Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico - The International Friendship Club (known around the bay as the IFC) welcomes visitors and old friends back to Puerto Vallarta for another season of having a good time while doing good.

Last year the members of IFC enjoyed a very successful season of having fun while helping hundreds of children in Puerto Vallarta, and we expect to do the same this time around.

Our Home Tours, which have been operating for over 30 years, had another record-breaking attendance last season while delivering excellent service. 94% of Trip Advisor independent reviewers rated the tours "Excellent" and 4% as "Very Good." The tours will start again on 21st November and will run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays until mid-March. This is one of the most popular attractions in PV and is a great way to entertain guests coming into town for a few days. For information and to order tickets, visit toursforvallarta.com.

For people staying for a few weeks, or the season, and would like to learn Spanish, IFC offers classes to four levels of expertise in that language. The classes have already started and take place at the clubhouse on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the clubhouse, located in the heart of "Old Town" above the HSBC bank on Av. Insurgentes where the street crosses the Rio Cuale. For more details on the Spanish classes, click HERE.

Other regular activities set to take place in November are:

• Restorative Yoga on Wednesdays at 11:00 am. Classes are beginner friendly and gentle,include 10 to 15 minutes of meditation and 45 minutes of gentle yoga postures.

• Bunco at Nacho Daddy, a restaurant on Basilio Badillo, starts at 11:00 am and costs $50 pesos per person - but all the laughs are free. It's a great way to have some fun playing an easy game with dice and to meet new friends.

The first social get-together of the season will be the club's Opening Brunch at The River Café on Sunday, November 12th at 10:00 am - and everyone is welcome. If you want to meet new people, hug old friends, or are just interested in an excellent brunch for a good price - $350 pesos - please join us at The River Café. The restaurant is highly-rated by TripAdvisor (4.6 out of 5) and is located on the Rio Cuale Island in downtown Vallarta.

As well as having a good time together socially, IFC members are committed to making the lives of children better by helping them with their health, their education and their culture.

The International Friendship Club started in the 1980's when Ron Walker and his wife, Celia, decided to help some Mexican friends get medical help for their new-born daughter who had been born with a cleft palate. They all piled into their car and drove to Guadalajara to get a medical exam and treatment for the little girl. Word soon spread and soon Ron and Celia were swamped with requests for help from families with children who also had cleft palates so they decided to ask their friends for financial help and someone hit on the idea of offering to show tourists their homes, and donate the proceeds to support the cleft palate surgeries.

The IFC was "born" in 1986 when these friends got together to do good and to help the local community. The Home Tours have been the major driver of IFC's donations ever since. Now the club, and many of its volunteers and supporters, arrange for the flights, food and accommodation of teams of medical personnel to visit PV three or four times a year to perform assessments, surgery and ongoing medical care to the children in the cleft palate program. The medical teams donate their time, the CMQ hospital donates days of operating-room time and volunteers from IFC coordinate all of the logistics. It is an outstanding example of the community working together to help children and their families.

IFC started with its cleft palate program, but support for and from the Home Tours now helps hundreds of children from organizations that include the Puerto Vallarta public library, Biblioteca Los Mangos; orphanages such as Casa Hogar Maximo Cornejo and Corazon de Niña; and social services like Dives in Miseracordia and CANICA. In all, the club contributes to over twenty different non-profit organizations and social programs in the Banderas Bay area. Click HERE for more details.

We welcome everyone who is looking for a good time, those who want to volunteer, or those who want to learn something new. Come on down!