Posts filed under 'Festivities'
We asked Cristina from Customer Service to respond to the various responses in the “Moving-to-Mexico” T-Shirt giveaway post, after reading and evaluating all of them. Cristina is the Head of Livtopia’s Customer Service. She grew up in Mexico City, but actually spent every summer in Toledo, Ohio. She’s been back and forth between the 2 countries in this position and several others before and she is usually a big presence at our Discovery Weekends in both Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Maya.
Here’s what she had to say:
I really liked that nearly all of the commentors made a reference to how much you can enjoy life in such beautiful country and on how everyone appreciates the climate, the people, the lifestyle and knowing that dreams really do come true in Mexico!… and yes, it is cheaper!
When I speak to people coming to live to Mexico, (my Mom being one of them), one of the things everyone seems to share in common is a sense of belonging to a community… it doesn’t matter where in Mexico you are, or really how much Spanish you speak, everyone is happy with the way people open their arms to you. Of course, loads of people talk about the incredible variety and intensity of the culinary experience too! But a lot of the people I talk to every day are really excited about the freedom and the chance to really keep learning and growing and experiencing new things every day.
I’m a little surprised there wasn’t more mention of the rich diversity of culture that Mexico offers to the world… there are so many things to choose from, that we’d need an encyclopedia to cover it all, but to mention a few, we have pyramids throughout the country, museums, regional traditions celebrated all year long that feature the areas dances, food and always lots of fun welcoming everyone! And one really can go from the 21st century, to the 15th on back to ancient times in just a matter of a few minutes drive.
We’ll be notifying you and the winner next week.
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August 7th, 2008
We’re still dusting ourselves off from a lot of celebrating and from meeting the whole bunch of people who came to visit over the holidays. We’re looking forward to a terrific 2008, and we can only say that 2007 was a wild ride. There’s simply no question that southward migration is going to be way up. That point was underscored by the people we just met in Cuernavaca, Nueva Vallarta, Panama and Costa Rica, all of whom are off to a terrific start to the New Year. And we hope we’ll get the chance to meet you - whether it’s in Mexico or Panama or any of the countries where we’re seeing such a terrific new interest.
A happy and prosperous New Year to everyone!
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January 2nd, 2008
The date December, 24 2007 (Gregorian), corresponds to the following Aztec date:
Because things are likely to get slow and holiday traffic - on the internet anyway - tends to dip, this post is not only a holiday greeting to you, but to the many superstar bloggers quoted below. All of them are part of the BlogRoll we unveiled a few weeks ago, but they’re also among the most prolific in the blogging business.
To start with, the one truly newsworthy entry from the past week came from the Panama Investor Blog, where they’ve announced that the 90 day visa for Americans is back on. That should put a stop to some of the confusion - at last - and perhaps to some of the moaning and groaning, at least for a little while.
The Tropical Adventures holiday party in La Flor, Costa Rica, made for some interesting writing on the Blog of the Tropical Adventures website. These folks seem to have to explain how their operation runs over and over to critics who believe that without a big benefactor backing them they are just a tourist business in the guise of a volunteer operation. That doesn’t seem to have dampened the spirits of the kids with whom they’ve been working.
The better than year-long saga of Adopting Kids in Costa Rica took another twist. Playa Pelada is one of the only places on the internet, that I know of anyway, where you can really follow the adoption process, in detail, week after week. That’s in addition to the insight into living and growing in Costa Rica that also makes up a big part of Playa Pelada fare.
On to Mexico. The Aztec Calendar illustration above came via The Mex Files, who directed us to this cool Aztec Calendar website. You can figure out how to write or say whatever day, month and year you want according to the calendar. And, no weekend project, this calendar is complete with artwork and a full list of the gods and deities who rule over the world of the Aztecs not even to mention a few decades of study and work that appear to have gone into it.
The folks at Yucatan Living provided another of their Juggernaut Entries with news from all over the Peninsula. Airline news includes a new route from Milan to Mérida, and a new low cost route between Cancun and Campeche. They point out that tourism numbers in Yucatan continue to climb and the number of Yucatecos in the US can be informally monitored by checking the US registrations at el Diario, the Mérida daily.
On the more domestic side of All Things Mexico, the Living in Mexico blog provided a great update on what’s coming up in their organic garden. And Home-Sweet-Mexico provided some 10 decorating tips for dealing with the ubiquitous and quirky short-cuts that Mexican Builders and Landlords often leave us to deal with.
If you want real holiday news though, try dragging an enormous commercial popcorn popper around to the Posada processions in your small Mexican pueblo. The folks at Viva Veracruz give that story and a lot more.
Thanks to everyone who has stopped by for a terrific year of blogging and traveling and dreaming and making things better for everyone.
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December 24th, 2007
Via Vallarta Lifestyles Magazine, now available digitally, there’s a nice list of all the upcoming festivals in the Puerto Vallarta region. (Pages 70-71). Worthy of note, of course, is the co-incidental feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Anniversary of Puerto Vallarta - both coming up on December 12.
In 1851, don Guadalupe Sánchez Torres founded Puerto Vallarta, when he brought his family and a few friends to settle in an area alongside the Cuale River.
The feast of the Virgin is a huge day just about everywhere in Mexico, but celebrating Puerto Vallarta can’t be a bad thing either. See the rest of the list for the Puerto Vallarta area festivals that stretch clean past next summer.
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December 6th, 2007
There’s something terrific to be said about strolling around any tourist town in the off season. Somehow living year round where so many people visit and then disappear can make you feel like you’ve disappeared yourself.
But there’s no reason to feel disappeared. Slow season in Puerto Vallarta means the art galleries are open and cutting prices back. And it’s a terrific time to get introspective and check out what’s really happening in the city. Puerto Vallarta’s art scene goes back pretty much to the beginning of the city’s reputation as a tourist destination, and it’s always been happening.
In fact, the city’s reputation as a tourist destination pretty much coincides with its reputation as a steamy tropical hot-spot, alive with intrigue, mystery and something more than a little off the wall. Shannon’s despair in Night of the Iguana has never quite been rectified.
Perhaps toward that end, artists have been working in and around Puerto Vallarta ever since.
The illustrations here are courtesy of GALERIA VALLARTA, in Puerto Vallarta. According to their website:
Galería Vallarta is not only one of the most popular art galleries in Puerto Vallarta, but it is also a favorite shopping spot for locals and tourists alike. Posters, collectibles, contemporary masks from Durango, a wide selection of indigenous handicrafts from all over Mexico, and one-of-a-kind, handmade pieces of gold and silver jewelry are also available.
The gallery informed me that they’re offering special savings on original art work through the month of September. With a good room full of original paintings by their best artists at savings of 20% to 50% The artists they keep in house are:
- Claudia Nery
- Steven Fischer
- Dimitar and Helen Krustev
- Manuel Valles Gomez
- Steven King
- Marcos
- Cristobal
- Sergio Narvaez and more.
Vallarta Artists are preparing for the continuation of the Old Town Art Walks that will start up again on October 24th and continue every Wednesday night, 6-10PM through May 28, 2008.
Open Monday through Friday from 10AM to 6PM, Saturdays 10 to 3 PM and by appointment, Galeria Vallarta is at Juarez 265, Centro, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. You can contact the gallery at webart@galeriavallarta.com or by phone: 322-222-0290.
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September 11th, 2007
We’re polishing up the details in preparation to announce the Free 3-day “On-the-Ground” events in Campeche and Panama City, and we’re learning a lot about what people want from the same 3-Day totally free event we’re holding in Puerto Vallarta in October. That one is filling up fast… and you can click here for more details. It all really comes down to where you want to go.
We’re working on a similar event to be held, for free in Costa Rica, probably in November, and another for Mazatlan and probably in Ixtapa, soon after.
A lot of people have written, mostly in reply to the most recent newsletter, to ask how these can possibly be totally free events. The simple answer is, plenty of people are interested in having you take a look at Puerto Vallarta and at the other locations we’re featuring. Most of these will be 3 day events, some will be 4. We’re talking right now to people who are interested enough to get you 3 nights for free in a nice hotel in Puerto Vallarta so you can relax, get to know the area and then make an intelligent decision that you can’t make just by staring at pictures on the internet.
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August 10th, 2007
Once during the heady days of my youth I was forced by financial need to crawl around a vineyard with a pair of clippers and harvest grapes for 8 hours per day. This went on for 2 weeks, after which I was forgiven the debt for my rent of a small house in the Tuscan hills and returned to my full time study of red-wine consumption.
If you’ve never experienced the Vendimia, (Vendemmia in Italian) I can’t recommend highly enough an experience close to my own. There is something about the fatigue of agricultural labor that enhances the experience of agricultural product by about 10 fold.
But let me go a step further. Remember when school used to start, and how, by early September you were so eager for life and glad to be back with your friends in some kind of routine. As September progressed,those weeks could just glow with potential. So much so that the season itself seemed to fill up my lungs with living and the charge of autumn turning cool seemed to make everything more alive and to send rushes of clarity through my whole system.
In what we think of as everyday living and life, such clarity can seem positively surreal. That’s part of the reason I thought that photo above was appropriate for such a post. Some of us put school behind us forever, and we lose that seasonal charge, and September passes like any other month, nondescript like April. The Vendimia is the grown up way to experience that same charge again. Surreal as it seems, it’s a terrific way to start the autumn with a heightened appreciation for the luxury that living really is.
Check out the websites of the wineries listed on the Fiestas de la Vendimia homepage, events taking place through most of August. Of course, you can see a list of all the events and activities involved with the Fiesta, but even a few of the wineries websites will give you a taste of the spirit of the region. I frankly detest snobbery in wine drinking, but I am happy to applaud pride in wine-making and there is lots to be proud of. The image is from the Adobe Guadalupe website, though the website of Vinisterra also will give you a great intro to the wines of the region and it’s one of the more open about process and environment.
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August 8th, 2007
Go-Oaxaca Blog has posted some truly extraordinary photos of the Carnaval celebrations near Ocotlan, just south of the capital of Oaxaca, (the rest of the post is must see stuff!). Carnaval is pretty quiet in Mexico’s capital, but outside it is truly something else, as I thought these photos well captured. Veracruz and Mazatlan are best known in Mexico for their Carnaval celebrations. There’s a good Flickr photostream here, if you’re interested in the celebrations in Mazatlan, and some of the big time stuff in Veracruz posted here. But there seems to be a completely different flavor to the goings-on in Oaxaca. Something for everyone?
Update: here’s another nice one from Mazatlan.
And another update: 1st Mate’s photos are also Top Notch.
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February 22nd, 2007
