Vallarta Blog

Saturday February 2nd, from 10 am to 1 pm, there will be workshops and presentations in the general area of the Presedencia. There will also be workshops for children in the bandstand and a marathon in Boca. This sounds likely a really ineteresting, informative event for both children and adults alike to learn something new about this beautiful planet we live on!

2 February each year is World Wetlands Day. It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and made an encouraging beginning. Each year, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.

From pvscene.com

 Today January 30, Consejo de Promoción Turistica (CPTM www.cptm.com.mx ) was filming a promotional video on the malecón where the sculpture of the Alien Ladder is located.

The weather was playing games and decided to interrupt the filming by sending a few clouds in every here and then.

It was very windy too, so the model would have to adjust her hair all the time while the crew was telling her to leave her hair play with the wind

As if the crowds with cameras and video cams weren’t enough, people would take pictures from their balcony and cars!

While waiting for the weather to play the same game so the filming could continue, the model would pose a little for the crowds.

We don’t know how well the filming went, but we hope everything went ok and that we’ll see some great promotional videos of Vallarta soon!

Other:

The Gauntlet III
Get Out! Celebrities filming Vallarta Adventures
Puerto Vallarta Film Festival

THE father of a 19-year-old Selkirk man who died in mysterious circumstances in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last week said he’s not optimistic that information will emerge about the nature of his son’s fatality at the popular vacation destination.

Josh Iwasiuk was a guest at the Getaway Resort in the western Mexican city when he allegedly fell from the 10th floor of a resort building, according to reports given by hotel staff to Iwasiuk’s older brother, who was also in Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada said Tuesday they’re liaising with Mexican authorities about the investigation into the young man’s death. However, Jerry Iwasiuk expressed doubt it will explain the tragedy, adding the information released to the family has been extremely limited so far.

“We made some phone calls and I’ve been talking to (Foreign Affairs Canada) but you don’t get much out of them. All they say is the investigation is ongoing. But you don’t get any answers,” said the grieving father.

Twenty-eight-year-old Jerry Iwasiuk Jr. — Josh’s older brother — was also a guest at the resort and had last seen his sibling Saturday afternoon when the two were drinking at a hotel bar. Iwasiuk Jr. said that was before a hotel security member took him to a room he was sharing with his brother, where he fell asleep, intoxicated.

The next morning, after Iwasiuk Jr. awoke, hotel staff told him his brother was found dead on the ground 10 floors beneath their room’s balcony. It’s a claim Iwasiuk Jr. said he found dubious due to the chest-level height of the resort’s balconies and information relayed to the family by the Canadian consulate in Mexico that Josh’s only serious injury was trauma to the back of his head.

“I don’t think he fell by accident. The height of the railing on the balcony? I don’t see it. If somebody stumbled into it, you’d fall down, but you’d have to jump to get over it,” Iwasiuk Jr. told the Free Press Monday.

Iwasiuk Sr. said his son’s body will arrive back in Canada this Sunday and the family is considering having an independent autopsy done. A funeral is planned for next Tuesday.

“All the information we’ve got is very vague,” said Iwasiuk Sr. “I’m hoping his body comes back the way we said we want it to come back, and that it isn’t cremated.”

Christiane Theberge, president of the Association of Canadian Travel Agents, said the Iwasiuk family should be able to pressure the Canadian government into pressing the investigation forward on foreign soil. She said the country receives almost one million Canadian tourists per year, making it Canadians’ second-most popular foreign destination.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

I have read alot of comments lately about the drummers on Los Muertos beach. The following is one letter in particular that really shows how strongly many people feel about this issue.

I spent the last week on the Los Muertos beach with visiting family and everyone I noticed around me was appalled by the beach drumming. Not only are these drummers not musicians, what they seem to be doing is better thought of as noise pollution. I also witnessed many people getting up and leaving when the drummers showed up, myself and family included at times when we just couldn’t handle listening to their noise.

The drumming is really very loud; any conversation trying to be had is cut out by the noise they are creating. The drummers play in one spot and then move just a few feet down the beach and do it all over again, as a result the drumming isn’t a simple 5 minute performance it lasts for up to and hour in one area! Because it is so loud you can hear them start up down the beach, they will pass a location and continue to be heard well after they move away from it. 

It doesn’t seem to matter to them if the businesses on the beach have music going of their own, the drummers just play over top of it. I didn’t see them collect much of any money after their “performance”, more likely they were being paid to go away. Do they have/need a license to be playing on the beach and asking money for it???

There is usually from 8 to 10 younger guys making “music”, and it definitely isn’t the same people everyday, more like a rotating group of  dirty looking drifters to lazy to get a real job. Sometimes the drummers bring with them “dancing girls” ie. their girl friends, also to lazy to get real jobs, this dancing isn’t good, its not special and its not like these girls have got any special training to do this, more likely they  “practice” at night in the bars spending their “hard” earned money! Not only do their girlfriends dance but they also go around trying to sell their “jewelry” which looks like they just collected stuff off the beach and strung it together, I know they don’t have a license to be selling their crafts. All the vendors on the beach need to have a license to be down there selling their wares and they all pay good money for that license, how come these so called musicians and their girlfriends are not included in that licensing program and policing of it?

I know this letter sounds a bit harsh but many people find the allowance of these so called musicians to perform on Los Muertos extremely irritating, me among them. I was just so put off spending time with my family who are paying good money to be on vacation on the most popular beach in Vallarta, having to put up with such an annoyance of loud, non musical, lazy people disrupting their quite leisure time and trying to get money from them for nothing. By the way, they like to call their “music” African Mexican sound, I heard many people saying what??? It is just a bunch of drums banging away; just because you can play a drum beat doesn’t make it music!!

Need a Bathroom?

At Los Mangos Library (Near Versalles and Soriana) 
26 and 27 of January
from 9:00 to 16:00

Entrance fee $20 pesos

Vallarta is a love place. If you can’t find your love here, I don’t think you’ll find it anywhere else. Love Dramas have taken place here since the Night of the Iguana was filmed here and now… love repeats.

Here’s what we found on mtvrealityworld.com
— 

“I want to thank MTV for introducing me to Jillian,” Frank said playfully in an interview with MTV Reality World (that’s us!).

The pair hit it off right away as filming for The Gauntlet III began in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. “And it’s not like it was slim pickings,” Jillian added, referring to the group of attractive male castmembers. “Frank made me laugh. With all of the stress, it was nice to have comic relief.”

But Frank wasn’t the only one who had his sights on Jillian. “On the first day, one of the other girls went up to Jillian and said that Brad thought she was cute and was interested in her,” he recalled. “It’s basically like high school crammed into thirty days.”

MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenges have been booze and drama-filled for as long as they’ve been on the air, fueling hook-ups and brawls between castmembers. But this season is already being billed as one of the craziest and most eventful yet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Click play to listen to the live Vallarta Radio Stream 

Update:
To suggest a song, contact us at vallartablog@hotmail.com
or add us to msn

Believe it or not, but this blog was entirely created by the guy in the picture. We thank you! He said his name was Guebmaster and that he would do us a little favor by creating this site if we gave him some food. We can recomend him to you if you are ready to give away 20 liters of coffee, 1Kg of chocolate and he really likes brownies!

He’s a mellow guy, and aslong as you keep the coffee and chocolate coming he will code on your keyboard until it melts!

February 26 to the 3rd of March 2008 are the dates for the 2nd Vallarta Wine Fest. The Festival organizing committee said the first fest (2007) was such a success there was no doubts in holding a 2nd. 17 wine aficionados held courses and lectures concerning wine, Mexican wine and that of many different countries.

This year there were 14 hotels and restaurants that participated in the event and every one of them stated that the attendance was fantastic, encouraging them to put their names on the list for a 2nd Wine Fest.

“An exciting option for tourists that not only want sunshine and sand , the Fest offers cultural interest for people vacationing here on those days and for the citizens of Vallarta”, stated the organizer Nacho Cadena.

For the 2nd wine festival, a guest country will be adding their help to bring more culture to the interesting and diverse schedule. Not only about wine, the outside influence of another country will add flavor to complementary entertainment, Vallarta’s Department of culture will oversee a few short films having to do with the main theme.

With wine being a year round interest for many, the committee is putting together a series of events to be held at different times in the year, the first of which was a wine seminar scheduled August 29th through 31st. 3 hours per day of curricular value, featured wine testing and theory available to anyone who holds an interest in learning more about wine.

Info at:
VallartaWineFest.com

 From the New York Times
By BONNIE TSUI

BEYOND the sunbathers, cervezas and spring break debauchery so conspicuously on display in Cancún and Cozumel, Mexico offers a lesser-known adventure experience — the kind that is found deep in the jungle or near small fishing villages and offshore reefs.

The same country that possesses one of the world’s most polluted capital cities also ranks as one of the richest in species diversity. Twenty-two biosphere reserves and nearly 50 national parks offer hiking and wildlife-watching opportunities; mountain chains and interior canyons are chockfull of biking trails; fertile warm-water upwellings attract pods of whales and glittering fish.

Adventurous tourists — particularly those focused on a specific outdoor sport or activity — have much to discover along the coast and on the country’s ruggedly varied interior terrain.

Almost by definition, some of these unexplored gems are in remote areas, so travelers will need to be vigilant about safety. That’s where knowledgeable outfitters are key — they can take you to little-touristed places where you’ll feel comfortable exploring the backcountry forests and secluded beaches that you might not visit alone. Regions like Chiapas and Oaxaca, while still extricating their reputations from recent political unrest, have become more stable. Before you book, consult the United States State Department (www.travel.state.gov) for travel advisories.

SURFING SAYULITA
Surfers have been crossing the border to ride waves along Mexico’s Pacific coast for decades, and this small coastal fishing village 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta has lately achieved the perfect mix of lively beachfront bars, surf camps and terra-cotta architectural charm — all, most importantly, with easy access to numerous breaks ideal for beginners and for intermediates looking to sharpen their technique. Advanced riders might head south to the body-wrecking barrels at Puerto Escondido, but the rest of us mere mortals will be content to spend a week or two skimming the waves there.

An easy right break on Sayulita’s bay, just off a curving white-sand stretch of town beach, is where longboarders spend most of their time; if those waves get too big, beginners can always move down the beach and find smaller ones. A faster left break caters to speedy shortboarders. In 2006, the Access Trips adventure travel company started a small-group surf itinerary to Sayulita and its surrounding breaks, joining the pioneering Las Olas Surf Safaris (www.surflasolas.com), which runs surf camps for women, and several others. The special flavor of the village, says Alain Chuard, co-owner of Access Trips, comes from its friendly and eclectic population (local fishermen, hippies, expatriates) and the town’s careful control over development (there are no big hotels or big chain stores here, whereas Wal-Mart has landed in Puerto Vallarta).

Most everything in Sayulita is within walking distance, from the beach to the grocery stores and cafes in the village center to the surrounding jungle. The village might not be a secret anymore, but it’s far from being overrun by tourists. Beaches are rarely crowded, a one-bedroom villa at Villa Amor, the luxury hotel in town, starts at $90 a night, and foreign travelers tend to be in their 20s and 30s.

Access Trips’ seven-day surf safaris are led by a local surfer, Javier Chavez, and a core team of instructors. The student-to-teacher ratio is capped at an intimate 4 to 1, and all trip leaders are locals. Days are spent surfing the bay and visiting other secluded surf spots north and south of Sayulita that are accessible only by boat. In the winter, humpback whales cruising by the bay are a bonus. Surfers stay in newly built bungalows with ocean views just up the hill from town, and morning yoga sessions in a private studio help ease the muscle pain left by consecutive pop-ups on the surfboard. Lunch might be grilled shrimp on the beach, and there are plenty of other outdoor activities, including guided jungle treks, mountain biking and trips to hot springs.

 Access Trips, (650) 492-4778); www.accesstrips.com; seven-day surf adventures from $1,885, including lodging, instruction, all breakfasts, a lunch and two dinners, yoga and transportation, including airport transfers; November through May.

How many of you are seeing huge increases in your electric bill. Ours has more than doubled, as have those of friends that we’ve chatted with. We have had the dubious distinction of being placed in the DAC tariff category.

CFE, the Mexican Electric Company calls this the Domésticas de Alto Consumo. I call it the Domestico Alto de una Cueva, or Living Higher than in a cave.

We are pretty conscientious about turning off our lights, cook with gas, heat our water with gas, and we don’t use air-conditioning much at all since the rates were so high.

We do use our computer, and watch occasional TV, and, yes, we are guilty of converting from and ice chest to a refrigerator. (I did give up my electric razor though.) Oh, yea, we even use those energy-efficient light bulbs.

What does CFE expect from us? I’m thinking about buying hillside property. Perhaps remote enough, I can even get it cheap enough with a view of the city lights, a nice place to build our cave and enjoy looking at the skyscrapers lights go out one by one.

When the basic expenses of living become so high here, will the peso suffer another hit for inflation? In the meantime, I’m investing in hillside property.

source: Dan Russel

Vallarta Adventures’ Blog (vallarta-adventures.com/blog) posts say that the 8th season of the popular  HDNET show Get Out! (getoutshow.com) will be entirely filmed in Mexico.

Vallarta Adventures will film two episodes with the Get Out! Show on its Outdoor Adventures, Las Caletas, Jungle Survival, Americas Cup Sailing and many more tours.

Lindsay (Get Out! Host) and the owner of the HD Republic production company said that they were very impressed by Vallarta Adventures professionalism and its capacitated guides. Both of them have enjoyed several different tours and adventures around the world and they said that Vallarta Adventures’ guides are the best they have ever seen.

Vallarta Adventures has been the most popular tour company in Mexico and it’s no surprise that more and more TV shows want to participate and enjoy the services of Vallarta Adventures. Vallarta Adventures has appeared in several public News and Shows like: National Geographic, Hello!, MTV, Televisa, Travel Channel, Frommer’s’, BBC, Discovery Channel, CNN, ESPN, E! Entertainment Television, NBC, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and many more.

If you are a television or media related program, Vallarta Adventures welcomes you to experience the best adventure you have ever imagined. Vallarta Adventures will take great care of you!

Contact  marketing@vallarta-adventures.com

Waiting at the Marina

Our adventure was about to start with our arrival at the Marina. There wasn’t any cruise ships in sight which made the Marina look a little bit smaller than usual when it’s filled with two or three enormous cruise ships.

There is some pleasant entertainment after you check into the waiting area from where you are then led to the Vallarta Adventures boats. There is a mime/clown for some healthy laughs and guacamayas (parrots) to take pictures of.

Trip to Caletas

The boats can carry between 50 and 100 passengers and we were lucky to get the smaller boat with less than 50 passengers which makes it more comfortable to walk, see and enjoy the boat.

Our trip started at 6:30pm, right in time for the sunset and a beautiful photographic ocean-view.

On the way, there is a free bar and party music entertaining the passengers.

The ambient is happy and everywhere you look you see people talking, dancing and laughing together with the willing boat crew.

Arrival at Las Caletas

20 minutes before arrival at Las Caletas, there is a funny show starring the crew in a “almost” real strip dance. The sun is completely gone and left is only the black sky with little bright dots that become clearer with every wave we approach to the beach. As we get closer to the beach the torches seem brighter, illuminating every path at Las Caletas.

We go pair wise along the paths passing a few scenarios where we can see actors dressed as Indians performing mystical ceremonies and rituals.

The sound of drums and other instruments gets louder the deeper we walk into the jungle. It is amazing how wonderfully nice structured and decorated the place is.

The Scenery could be described as if it was a mixture of an untouched natural world with the architectural work of mankind.

Also impressive is that almost everything besides the food and people is made out of stones, ropes and wood. After a few meters walk, the line of visitors is split in two, one to go to the buffet and the other to go view the show.

We managed to sneak into the buffet line, since we wouldn’t want to see the show with an empty tummy.

Buffet

Everybody gets a unique table spot and there are special ones extra for couples located along the beach. Some are only a few inches distance from the water.

Drinks are served immediately from waiters keeping an eye on our needs and wishes. The buffet is nicely illuminated with candles that are sitting aside every food plate. It is a little hard to recognize everything on the buffet but don’t worry, there is no way to choose wrong because all the food is deliciously prepared by excellent gourmet cooks.

These are the moments you wish for more space in your tummy and lets you turn over in your bed, thinking about every single plate of food you didn’t try. One of Vallarta Adventures’ staff went through every table asking for feedback and making sure everything was fine.

You can see people that have fallen under the magical Caletas spell chitchatting with the crew and other staff members about how wonderful Caletas is. After a few glasses of wine and a full plate of exquisite food, we were advised to go to the show located deeper inside the area.

Show

The show starts by seating everybody on benches up a hill like if it was a theatre play just before all lights go of and the crowd is surrounded by total darkness. Now we become aware of the benefits of an open-air show.

The stars are as bright as stars can get and the hidden speakers start playing drum rhythms. Then color starts appearing on stage. First red, then green and violet playing synchronized with the actors and music.

Fire, smoke and drum beats stimulate all our senses, pushing our heart beat faster. The show takes about 20-30 minutes being perfect timing for our bum sitting on the wooden benches. After the show finalizes with an impressive act, everybody is getting ready to go back to the boat and head back to Puerto Vallarta.

Way Home

On our way to the boat you can hear people say things like “I want to stay here”, and staff people replying “Stay here, we’ll come and pick you up tomorrow”.

Everybody is back on the boat and believe it or not but with all the different kinds of alcoholic drinks we had, the boat didn’t seem to move more at all.

Here and there you can see people getting very tired, embracing each other or leaning on some body’s shoulder for a nap.

There isn’t as much party on the way back, which is good because it let’s you enjoy the rest of the night and some people can continue fantasizing about all that food and drinks they didn’t try.

By the way, if you are going to drink more than one cup of any alcoholic drink on the boat, you should stick to the beer. All our drinks were prepared and served in front of us at the bar, and you can see the rum is poured out of a Bacardi bottle, which we now know wasn’t Bacardi.

Just thinking about the different drinks we tried makes everything spin again and the truth is that we have never drank that little and gotten so drunk. 24 hours later our heads still hurt like hell, but it still was a five star experience that we would repeat any time (but only beers).

Last Words

Rhythms of the Night is a MUST SEE. There is no arguing, anybody coming to Vallarta with a good taste in food and scenery, will love this tour. We haven’t tried out many other tours offered by Vallarta Adventures, but we believe that this is probably the best one.

You won’t read about it in any English language papers or websites. It’s bad for business. Our English-language “news”papers cover the news that’s really important: what restaurants have opened, what events are happening this weekend. Pet picnic? check. Art walk? Check. Dead divers? Lo siento, no puedo escribir en ingles!

Uzueta Diving, a new company here in Puerto Vallarta took out a large group of divers for an advanced diving course, deep diving. There were 20 divers in groups of five and they were diving in the Devil’s Canyon, a spot at Los Arcos for beautiful wall diving. It drops to 6,500 feet and is like looking into outer space. They dropped anchor nearby (illegal in Los Arcos, btw, but everyone does it) and used a line to keep the divers together. Four divers got separated.

One diver was found and taken to the hyperbaric chamber for decompression sickness and three others were lost until their bodies were found (and photos posted in the local Spanish papers). It’s thought that they lost their line in the current and then began to feel the effects of nitrogen narcosis. Reports have them going anywhere from 150-250 feet down and most likely either suffering from oxygen toxicity or running out of air.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve gathered from reading the local Spanish papers and talking to some of the local divers. It’s very, very sad.

source: divebunny.org

Here is a link to the spanish speaking UNIVERSAL News writing about the incident.
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/464868.html

—

UPDATE:

Here some links to the issue:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/212062-3-missing-deep-dive-incident-mexico.html

On another issue in Cancun, Mexico:

Tourist missing after dive in Mexico

January 02, 2008
Authorities were searching yesterday for a Japanese tourist who went missing on Sunday when she was scuba diving off the Mexican resort island of Cozumel.

The Fine Dining Experience… just at Café des Artistes. Visit their Website here at www.cafedesartistes.com 

Vallarta is growing so fast, that the artistc scene grows with it and there can be found art just everywhere the eye reaches… even the sand is formed into beautiful sculptures, like this Pyramid and Iguana.