Starting in April, visitors to Sayulita won’t have to worry about missing their flights or being late for appointments because the time changes between here and Puerto Vallarta. According to an official decree posted on the Mexican Federal Government’s website last month, Bahia de Banderas county will switch from Mountain time to Central Time on the first Sunday in April of this year, when the switch to Daylight Savings Time is made.

The affected communities include Sayulita, Lo de Marcos, San Pancho, Bucerias and Mescales.

According to local officials and information posted on the government’s website, the change was made for economic reasons, due to problems related to missed flights and also with how the time change affects Mexican banks.

This means when the time comes to “spring forward” - or move clocks one hour ahead, local residents will change their clocks 2 hours ahead; this will put us in the same time zone as Puerto Vallarta.

El Sayulero spoke with several affected local businesses, and found few residents were aware the change is happening, although they were unanimously happy that it would.

Betsy Arteaga is a manager at hotel Villa Amor in Sayulita. While she hadn’t heard about the time change, she said it’s a very positive move, as it is currently necessary to explain to all guests arriving by plane that there is a time change between PV and here, which is confusing – guests often arrive at a different time than they expect because they don’t realize the change happens. Also, visitors who book excursions in PV (canopy tours, zip lines, etc.) while they are here sometimes miss their tours because they arrive an hour late.

“I live in PV and it’s also very confusing for me,” added Arteaga.

Jesus “Chui” Camarena is a driver for Sayulita Transportation Services, a local business that shuttles visitors to and from the PV airport.

Camarena said that if drivers forget to tell visitors at drop off time that they must add an hour to their return trip to the airport, they often get confused and arrive late for their flight home.

“Normally, they are supposed to put two hours in front of their flight,” he said. “I explain this when I drop them off.”

He added the change won’t just benefit tourists. Many local residents who live in this time zone but work in PV, or vice versa, usually have to pick one time zone and live by it, including construction workers and those who work in tourism. This normally means ignoring the time where you live in favor of the time where you work. That won’t be a problem anymore starting in April.

“For this kind of work it will be less confusing,” said Camarena.