INFO PV

Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexican Independence Day as many believe. Mexican Independence Day is September 16.

Cinco de Mayo marks the date of an important battle between a 6,000 man French army and 5,000 brave Mestizo and Zapotec natives of Mexico, led by Ignacio Zaragoza, and known as the Batalla de Puebla, that took place just south of Mexico City.

Mexico had recently issued a statement to end payments due to Spain, England and France for loans that had been made to the country. Spain and England agreed to the proposal, but France which was then being led by Napoleon refused. Napoleon wanted Mexico as part of his empire.

So the battle of Puebla played out on May 5, 1862, with the ill-equipped Mexicans defeating the mighty French.

Unfortunately, it was a short-lived victory, as three days later the French regrouped, marched into the capital, and took control with the help of the conservative Mexican party.

Lorena Ochoa, the new Mexican Golf wonder woman from Guadalajara deserves close attention.

Golf reports… Ochoa continued her dominance of women’s golf Sunday, April 6, with a five-shot victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, giving her the last two majors by a combined nine shots. She was the only player without a bogey in the final round on a tough Mission Hills course, closing with a 5-under 67 and taking the greatest swim of her life.

Read more from Golf

Ochoa’s website is filled with the amazing accomplishments of this remarkable 26-year-old superstar athlete.

Use the public TelMex phones that you see everywhere for both Local & International Long Distance ‘LADATEL’ calling.

Telephone cards for use with these Telmex phones are available for 30 -100 Pesos at all Pharmacies and many other stores, such as liquor stores.

Local calls cost 1 peso per minute.

You can call to the US or Canada using these cards from a public ‘LADATEL’ phone for only 5 pesos (.50cUS) a minute.

These Smart-Phone-Cards display on the screen of the phone how many pesos are left to spend.

It’s a lot cheaper to buy a 100 pesos card and talk till it runs out, than to call from a hotel at a higher rate with the added service charge.

Avoid the Long Distance Collect or Credit Card offers from the many telephone boxes covered with Credit Card logos on the street. These are extremely expensive. You may have a heart attack when you see the bill when you get home.

Free Calls to the US / Canada

There are many cyber cafes, and a few bars and coffee shops that now offer free international calls to their customers.

Cell Phones

The CDMA and TDMA protocols used in the U.S. for cell phones are also used in Mexico. Some cell phone companies have a roaming agreements within Mexico. Ask your provider at home in the US who they use for roaming in Mexico… that will tell you who to sign up with when you get here. GSM phones (VoiceStream) will also work here on a frequency of 1900 MHz.

If you have a pre-paid card cell phone, it can easily have a local number added, just for the cost of buying a local SIM card.

Pre-paid cards cost from 100 Pesos up and are available at any pharmacy or liquor store.

Charges:
Local Calls - 5.50 Pesos per min.
National - 6-8 Pesos per min.
International - 14-18 Pesos per min.
Incoming calls. : Now all are free

Information for dialing Cell phones in Puerto Vallarta and Mexico

The person who dials will pay the full cost of the phone call to a cell phone.
You can dial from a regular phone to a cell phone using the following information…

Local

To a cell phone with an area code in Puerto Vallarta (322)

044 + 322 + seven digit phone number

Long Distance

Regular phones with contract with Telmex:

To a cell phone with another Area Code eg. Guadalajara (333)

045 + 333 + seven digit phone number

Regular phones with contract with Alestra, Avantel, Axtel and Maxcom phone services in Mexico:

To a cell phone with another Area Code eg. Guadalajara (333)

01 + 333 + seven digit phone number

From USA and Canada to Puerto Vallarta (322)

011 + 52 + 1 + 322 + seven digit phone number

Part of the fun of a holiday is to enjoy local festivities and events. Others select their travel date to participate in specific activities. Following are activities scheduled in PUERTO VALLARTA in 2008.

April 17-20, 2008
International Beach Soccer in PV
Mexico’s national beach soccer team will compete with four other national beach soccer teams from United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica here in Vallarta to participate in the World Beach Soccer Championship, to be held this coming July in Marseilles, France.

~~~ 2009 ~~~

April 20-24, 2009
11th International Symposium on Fireworks
Since it’s inception in Montreal in 92 when attendees from more than 20 nations met, there have been 10 very successful fireworks Symposia around the world…

Mexico’s national beach soccer team will compete with four other national beach soccer teams from United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica here in Vallarta to participate in the World Beach Soccer Championship, to be held this coming July in Marseilles, France.

The events take place at Agustín Flores Contreras Stadium, which is on Blvd. Fco Medina Ascencio B7-K, from April 17-20 (Thursday - Sunday), with matches at 5:15 pm & 6:30 pm. Admission is FREE.

Several tons of sand has transformed a field at the Agustin Flores Contreras sports complex into a beach soccer stadium to welcome teams from the four North American countries competing for two tickets to this sport’s world championship.

This is the first time that México will host this international event. This is also the qualifying venue for the World Cup, the most important competition of the season for the Confederación Norte, Centroamérica y el Caribe de Futbol (Concacaf (Northern, Central American, Caribbean Federation).

The four participating teams will compete for the two tickets to the world championship in Marseilles during the three day event.

Each day there will be back-to-back games, with the first game starting at 5:15 pm and the second at 6:30 pm.

Thursday, April 17
5:15 pm — United States vs Costa Rica
6:30 pm — El Salvador vs Mexico

Friday, April 18,
5:15 pm — El Salvador vs United States
6:30 pm — México vs Costa Rica.

Saturday, April 19
5:15 pm — El Salvador vs Costa Rica
6:30 pm — Mexico vs United States

Sunday, April 20, there will be a game featuring Mexican team against an international “All Stars” team, with players from around the globe.

Marseilles will host the Beach Soccer World Cup next July, following the preliminary rounds held in:
Puerto Vallarta by Concacaf
Buenos Aires by the South American Soccer Association (Confederacion Sudamericana de futbol)
Durban, South Africa
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Benidorm, Spain,
allowing teams from all continents.

Sixteen teams will be selected from among these teams to play in the World Cup, which will follow the finals in Benidorm.

The coach for the national selection for beach soccer, Ramón Raya, announced that the support from the Fidecomiso de Turismo (Tourism Trust) and the Ayuntamineto de Puerto Vallarta (Puerto Vallarta City Government) has made this great sporting event possible for the city. He also says they are “very eager to have such an event. We will be prepared and our main objective will be to be represented during the world championship in Marseilles. We hope to have the support of Vallartans to continue making history in this sport.”

Mark your calendar now…
Agustín Flores Contreras Stadium
Blvd. Fco Medina Ascencio B7-K
April 17-20, 5:15pm & 6:30pm
Free admission

In the past weeks, second home sales stateside have decreased dramatically. The National Association of Realtors’ recent report on the vacation home market notes that sales of such properties dipped 31 percent in 2007.

But the picture is quite different in some areas here in Mexico. In Punta Mita, a growing community north of Puerto Vallarta, sales jumped 30 percent last year. St. Regis and the Enchantment group are both building residential and hotel properties there, while a second Jack Nicklaus-designed Signature golf course is set to open this year.

According to Andres Rossetto, the Managing Director of Resort Development for Punta Mita and DINE, the cost to build a home in Punta Mita is about a third of what it would cost to build a similarly high-end property in California, Hawaii or even Cabo San Lucas.

But that’s a third of the cost ‘to build’. Purchasing land is still pricey … consider that one-acre home sites in Punta Mita range from $2.25 million on up to $7.2 million for a beach front stake in the sand. And yes, that’s without the house, though the lot does include a private yacht pier.

Other properties have similarly luxurious price tags. Private villas at the Four Seasons are priced at $3.6 million (45 of the 55 available villas were sold by the end of last year), a three-bedroom condo in the El Encanto development goes for up to $1.4 million, and the next round of four-bedroom condominiums at Las Palmas de Punta Mita will start at $1.5 million when sales begin this spring.

No doubt the construction labor and material costs in this corner of the globe are lower than they would be in resort areas in California or Hawaii, but clearly this south of the border enclave, with beach front lots topping $7 million, is seeing its own American-fed real estate boom.

How this market will to be impacted by the rough waves of the U.S. real estate slowdown, remains to be seen.

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