Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - While Americans turned their clocks ahead for daylight-saving time on Sunday, March 11th this year, most of Mexico won't observe the time change until 2:00 am local time on Sunday, April 1st. So make a note if you'll be traveling to Mexico this March - there will be an extra hour difference in time.

Daylight Saving Time in Mexico

In most of Mexico, Daylight Saving Time is known as Horario de Verano (summer schedule.) Although the state of Sonora does not observe daylight saving time, it has been observed since 1996 throughout the rest of the country.

In 2010, the ten Mexican municipalities which share a border with the United States started to observe daylight saving time three weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. This change in daylight saving time observance was requested by local governments and political leaders to help facilitate commerce with the US.

The Congress of Mexico passed legislation in December 2009 which allowed these ten border cities to adopt a daylight saving time pattern consistent with the US.

Previously all of Mexico (with the exception of Sonora) began and ended daylight saving time at the same time. Industries such as transportation and banking were especially affected by the differences in the time. In some cases businesses had to open an hour early than usual to conduct business with US companies during the 3 weeks in March when the two countries were on different times.

Some smaller towns and villages surrounding these ten municipalities may unofficially follow the extended daylight saving time pattern.

Until April of 2010, the state of Nayarit was one hour earlier than Puerto Vallarta and the state of Jalisco. Before that, many tourist related businesses in Nayarit around Banderas Bay would set their clocks to Puerto Vallarta time to prevent confusion. On April 4, 2010, Nayarit initiated a 2 hour time change to coincide with Jalisco.

Therefore, in both states on April 1st, 2012, the clocks will be turned forward 1 hour from 2:00 am to 3:00 am. Daylight Saving Time will end on Sunday, October 28th.