Out and About in Puerto Vallarta
 Twila Crawford - PVNN
September 08, 2009
| | Well-known Puerto Vallarta restaurant reviewer, Gary Beck, is in a San Francisco hospital for serious medical conditions. We all wish you a speedy recovery. | |
Darling pal, Gary Beck, well-known Puerto Vallarta food and restaurant reviewer, is in a San Francisco hospital for serious medical conditions. He has homes there and here in Vallarta. Lots of caring is being shown for Gary by his family and his friends.
You can send cards and messages to his good friend, Bill Holtz, 727 Burnett Ave., Apt. 7, San Francisco, CA 94131. He will deliver them to the hospital when Gary is able to read them. We all are with you, dear Gary.
The hair stylists from Len's blu are moving to a new place in Marina Vallarta. The new salon will open in mid-October. Way to go, neat persons! Betty and Clay are the movers and shakers with other staff joining them. Len is happily living now in St. Petersburg, FL. Another enterprise will go into the Vallarta blu store.
Mexico is suffering from its driest year in 68 years. Crops and cattle are dying in the countryside. Below average rainfall has left about 80 of Mexico's 175 largest reservoirs less than half full, water officials say. The El Niño weather phenomenon - a warming of waters in the Pacific - has caused a dry spell in South America, and experts say this is likely partly to blame for Mexico's lack of rain.
More than 15 percent of the corn crop in Mexico may have been lost. Potatoes, bananas, oranges, limes and several kinds of chilies are likely to be hit by sharp price rises in coming weeks, according to Mexico's Economic Ministry. Potatoes and bananas are up 80 percent from last year's prices.
Did you feel the intense heat this summer? It never bothers me... until this summer. One day, I actually became ill, once outdoors, and had to sit and rest on a curb. A lovely Mexican friend helped to get me into a taxi she waved down. The driver looked tentative, worrying about what might happen to the interior of his car before he got me home.
Mexico's federal government is negotiating a $400 million loan from the World Bank to finance combatting a possible surge of swine flu during the winter season. Nayarit state now has its own lab to carry out H1N1 testing. No more waiting there for Mexico City lab results.
Paul Crist, founder and president of Americans for Medicare in Mexico, A.C., was interviewed by a Forbes Magazine editor about possible Medicare in Mexico. Publication of the article, "Medicare in Mexico for U.S. Citizens?" has brought many comments to Paul. For more information, visit MedicareInMexico.org. The new U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, indicates he will follow the demonstration project for Medicare in Mexico.
Our city will be beautified with 5,000 new Bougainvillea plants by November with installation in Vallarta's median strips, traffic islands and city parks. Vallarta Botanical Gardens, in cooperation with the city's Department of Parques y Jardines, call this project Ciudad de las Bugambilias. If you would like to donate, and your name will appear on a plaque, telephone Vallarta Botanical Gardens' founder, Robert Price, at (322) 223-6182. For more information, click HERE.
U.S. Social Security beneficiaries living in Mexico should receive improved service with the introduction of a new toll-free number for answering questions. The toll-free number is 01-800-772-6394.
Villa Mandarinas, owned by architect Alberto Alvarez and Gabriela Garcia, appears in the September Architectural Digest. For comments or further information, telephone 044-322-137- 5799.
Mexican-born astronaut Jose Hernandez, who lived in the U.S., who is part of U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery, has gained hero status in Mexico during the past few weeks. Hernandez has been keeping a record of his training on Twitter.
Our congratulations to Tim Longpré, president of PVRPV Puerto Vallarta Rentals, for coordinating the food drives this summer to help those in need of food. Email: tim(at)pvrpv.com. Thank you to all of the wonderful persons who helped in their own special ways. Thank you to other organizations and persons who help those in need.
We heard so many raves about the Mexican theater presentations this summer in the Rio Cuale area. We should have a new theater, located near Ley's, this high season. Cecateur will be busy with productions, as will Santa Barbara Theater. We wish them all well
A crowd turned out for a fund raiser for a runner for Mexico Jada Lassila at Asaderos, Basilio Badillo 223, (222-1955). Jada, who is lovely, owns the restaurant with her well-thought of parents, Tom and Pat Lassila. Stop in for some good food to help Jada.
Cafe Bohemio reopens for the high season on October 12. Always a big,raucous outdoor opening with Sol and Chris, Rodolfo Gomez 127.
So many of you lovely readers still ask me about my eight-year-old grandson, Blake, who had a rare bone disease and was in a wheelchair and on crutches for two years. He now is well and lively... and he is in an advanced reading class.
Walking has helped thin this writer down, along with not eating much food in this heat. People "say the darndest things." One North American male asked me if I had been ill. Other males and females said how good I look. And other things I'll keep quiet about... Then I had passport photos taken. The photographer told me to go in the baño and fix my newly-cut hair by Betty. I came out, and he still thought my hair needed fixing. Please, just take my photograph! He was a sweet young thing, and I look okay in the photograph...
I have a troubled neighbor, who lived in the U.S, for awhile, and doesn't seem to like women... probably because they are so independent there. So now he seems to take it out on me, and I am sure with other females, with all kinds of name-calling.
Enjoy El Mes de la Patria (the month of our nation) with all of the celebrations here. Independence Day is September 15... independence from Spain! That night is a big celebration with food, dancing and fireworks.
 An award-winning journalist, Twila Crawford lives in Puerto Vallarta, where, in addition to contributing articles to BanderasNews, the PV Mirror and other local publications, she writes Out and About in Puerto Vallarta, an informative column that offers inside information about who, what, why, where and when it's happening around Banderas Bay.
Click HERE to read more articles by Twila Crawford. |
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