Vallarta Blog

Finaly! A dear friend, Carlos Juvera, has published his discontinued magazine again: Paradise Magazine. It is a free modern magazine about Mexican culture, cuisine, beaches, beauty, nature, art, history and so much more.

The independent magazine focuses on many things, places and stuff that you don’t find in many magazines circulating the Bay of Banderas. Even though it’s focused mainly on Puerto Vallarta and its surroundings, it is about Paradise in Mexico. The official website can be found at www.paradisemagazine.net and to read the full online version you can click here.

We wish him and his magazine the best and hope that it will stay around for a very long time.

Just a few minutes to the south of Puerto Vallarta you will find desert beaches, tiny villages and tons of untouched tropical nature. In the picture below you can see a panorama of Yelapa, a tiny fishing village.

Next picture shows Los Arcos, a popular snorkeling area with Puerto Vallarta in the background.

And the beautiful view of a tiny part of the Cabo Corrientes area.

1 out of 21 anti-addiction units for Vallarta

Each unit will have the cost of 1 million 613 thousand 329 pesos and 12 ½  centavos. There will be 2 in Guadalajara, Tonalá and Zapopan. Others are Colotlán, Lagos de Moreno, Tepatitlán de Morelos, Arandas, Ococtlán, Tamazula de Gordiano, Zapotlán El Grande, Puerto Vallarta, Mascota, Ameca, Tlaquepaque, Tlajomulco de Zuniga. This will improve the availability of these services with quality and opportunity.

Colonia 5 de Diciembre: Tortured, Killed, Burned

Yesterday 12th of August at 4:40 am, police found a male (25) body on fire at Privada Brasilia street near Libramiento. The body was thrown on to the street by unknown people who lit him up using some sort of gasoline to accelerate the burning process. The body had signs of torture and 2 bullet wounds in the head. There was no evidence of violence at the scene and no conclusions have been made so far.

Coming true: Nayarit will have its own Airport

For a long time Nayarit has been thinking about constructing an Airport to be able to bring more tourism up north of Vallarta and soon it will come true. There are many projects going on with the focus on better connectivity between Cities in Jalisco. Also planned is the construction of a highway from Guadalajara through Nayarit to Puerto Vallarta which will be of great benefit to many businesses and people.

25 gallons of diesel leaked in Marina Vallarta

The Navy, supported by the local Fire Department and Civil Protection, was forced to implement an operation in the morning of the 13th to prevent damage. The diesel was recovered at 9:30 am. Where the gasoline came from is unknown, but it is thought that it could have come from a construction site or the golfing area. The captain of the Marina said that this is not an uncommon problem here and other Marinas.

No work for people with AIDS

The organization Vallarta Contra el Sida (Vallarta against AIDS) is accusing various businesses in Vallarta of giving out jobs only to those who have no AIDS. They are pointing out that it is discriminative and a violation of human rights what is happening in the restaurant area. The AIDS test is required to obtain a job in many places because businesses are afraid and or misinformed about the risks and facts of AIDS. Vallarta Contra el Sida will start a campaign of orientation to help people that are affected in their rights as well as there will be classes for businesses to explain everything related to AIDS.

Clean Vs. Dirty Beaches

Boca de Tomatlan shows 1,800 enterococci but nothing to be worried about. The rain can be problematic sometimes; it comes with a lot of dirt and waste, which causes the measurements to vary significantly. Besides Boca, all other beaches are said to be good for recreational use.

Recycling in Vallarta, Jalisco

We’re just a few weeks away from a new law that will make it obligatory for everybody in Jalisco to separate the garbage. The mayor of Vallarta said that it is something that the people and culture, will have to learn to change. We know we have to and we’re going to work in that aspect.

Ujena Bikini Jam coming up

From the 22nd to the 31st of August, we will be seeing over 250 models, photographers, stylists and many more running around PV creating thousands of high quality photos, profiles and portfolios. Not to forget the amount of publicity Ujena Swimwear is getting from the Talent Shows. There will be Workshops to learn the most important aspects in photography, modelling and makeup, as well as parties, competitions and a lot of fun. Also: Prices with a value of $250,000 usd in cash, contracts & awards. Go to: the official Ujena Bikini Jam Puerto Vallarta 2008 website.

It is expected that this year Vallarta will have one million visitors until mid August 2008. It is definitively more than we had in the low season of 2007. One thing is for sure: There are more, much more cars and traffic than last year. Maybe it’s due to all the new Americans, Canadians, Nationals and other International visitors that have moved to Vallarta, adding not only a long-term multi cultural touch to it but also a demand for bigger, better, cheaper stores, houses, cars and services.

Puerto Vallarta is absolutely serious about growing. It has planed to spend over $80 million pesos (around $8 million usd) to finance development projects. Some of the approved projects are the “rescue of the historical center” for 8 million pesos and the “Pier in Boca de Tomatlan” for 2 million pesos.

Somehow, Vallarta seems to have managed to clean up its beaches that Greenpeace tagged back then as polluted. The Health Secretariat of the state of Jalisco said that the water was clean enough for recreational purposes in Vallarta but they added that the test results for the beach in Boca de Tomatlan were not in the recommended parameters by WHO (World Health Organization) standards, showing 504 enterococci in 100 milliliters of water. Six days later they did the tests again and it showed only 226 enterococci, so now the beach is officially clean.

They also said that if a beach reaches too much pollution, over the recommended parameters by the W.H.O. there “will” be a sign pointing out that the pollution of the water is high and that it is not recommended to swim in it. “If you don’t see a warning sign, it means the beaches are clean and good for recreational use,” they say. Let’s hope they don’t “forget” to put those signs up!

The truth is, that especially now in the rainy season, there is much more movement going on. There are more insects and more humidity and heat, allowing diseases to grow and procreate, which is why the levels in the water vary so much depending on the time of measurement. There is no record of any red tide in the Bay of Banderas, and there are just so many hotels and people in the high season, that it’s hard to believe that the water directly in front of Vallarta, is clean and good for “recreational use”. Let’s just hope we’ll never have to read “for excrementional use only” next time we go to the beach.

But let’s don’t worry too much, in fact there has never been so much attention regarding the pollution of our waters and if we believe what they tell us, it seems they will let us know of more health issues in the future. Besides Vallarta has been one of the top cities in Mexico for clean tap water and it is planed for someday in the future to have the water clean enough to drink.

Vallarta has also planed to check on food stands, restaurants and seafood places so that awareness is raised for more precautions handling food that can cause illness because of the increasing heat.

What else is new?
Well.. low season is slow season, but the grass keeps growing, so let’s check out what’s new in PV:

• 18 crocodile babies born at CUC university. Crocodiles can have between 15 and 70 babies! The name of the crocodile is “Morrita” and the biologists Helios and Pablo Hernández are very glad she had babies because it reflects the good care it got this year. They say that last year there were a few problems and it seems like it had to do with the food and the sand.
• 22 million pesos will be spent in Puerto Vallarta this year for security issues. Vallarta is getting ready for the real deal, a big city needs big security, especially in times like these, where the war on drugs seems to be affecting every corner in this country.
• Last Friday there was the inauguration of the ten cinema screens of the corporation MM Cinemas in the new Plaza Galerías. Now Vallarta has, like any other bigger city, at least three cinemas to cover popcorn demands.
• After the horrible incident that happened in a disco in Mexico City where many people lost their life, Puerto Vallarta confirmed that mostly all of its places are secure and have enough exit doors and competent personal to handle difficult situations. There has never really been a real emergency in Puerto Vallarta discos and we’ll hope it will never happen.
• Our neighbor state, Nayarit has its election day today. Who will govern this beautiful place up north of us? Will it be PAN, PRI, PRD, PT, PVE, PRS, NA or AS ?? You can keep track on elections on the official website ieen.org.mx
• Mario Bueno, director of the public work of the Ayuntamiento, admitted that there were many flaws in the repairs / construction of many streets before the rainy season in Vallarta. This is also due to the increase in traffic, which adds more usage to the fragile streets of Vallarta. Sad only that Ayuntamiento sees the problem when it’s too late and only there where there is extreme traffic. There are many streets that haven’t been dealt with for over 20 years! Those streets aren’t some forgotten old hidden paths far far away from Vallarta, they are actually right by Fluvial, the new fancy area of Puerto Vallarta. Not only do the streets damage the cars, they also get very flooded when it rains, causing more and more damage.
• Oil prices force American Airlines to eliminate 11 flights to Mexico. These are only 11 of 190 planed cancellations by American Airlines for the coming months.
• The creation of new artificial reefs in 20 different spots around the Banderas Bay will take place in a few weeks, by dropping concrete blocks into our ocean which will be a basic foundation for the reefs to grow. This will also help the reproduction of many species in the bay, and will also increase the fish industry.
• And at least, Vallarta receives 27 new teachers. Good that our administration sees the importance in educating our future fruits. There is a lot of money flowing around, every year repairing streets instead of making them better the first time, artificial reefs, events, security, and the endless need of more and more that it’s sad to say that most of the people do not have and never had access to good education due to the lack of qualified teachers and money.
• The first real rain showers are coming quick. We’ll see if the city actually did do something against the flooded streets here on Francisco Villa (Pancho Villa), but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the streets turn into lakes and seas all around Vallarta. Let’s see the bright side, where the rain cools us off from the unstoppable heat and where beer and ice cream taste so much better and colder.

Good sweat!