Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - As the Easter holiday visitors take leave of our city, we are hoping for a good summer season with lots of visitors from all parts of the world to our safe and beautiful spot.

There will be other holidays during the first part of May, such as:

May 1st - International Workers' Day

May 3rd - The Day of the Holy Cross celebrated by construction workers with wooden crosses placed on the construction sites and a party for the workers, and also to be celebrated with a week long festival in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.

May 5th - Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday celebrating the defeat of the French army of Napoleon III at Puebla by General Ignacio Zaragoza.

May 10th - Mother's Day is always a special day in Mexico with flower vendors in the streets and a time to remember your special lady with flowers, jewelry or sweets.

May 15th - The 7th Annual Altruism Festival will be held at the Casa Magna Marriott Resort from 6 to 10 p.m., benefiting 24 local charities. Food will be provided by 40 of Vallarta´s finest restaurants and there will be live music, dance and cultural presentations. Admission is $300 pesos.

Puerto Vallarta News

Helping to promote Puerto Vallarta as a safe, fun place to visit is the PV Flash Mob Video, which you can see right HERE on YouTube, hopefully pass on to others on your list to show the world that our part of Mexico is NOT a dangerous place.

In October, Puerto Vallarta will participate in the Pan American Games, a major international multi-sport event to be held in Guadalajara, Ciudad Guzman, Lagos de Moreno, Tapalpa and Puerto Vallarta from October 14 to 30th. 6000 athletes from 42 nations are expected to participate. Vallarta will host open water swimming, sailing, triathlon and beach volleyball events.

Good news from the University of Guadalajara. Puerto Vallarta has acquired a storm warning system (a Doppler weather radar system) so that in case of approaching storms the citizens in Vallarta and surrounding states will have an alert to prepare for emergencies. This is the only device of its kind operating in Mexico.

City authorities are considering ways to improve the Centro Historico of Vallarta and have been having meetings and polls of the citizens on such ideas as closing the Malecón to vehicle traffic.

Many groups are saying that the first thing needed is more public lighting on the inside streets, more trash containers, public bathrooms, control of the excess of buses that contaminate the air and speed through town, control of the taxis that take up so much parking in downtown, vigilance to prevent the graffitti on the newly painted walls of the center, and lowering of the fares for the parking garages.

We want to keep the image of the typical pueblo that has made Vallarta famous, but people are not sure if closing the Malecón will help the businesses of El Centro or just make it harder to reach the special shops, restaurants and services offered. If you have ideas on the subject, please write an email to webart(at)prodigy.net.mx.

Art Tidbits

Have you visited the new TLA Gallery-Café on the Malecón? It is located in the former Bancomer bank building that has been vacant for several years and hosts a huge variety of paintings, sculptures, Huichol art, crafts, masks and jewelry from artists all over Mexico.

Galeria Vallarta has a boutique located inside with one of a kind jewelry creations by Barbara, paintings, art to wear, crafts and more. Some of the artists represented there are Oswaldo Orozco, Diego Ayala, Steve Fischer, Steven King, Ezequiel Esparza, Alejandro Luna, Cesar Delgado, Agustin Castillo, Guillermo Colmenero, Procoro Hernandez, Claudia Pereznales, and Marco Antonio Hernandez.

Come and sit under the umbrellas in the beachfront café. You´ll find TLA Gallery in front of the bronze sculpture of the Jalisco Dancers at the end of Guerrero Street.

At Galeria Vallarta you will find some limited edition lithographs by Mexican artists Manuel Felguerez, Luis Filcer, Fernando Pereznieto, Manuel Lepe, Adrian Tavera, Daniel Kent, Benito Zamora.

You will love the just arrived tapestries by Pilar Gomez from Guanajuato. Also check out our Picasa Web page for Famous Mexican artists.

Visit our renewed website at GaleriaVallarta.com to see new works by Steve Fischer, Francisco Medina (surrealism), Claudia Nery, Steven King, Victor Gutierrez bronze sculptures and Lozano jewelry.

Barbara Peters is the owner of Galería Vallarta, one of Puerto Vallarta's most popular art galleries. Located at Juarez 265 in downtown Puerto Vallarta, Galería Vallarta has been presenting "art in all forms" since it's founding in 1989. For more information call (322) 222-0290, visit GaleriaVallarta.com, or send an email to webart(at)galeriavallarta.com.