Pulled over by a Police Officer: Ok, so you rent this car, you’re driving down the street cautiously but things are different here. Sometimes you make left hand turns from the right hand side or the streets are not marked at all and you have to figure this out as you go along. So this serious looking police officer in his best English informs you that you did something you can’t understand wrong. This is when not understanding Spanish is your friend or enemy, depending on how you use your “ignorance” …. Now you can be stupid which is believable. Or you can act like you know something. Me, I can talk with these guys and remedy the situation. You couldn’t, so you do this…
Living in Puerto Vallarta for as long as I have, I’ve seen many changes. I remember when Puerto Vallarta was a “small” town on the Bay of Banderas. Things always change, but in reality Puerto Vallarta is still much the same, without the hotels. You may say, “without hotels”? Yes, you see when I arrived to PV all of the hotels were located in the downtown area. People would go to breakfast in El Centro / down town, leaving the several nice hotels for a brief while. Now the hotels had restaurants naturally, but food was “extra”. And for the most part, you got gauged, but you bit the bullet because it was “there” and convenient. Most people would agree that breakfast and drinks around the pool had its “cost”. People would walk around and shop at the many unique “tiendas” or shops in English. The town was always in a constant state of movement. The town would literally “breathe” with tourism as the cities “life giving breath”. That was more than ten years ago. Puerto Vallarta still has some hotels, but nothing like the “good old days”.
When I used to live in the USA I was always told they had the best medical care in the world. And that you couldn’t find better medical care anywhere for any price. I believed it, didn’t questions it and paid for malpractice insurance, which is 75% or more of your medical charges. That alone is a whole article in and of itself. I see that as a good and bad thing, good you can get “insured” medical coverage and top notch medical care. But if you think about it, if these doctors are so good, why do they need such expensive medical coverage?
Yesterday I posted an article designed to inform and enlighten you on the “in’s and out’s” of a Fishing Charter Business and all the complications. Mexico as a third world country does it’s best to insure your safety and that boats comply with the laws. The simple fact, like the United States, laws that aren’t enforced are only laws when there is an incident or situation where the law was clearly broken. Of course as a vacationer or tourist what you don’t know, will hurt you.
Written by Stan Gabruk Introduction: I wrote this article last year for a local publication last year and thought it’s good to revisit this article and remind folks that we’re coming into High Season for Fishing. Most people assume our high season is in the winter. Tourism likes the cooler weather, fishing favors the hot […]
