Feb
28
Thrill of the Chaise
February 28, 2007 | Tags: Hotels, Pools | Leave a Comment
This article from the Wall Street Journal is pretty funny. Apparently some people will go to amazing lengths to get the right chair by the pool or people will get into huge arguments over it. I do hate chair hogs. They place their towels on the chairs and then leave and wander around town, with a chair reserved for themselves when they happen to wander in. Of course, not being a big resort type, nor being the type who would just sit around the pool all day, it doesn’t really effect me much. But nevertheless, you might want to read it for the tips if not for the humor of the ridiculous lengths some will go to for a chair. Best tip: bring along an extra insomniac relative who gets up early to reserve your pool seats by your Vallarta pool.
Straight to the source: Naples News, Thrill of the Chaise.
Feb
27
Want some WiFi Internet with your Coffee in Puerto Vallarta?
February 27, 2007 | Tags: Coffee, WiFi | Leave a Comment
I know I’m not the only one who can’t leave their internet addiction behind when I’m traveling. And so my laptop comes with me and if I don’t get an internet connection at my hotel or vacation rental then I’m quickly out searching for a pleasant place to surf the net, preferably while enjoying a nice tall café americano misto (espresso, hot water and a little steamed milk, my favorite drink).
Of course there’s always the option of heading to a local internet café, of which PV has plenty. Almost all will, for the same price as using one of their computers, give you a wire to plug into your laptop and allow you to work away. But the atmosphere isn’t always the greatest and I’d rather spend my money on the coffee and just relax instead of being metered. You can always also go find a public place with a stray 802.11 wireless signal leaking from a local business or home. I have sat in Parque Lazaro Cardenas with my laptop, it doesn’t feel like the safest thing to do, especially with your head down in the computer.
The best solution of all of course is to find a nice café with a comfy sofa, good coffee and free wireless. And so I present a list of known reliable hotspots.
Zona Romantica
My favorite place for that is Dee’s Coffee Company. Ask for the wifi password with your order and you’re in business.Â
Que Pasa Restaurant and Bar, 625 Aquiles SerdanÂ
I’ve also heard that there is a place El Sofa at 333 Venustiano Carranza that offers this but haven’t had a chance to check that.
Centro
Cafe Roma serves up wireless along with the pizza and beer.
Hotel Zone
Restaurant El Andariego, Av Mexico #1358 at San Salvador.
Other
Puerto Vallarta Airport apparently has a free wireless zone.
Do you have other places you go? Please add a comment to this post and let everyone know!
Feb
27
Artist Brad Smith in Puerto Vallarta this week
February 27, 2007 | Tags: Art, Events | Leave a Comment
Artist Brad Smith from Santa Fe, New Mexico will be in Puerto Vallarta this week at GallerÃa Dante on Basilio Badillo in the Zona Romantica.
Smith’s art is perfectly suited for the Zona Romantica being very romantic itself, softly colored paintings of women.
Find it on the map: GalerÃa Dante.
Read about the exhibit: Banderias Bay News: Brad Smith at Galleria Dante This Week.
See more of Brad Smith’s art on the gallery website: Brad Smith at GalerÃa Dante.
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Feb
26
Playa de los Muertos Attitude
February 26, 2007 | Tags: Gay, Photos | Leave a Comment
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It’s a new feature on Puerto Vallarta Satellite. Photo of the week. So I start with this photo I took last year at the Ritmo Beach Café (aka Green Chairs) at Playa de los Muertos.
If you’ve got a photo you’d like to add for photo of the week, please send me a link to the photo on Flickr (preferably) or, if you don’t have a Flickr account and don’t want to set one up, then email me the photo for consideration.
Cheers, Doug.
Feb
20
Puerto Vallarta native hottie Aaron Diaz profiled
February 20, 2007 | Tags: Gossip | Leave a Comment
Actor Aaron Diaz who was born in Puerto Vallarta is profiled in today’s Morning Goods column on Queerty. The profile is light on content for the 25 year-old actor but there are plenty of pics of him shirtless if that’s your thing.
The site Biosstars-mx has a bit more info, albeit in Spanish, if you’re looking for more info on Aaron.
Has anyone spotted him lately in PV?
Feb
17
There’s an interesting discussion about gay asylum seekers from Mexico on the Media Matters website (you can also watch the Fox News clip there). The rather obnoxious right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly of Fox News is commenting on a recent appeal court decision which allowed a gay asylum seeker a refugee claim based on his claim of persecution because of his sexuality.
I know gay Mexicans who have made it to Canada with refugee claims on this basis.
Unfortunately, in the vein of Fox News, the discussion is basically one-sided, with O’Reilly being countered only very weakly by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelley rather than someone with knowledge of the issue who could argue with O’Reilly.
I’ll make a case against a couple of his claims and I invite readers to add their own voices.
O’REILLY praises the original immigration panel judge’s decision, subsequently overturned by the 9th Circuit, which, according to the Los Angeles Times, stated that the asylum seeker, Soto Vega, “could return to Mexico since ‘it would not be obvious that he was homosexual unless he made it obvious himself.’ ” O’Reilly asserted: “I think the immigration court made the right decision, basically saying, ‘Look, you could be anybody. Just go back there and don’t wear a dress… and you’ll be OK.’ ”
==> This is clearly coming from a man who was no idea of what it is to be gay and who would have have us all repressing our identities and our lives. It’s not about not wearing a dress, it’s about being able to have and live with a partner, being able to have places to go out to and being able to be ourselves. I doubt Soto Vega was wearing a dress when he was assaulted by a Mexican police officer for being gay.
O’REILLY: If you go to any of the resort areas, Cancún or Acapulco, as I mentioned, Puerto Vallarta, any of them — come on, it’s gay parade time. Don’t tell me they’re being persecuted. There’s gay bars; there’s gay restaurants; there’s gay everything.
==> It does seem that a gay Mexican who was being persecuted in their life could leave and go to a place like Puerto Vallarta where if there’s persecution at least there would also be a community to support you. But O’Reilly is again speaking from a place of ignorance. He’s not Mexican. Neither am I but I do know how much more difficult it is for a Mexican than an American to pick up and move to another place. So much of the culture depends on support from family networks. There’s no guarantee of survival for a single gay man picking up and moving to Puerto Vallarta if he doesn’t have the right skills to survive in the city alone. At least in the US, he could probably make enough money to support himself.
O’REILLY states that that ”he could get beat up here” (the US) too, i.e. that anti-gay discrimination exists in the US too.
==> This is kind of a bizarre spurious argument. Things are bad here too so he shouldn’t be admitted. O’Reilly seems to says that unless you’re from from Iran, where “you’ll get beheaded”, you should just put up and suffer with an occasional beating.
What do you think?
Feb
12
What’s the CO2 on your PV flight?
February 12, 2007 | Tags: News, Opinion | Leave a Comment
With global warming so present in the news and in our minds, I’m feeling uncomfortable about how much flying I do. Getting back and forth from the US and Canada to Mexico and beyond creates an awful lot of CO2 emissions. Here are some examples of what a non-stop flight to Puerto Vallarta will generate (figures from an online calculator):
USA Departures:
Los Angeles: 0.6 tonnes of CO2
San Francisco:Â 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Portland, Oregon:Â 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Chicago: 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Minneapolis/St Paul: 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Detroit: 0.7 tonnes of CO2
New York: 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Boston: 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Canada Departures:
Vancouver 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Edmonton 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Toronto 0.8 tonnes of CO2
Montreal 0.9 tonnes of CO2
Europe Departures:
London 2.0 tonnes of CO2
Amsterdam 2.1 tonnes of CO2
I recently wrote an article entitled Going Neutral on my personal website which gives an outline of the issue and what you can do about it including purchasing offsets to make your travel carbon neutral.
Feb
10
If you’ve never seen kiteboarding, or even heard of it, you’ll have your chance in Vallarta from May 14 to 20 when the World Kiteboarding tour comes to town. I’ve managed to see it a couple of times, in Victoria, BC, and it’s a pretty amazing sight to watch. Basically, the kiteboarder’s feet are strapped to what looks like a surfboard while they hold and manipulate a kite above them. They surf the waves while also using the wind to make huge jumps up into the air.
It’s also apparently dangerous as hell if you don’t know what you’re doing.
More info: The press release for the event, more pictures of a previous kiteboarding event in Puerto Vallarta.
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