de-marcos/) --- I lived in Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, for eight years. It is the question I am asked most often about the town, and it deserves a straight answer. **For most visitors, on most days, yes.** It is a quiet fishing town with a wide beach, and the great majority of people who go there have an uneventful stay. That answer needs two qualifications, and the rest of this page is about them. The first is that 2026 has included two days when this whole coast shut down. The second is that the risk to a visitor is not the same as the risk to someone who lives there, and I was the second kind. ## What governments say Lo de Marcos is in the municipality of Bahía de Banderas, in the far south of Nayarit, on the coast north of Puerto Vallarta. Travel advisories are written for whole states, so it helps to read what they say about this part of it. - **United States.** Nayarit is at Level 2, "exercise increased caution", in the advisory issued on 29 May 2026\. That is the same level as Mexico overall. The advisory puts no travel restrictions on US government staff in Nayarit, and it names Riviera Nayarit as unrestricted. Jalisco, next door, is at Level 3. - **Canada.** Canada advises against non-essential travel only to the strip of Nayarit within 20 kilometres of the borders with Sinaloa and Durango. That is the far north of the state. The coast around Lo de Marcos is outside it. - **Australia.** "Exercise a high degree of caution" for Mexico as a whole. Nayarit is not singled out for a higher level. - **New Zealand.** "Exercise increased caution", updated on 21 May 2026\. Nayarit is not listed separately. These change. Read the current advisory from your own government before you book, and again before you fly. ## What the numbers say In 2025 Nayarit recorded 193 homicides, a rate of 14.6 for every 100,000 people. That placed it twelfth of Mexico's 32 states and below the national rate of about 17.7\. For comparison, Sinaloa to the north was at 52, Colima at 81, and Yucatán, the lowest, at 1.4. The national victimisation survey gives a second picture. In 2025, 54.2 per cent of adults in Nayarit said they considered their state unsafe. Only 25.2 per cent said they felt unsafe in their own neighbourhood. The crime reported most often was extortion. The same survey found that 91.8 per cent of crimes in Nayarit were never reported or never investigated. That figure matters when reading the others. A place can look calm in the statistics partly because very little reaches them. I have written about why in [The Quiet Yes](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/the-quiet-yes/). ## Two days in 2026 On Sunday 22 February 2026, after the Mexican military killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Jalisco, the cartel answered with road blockades and burning vehicles across some twenty states. In Nayarit the governor declared a red alert. In Bahía de Banderas, vehicles were set alight on the main boulevard at Mezcales, and the disruption reached Bucerías, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Sayulita. La Jornada reported at least 19 vehicles burned in the municipality. Federal Highway 200, the coast road that passes Lo de Marcos, was blocked further north near Guayabitos, where tourists were stranded when the buses stopped. Flights at Puerto Vallarta were suspended. The United States Embassy told its citizens to shelter in place. Local reporting recorded no deaths or injuries in Bahía de Banderas. On 27 April 2026 it happened again on a smaller scale, after the arrest of a suspected cartel figure. The state government asked people to stay at home. In Bahía de Banderas, public transport stopped and Children's Day events were cancelled. I was not living there for either. I am describing them from published reports, not from memory. They were aimed at the state and at roads, not at visitors. But a visitor on the coast those days could not travel, and anyone due at the airport did not get there. ![Map of western Mexico showing the state of Nayarit between Sinaloa to the north and Jalisco to the south, with Lo de Marcos marked on the Pacific coast.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0f/36/0f366d92-2d67-4dcc-908c-1ccc861f3289/content/images/2026/10/nayarit-lo-de-marcos-map.png) Lo de Marcos, on the coast of Nayarit between Sinaloa and Jalisco. Map: Jacqualine Roche. Boundaries: Natural Earth. ## What I saw in eight years The quiet in Lo de Marcos is real. People greet each other by name. Children ride bikes on the cobblestones. Families gather in the plaza in the evening. I raised four children there for a time, and they were happy. The quiet is also kept. I have described how in [The Beach Town Where Silence Is the Cartel’s Best Weapon](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/the-beach-town-where-silence-is-the-cartels-best-weapon/). Towns like this one are more valuable calm than contested, and for the visitor that works as a kind of protection. Trouble that draws attention is bad for everyone's business. In eight years I did not see a tourist harmed. ## Why my experience was different What happened to me there was serious, and I have written about it across this site. It was not a visitor's experience, and I would be misleading you if I let it stand as one. I was not passing through. I lived there for years. For much of that time I was a woman alone with four children, without money, without Spanish, and without anyone at home who was looking for me. Later I was homeless there. Every one of those things changes the risk. A visitor arrives with a return ticket, a booking and people who expect to hear from them. The longer you stay, and the less you have, the more you depend on a place and the fewer ways you have to leave it. That is true of small towns everywhere. It is sharper in a town with rules no one says aloud. ## If you go This is what the advisories recommend, and I agree with all of it. - **Check the advisory** from your own government close to your travel date, and register your trip if your country offers that. - **Travel between towns in daylight.** Highway 200 is the only road along this coast. - **Know the numbers.** The emergency number in Mexico is 911\. Australians can reach the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on +61 2 6261 3305\. The New Zealand Embassy in Mexico City is on +52 55 5283 9460. - **Buy insurance that covers medical evacuation** and keep a few days' slack before any flight you cannot miss. - **If roads close, stay where you are.** On both days in 2026 the instruction from every authority was the same, and the blockades cleared. I would add one thing from my own experience. If something serious happens to you, report it early and keep reporting it. I waited, and waiting cost me the record. ## So, should you go? Yes. I still say yes. Go for the beach at dawn and the plaza at dusk. Go knowing that the calm is real and that it is also arranged. Check the advisory, keep your return ticket, and you are very likely to come home with nothing to report except that it was beautiful. I love the town and the people in it. That has not changed. --- ## Related reading - [The Beach Town Where Silence Is the Cartel’s Best Weapon](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/the-beach-town-where-silence-is-the-cartels-best-weapon/) - [The Quiet Yes](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/the-quiet-yes/) - [They Hide in the Shadows](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/they-hide-in-the-shadows/) - [What a Consulate Can and Cannot Do](https://www.jacqualineroche.com/what-a-consulate-can-and-cannot-do/) ## Sources - US Department of State, [Mexico Travel Advisory](https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories/mexico.html?ref=jacqualineroche.com), issued 29 May 2026. - Government of Canada, [Mexico travel advice](https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/mexico?ref=jacqualineroche.com). - Smartraveller, [Mexico](https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/americas/mexico?ref=jacqualineroche.com). - SafeTravel, [Mexico](https://safetravel.govt.nz/mexico?ref=jacqualineroche.com), updated 21 May 2026. - Latinometrics, [Mexico homicide rate by state](https://www.latinometrics.com/homicides/mexico?ref=jacqualineroche.com), 2025 figures. - INEGI, [ENVIPE 2025, Nayarit](https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/programas/envipe/2025/doc/envipe2025%5Fnay.pdf?ref=jacqualineroche.com). - La Jornada, [Nayarit se mantiene en Código Rojo](https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2026/02/23/estados/nayarit-bajo-codigo-rojo-continua-bloqueo-en-tramo-carretero-federal-200?ref=jacqualineroche.com), 23 February 2026. - Tribuna de la Bahía, [Narcobloqueos en el bulevar Riviera Nayarit](https://tribunadelabahia.com.mx/narcobloqueos-bulevar-riviera-nayarit-bahia-de-banderas-mezcales/?ref=jacqualineroche.com), 22 February 2026, and [Gobierno de Nayarit pide a la población resguardarse](https://tribunadelabahia.com.mx/nayarit-violencia-resguardarse-cancelan-eventos-bahia-banderas/?ref=jacqualineroche.com), 27 April 2026. - ABC News, [US embassy alerts Americans in Mexico to shelter in place](https://abcnews.com/GMA/Travel/us-embassy-alerts-americans-mexico-shelter-place/story?id=130409337&ref=jacqualineroche.com), 23 February 2026. - El Financiero, [24 horas bajo el fuego del CJNG en 20 estados de México](https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/estados/2026/02/22/domingo-violento-tras-operativo-en-jalisco-en-que-estados-se-reportan-narcobloqueos/?ref=jacqualineroche.com), 22 February 2026.