El Verde Camacho Re-Certified as Conservation Area

by Maureen Dietrich

28 Jun 14  

mazmessenger.com

 

Playa El Verde Camacho was re-certified as a conservation area for another two years at the National meeting for Clean Beaches held in Puerto Vallarta last week.

The certification has opened doors to ecotourism along the six kilometer beach for companies offering bird watching, kayaking, fishing and bicycle trips, said the Sinaloa Secretary of Tourism.

The Secretary said in a press release he invited representatives of local tour companies to spend a day at the conservation area with a view to including the beach in their travel and tour packages. Enjoying the day at El Verde Camacho were representatives of Sinaloa Adventures, Playa Sol Tours, Alfas Tours, Vista Tours, Transportes Turísticos King and Pronatours. (from Noroeste)

Mexican Riviera makes a comeback

leaderpost.com

By Phil Reimer, The Leader-Post  

June 6, 2014 4:34 AM

 

There's a reasonable chance that some of you who are reading this first got the cruise bug by watching the TV series The Love Boat in the late 1970s.

If that was a fun decade, the actors had more than their share of it on the Pacific Princess (a.k.a. The Love Boat) as it sailed the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles, with stops in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and, yes, sometimes all the way south to Acapulco.

That original Pacific Princess was dismantled and scrapped last year in Turkey, but it holds a lot of memories for many early cruisers and TV viewers. The show played on Saturday nights on ABC and was paired with Fantasy Island.

For some reason, I thought the celebrity guests on the show were in the "B" category. But it appears not when you find people like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Hanks and Don Ameche all made appearances.

Gavin MacLeod, the skipper, and Lauren Tewes, the cruise director, are probably pleased to know that the Mexican Riviera is making a comeback after five years of diminishing numbers, fuelled by reports of violence and a collapsing U.S. economy that arguably hit California harder than any other state.

Cruisecritic.com offered a few facts about the demise:

"Puerto Vallarta went from having a banner year in 2008, when 180 ships arrived, to a mere 82 in 2013. Mazatlan suffered a significant financial hit when a string of violent incidents prompted cruise lines to pull out completely in 2011, losing all of the 520,000 passengers that had visited in 2010."

Carnival announced last week it is going back with seven-day cruises in 2014-15 that include stops at Mazatlan. Princess has also put Mazatlan back into its Mexican Riviera schedule. The Riviera isn't just Mazatlan, of course, but it's an important cog in reviving the traditional Mexican Riviera sevenday cruise to those three ports. A major holdout so far is Royal Caribbean. All the line is saying is that it's continuing to weigh all options.

With Galveston and Houston thriving as ports and the Mexican Riviera back on the radar of at least some cruise lines, people living in the western half of North America now have more choices of ports closer to home.

Carnival has designated Long Beach, Calif., the year-round home port of the Carnival Miracle. While there are several itineraries, the first that includes Mazatlan departs on Nov. 8.

Princess won't have a year-round presence, but its Crown Princess and Grand Princess will be sailing the traditional seven-day cruises seasonally. Mexican Riviera cruises for Princess run from November to April, then again in the late fall of 2015 through the spring of 2016.

Norwegian's presence in Mexico will be mainly in fall and early winter.

It's clear the cruise lines believe in the recovering global economy and in anti-violence steps taken in Mexico, especially Mazatlan. If Carnival makes a success of its year-round presence, look for competitors to drop their anchors in Southern California yearround, too.

U.S. retirees living well in Mexico

edition.cnn.com
By Rafael Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs Editor
May 15, 2014

Retirees living well south of the border

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Mexico has drug violence but it is still attractive to retirees
• Cost of homes and medicines are cheaper, they say
• In Puerto Vallarta, local businesses employing English speakers
• About 1 million U.S. citizens are living in Mexico, State Department says

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (CNN) -- It's the life Sara Wise always dreamed of: a place with unbeatable weather, sunny beaches, good medical care and an active social life -- and all at very affordable prices.

The former manager of retail businesses didn't find what she wanted in her native U.S., but rather just south of the border in Mexico.

For the last six years, the 63-year-old Minnesotan and her 70-year-old husband Mike Wise, both retired, have been enjoying the warm weather and friendly beaches of Puerto Vallarta, a resort on the Pacific coast.

They have a very active social life and say they have more friends in Mexico than they ever did in the United States, mainly because Puerto Vallarta is full of people just like them.

According to local government estimates, there are around 35,000 U.S. and Canadian citizens living in Puerto Vallarta, many of them retired like Mike and Sara.

"We get together and we have happy hours, we have wine and appetizers, we have coffees in different neighborhoods and we get together at different restaurants," Sara Wise says.

Medical care is another factor they considered when they decided to move here. To their surprise, they found more options for quality health care and at much more affordable prices than in the United States, including procedures like surgeries and advanced dental care.

"The accessibility to the doctors is something that we never experienced in the United States and from what we understand it's getting more difficult, not less," Mike Wise says. "And the cost is somewhere between a quarter to a half of what things cost in the U.S."

Tourism recovering in Mexico

Puerto Vallarta has adapted to this relatively new, foreign clientele. Around town, doctors and dentists put out signs in English, and often have English-speaking employees.

Kimberly Altman, 63, a retiree from California who has been living in Puerto Vallarta for three-and-a-half years, says a doctor's visit is usually $40.

"No matter what they do, $40 per visit and you can get to see them the very same day you need them. It's very convenient in a lot of ways," Altman says.

Mike Altman, 68, Kimberly's husband, says affordability goes well beyond just medical care. For him, part of the beauty of living in Puerto Vallarta is how far dollars go when it comes to real estate.

"We have an ocean view, 3,000-square-foot condominium that I can afford on my Social Security. How's that? We have 24-hour security and indoor parking," Altman says.

According to the U.S. Department of State, 1 million American citizens of all ages live in Mexico, and 20.3 million visited as tourists -- making it the No. 1 destination for U.S. travelers.

The number of expats living in Mexico has continued to grow, local officials say, despite safety concerns from the drug violence which has made headlines around the world. Jesus Gallegos Álvarez, tourism secretary of Jalisco state, where Puerto Vallarta is located, was gunned down in March 2013 in the city of Zapopan.

In March, authorities confiscated 1 metric ton of marijuana and 38 kilograms of methamphetamine in nearby Tlajomulco de Zuniga. The seizure was made possible after the arrest of Geronimo Ibarra Alcaraz, 23, an alleged member of a criminal group who, Jalisco authorities say, led them to the discovery of 19 bodies buried in a field, including a restaurateur from Tlajomulco.

But many expats insist their little corner of paradise has largely remained untouched by the drug violence.

"I feel very safe here. I go for walks with my dog at midnight. I go alone and I don't worry about it. When we lived in northern Minnesota, I'd wake up every morning and hear how many people were killed in Minneapolis overnight. We don't have that down here," Sara Wise says.

With plenty of food options, water sports like sailing and diving and American stores like Costco and Home Depot, retirees say they can enjoy the best of Mexico while still having access to many American products.

"We're here for good," Sara Wise says with a chuckle. "They'll probably take us out in a jar of ashes."