An interview with Jose Chamaco Castillo a Private Driver in Puerto Vallarta. Also JR Talks about Sailing White Cloud II, and a Canadian Woman is Electrocuted in Puerto Vallarta.
Hello fellow travelers, welcome this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel show. I am your host Barry Kessler and I am just so happy to be introducing you to my favorite vacation destination, and maybe even yours, Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
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That music you were just listening to is performed by Alberto Perez, the owner of the La Palapa Group of Restaurants. Those are La Palapa, The
El Dorado Beach Club, and at night for dinner The El Dorado transforms into the ever so romantic Vista Grill with those dramatic views of the Los Muertos Pier all lit up at night in beautiful colors. Of course, at La Palapa you can enjoy that same view of the Los Muertos Pier all day long for breakfast, lunch or dinner, seated with our toes in the sand right at the water’s edge. It’s so romantic, it’s so, Puerto Vallarta my friends.
This week I have two interviews. I have JR, John Russell, my Co-Host coming on after a long absence and we will be talking about sailing and Old Puerto Vallarta, and I will be interviewing a private driver here in Puerto Vallarta named Jose Chamaco Castillo but first, let’s see what’s happening this week in Puerto Vallarta the 8th of August, 2018.
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It’s back to School time at Corazon de Nina, and if you don’t know what Corazon de Nina is, it’s a home for at risk children, kids who are too old for the local orphanages, Melissa takes them in and works miracles, so if you haven’t listened to our interview, you really need to go back and listen to it, and I will have a link to it in the show-notes just in case. Well I have a message from Melissa Canez who writes…
HELP – IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!!
We have 34 children starting Primary and Secondary school in mid-August and, so far, only 13 of these children are sponsored. So, we are asking for your help!! You can sponsor a child for the year for $300 USD which includes their education, food, medical, dental, transportation, medical insurance.
Here are our children and we would be happy to attach names and support to them.
You will see the profiles and pictures of the children in our summer newsletter. If you want to help can you please send an email to Jean Jewell at admin@corazondenina.mx and give her the name of the child you would like to sponsor. Donations can be made through our website at fundacioncorazondenina.mx Thank you for opening your hearts!
I have the information in the show notes with pictures of the kids that you can sponsor. When you go to my website and the show notes, you will find a link to the Corazon de Nina Newsletter, scroll down and you will find the photos and the bios for the children who really need your help. Get together with a friend or two and make the donation that will keep them in school, medical insurance and more. They do such great work there, and just remember when you head down to Vallarta contact Melissa and see what they might need at the time you are coming down. And if you can donate $300 US to sponsor a child for the year, do it! Check out the profiles of the kids who need your help.
Corazon de Nina Website
Vallarta Botanical Garden’s Now Giving Tours
Got an announcement for you from Bob Price at the Vallarta Botanical Garden…
Our business is expanding! This coming October we launch our own tours to the Vallarta Botanical Garden. We will pick you up in town for a guided tour
by luxury motor coach for the experience of a lifetime. Tour the new vanilla plantation and the other magnificent attractions of our garden with a special gourmet Mexican lunch included! More details soon! We’re so excited!
And we are excited too Bob! Just another item to add to the ever growing list of things to do in Puerto Vallarta. Or in this case, Cabo Corrientes, but hey we need to be accurate here right?
2 New 5 Star Reviews
Great interviews and a wealth of information
In iTunes by Sleeper Wave from USA on July 20, 2018
Just returned from my first trip to Vallarta and already burned through your first 13 podcasts and anticipate listening to all of them in a short period of time. Many thanks, Barry, for the obvious time and devotion you put into this podcast. The production quality is outstanding and I’m amazed that you provide full transcripts of many of the podcasts. The show notes are always full of details and helpful links. Your interviews with JR and local business owners and community leaders are skillful and informative. You really draw out stories about life in Vallarta. It would seem you’re not marketing anything other than a love of Vallarta that you want to share with others. Your rich and clear baritone voice is an added bonus and makes it easy to listen to the podcast in noisy environments. I’ve already booked my next trip for Christmas and New Year’s. Keep the podcasts flowing!
Wow, so thirteen down and what like 70 more to go? At an hour an episode, you can get through all of them in 3 days of straight binge listening.
And this next review….
Barry’s Podcast is Excellent.
in iTunes by Steve B777 from Canada on August 1, 2018
Barry, my wife and I wanted to say a very big thank you for all of your efforts with the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show Podcasts. We have listened since episode 1 and have not missed a single episode. Your show set the stage for our first visit to Vallarta in January & February 2018 and we felt so much at home thanks to your podcast. We did, like so many others, fall in love with Vallarta and we will be back for three months in early 2019. We are lining up a host of places to visit thanks to your continued efforts. Many thanks and keep up the great work. Steve & Dee
Steve also sent me an email tipping me off to a bad link I had on the website for Alberto Perez’s Samba de Puerto Vallarta. So, I changed it, I made the correction so if you had gone to last week’s blogpost and tried to purchase a copy of The Samba de Puerto Vallarta and couldn’t, now you can. And thank you Steve. Thanks for tipping me off and thinks for the 5 star review. You too Sleeperwave. Thanks for listening.
BC Woman Electrocuted in Puerto Vallarta
I got an email from listener Karol ….
Hi Barry,
Not sure if you heard about this news story – a BC woman staying in PV survived a serious electrocution injury recently (rental she was staying in was too close to power lines and there was an arc). Thinking this could be a good topic to raise listener awareness of (especially travelers seeking more local type accommodations).
Love your show. Thanks, Karol
Okay so Thank you Karol, I did not hear about this at all, and if you do a google search, you find her go-fund-me page but let’s go to Global News this report August 2nd 2018, Rumina Daya reporting…
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So, this poor woman got zapped through and through. Kinda like Rambo, Edgar Rene Luna Chan. I mean we joke all the time about the wire rats nests, we see overhead wires on the telephone and power poles in Puerto Vallarta. In fact, one of my favorite Air BnB’s has one of those tangled wire messes right off the balcony. I took a picture of it when I was there last and I have it in the show notes. I definitely was closer than 3 meters. More like 3 inches from that thing.
Let’s read from her GoFundMe page.
Our dear friend Natalee Campbell suffered from a severe electric shock in Puerto Vallarta on May 16th. She was burnt from the inside and out and we are lucky that she is alive. She has a lengthy road to recovery with multiple doctor, physio, and plastic surgery bills to name a few. We have started this GoFundMe page in the hopes of raising some money to help cover the costs she has endured and will endure for a LONG, long time to come.
For those of you that don’t know the story, Natalee was standing on the balcony of the rental property she was staying at in Mexico, she was holding her phone and her hand got too close to the city street wires. Many volts of electricity went through her hand and out her stomach which was leaning against the metal railing. She also suffered from a fractured skull and bleeding of the brain. She spent 4 days in the Mexican hospital and underwent two surgeries. When she was stable enough to fly, she was medevacked to VGH on May 21st. After two more surgeries and 1st degree burns to the face and neck, 2nd degree burns to the arms and chest, 3rd degree burns to her hand and stomach, and requiring multiple skin grafts from her leg, she was released from the hospital on May 29th.
Even though she had travel insurance (thankfully), Natalee has had to return to VGH for weekly checkups and additional skin grafting. She is still in discomfort and has an abundance of damage all over her body. She now has to wear a pressure garment 23 hours a day for the next year and will have to re-order a new one in October. The garment costs alone will be over $1000. There is still a long road ahead and we are uncertain as to what other expenses and medical needs will come her way. We appreciate any donation (if any) to help cover Natalee’s medical costs … and/or positive vibes sent her way during this time.
Any funds remaining Natalee would like to donate to the VGH burn unit.
Now I looked to see if this was a common event here in Puerto Vallarta, and couldn’t find any others so that’s a relief. But be aware.
I’ll give her this, she did things right, she had traveler’s insurance and let that be a lesson to you folks who come here and don’t. I have a link to the World News Video and it’s a pretty gruesome burn she got. I have a link to her go fund me page with pictures and more.
https://www.gofundme.com/help-natalee-cover-the-costs
And thanks again Karol with a K. I would have never known about this incident had you not brought this to my attention, and with so many nontraditional ways to stay in Vallarta, Airbnb, VIRBO and so forth, it’s good to know we need to look out for this potential danger. So, Karol, you might have saved a life. Thanks for the info.
Okay let’s get on with the interviews.
John Russell and the Sailing Vessel White Cloud II
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My first guest is my co-host. JR, John Russell. Now JR is the man behind Vallartainfo.com, I website I like to send you to for tours, maps of
Vallarta and more.
Well I was talking with JR the last time down and he was telling me that one of his friends suggested he write a book about all his adventures in Puerto Vallarta and stories about his life. So, I asked him how long has this friend been suggesting he write his memoirs, and he said oh, about 10 years or so.
Well, I suggested he might consider, instead of writing them, maybe I could record an audio version of his memoirs. And he agreed.
So, we had been discussing the podcast with Captain Kirk and Heidi, and their sailing adventures, by the way, Kirk and Heidi are still in Puerto Vallarta. Kirk is doing fine, and they finally got the boar motor problems solved.
Anyway, we got to talking about sailing down here and I asked him to tell the whole story of the sailboat he came down to work on his first visit to Puerto Vallarta, the sailing vessel White Cloud II. So, let’s go to JR’s living room overlooking Puerto Vallarta, and hear from the man himself.
Okay, well the part of the story where they polled the plug and sank White Cloud, I sort of got a tear in my eye.
There will be more from JR in the coming weeks. I love his stories.
The Apartment Vacation Rental Next Door to JR
Casa Jazz
Jose “Chamaco” Castillo, Your Private Driver in Puerto Vallarta
The next interview is with a soft-spoken young man named Jose Chamaco Castillo. Jose is a private driver. He’s not a cab, not an UBER, no, Jose is
a private driver who has a really nice SUV, and he knows his way around the bay and beyond. Jose is another one of those guys you listeners suggested I talk with and introduce you guys to, so without any further adieu, let’s go to my Airbnb in the heart of the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, complete with crowing roosters, and let’s meet your private driver in Paradise, Jose Chamaco Castillo…
Contact Information For Jose Castillo
- Telephone: 322-101-1219
- Email: chamacojh@yahoo.com
- Chamaco Castillo on Facebook
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Jose is great. Soft spoken yes, but he can take you places only locals know about.
I have pictures of some of the places he takes his clients to in the show notes, places like San Sebastian, Mayto, Tehuamittle, La Cruz and more so check them out. You will certainly get the bug to climb on-board his SUV, and discover places around the bay that you never knew existed.
Okay, that should do it for this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show.
Next week, stay tuned for more on the ground reports from Puerto Vallarta Mexico, with travel tips, great restaurant and excursion ideas and more. Until then, remember, this is an interactive show where I depend on your questions and suggestions about all things Puerto Vallarta. If you think of something I should be talking about, please reach out to me by clicking on the Contact us tab and sending us your message.
And remember, if you are considering booking any type of tour while you are in Puerto Vallarta, you must go to Vallartainfo.com, JR’s website and reserve your tour through him, right from his website. Remember the value for value proposition. His experience and on the ground knowledge of everything Puerto Vallarta in exchange for your making a purchase of a tour that you would do anyway, you’re just doing it through him as a way of saying thank you. It costs no more than if you were to use someone else so do it. Really. And when you do take one of these tours, email me about your experiences. Maybe you can come on-board and share with others what you liked or didn’t like about the tour. Again, contact me by clicking on the Contact us tab and sending off a message. Don’t forget his maps, his DIY tours and his revitalized Happy Hour Board. I have links to all of those in the show notes.
And once again, if you like this podcast, please take the time and subscribe and give me a good review on iTunes if you would. That way we can get the word out to more and more people about the magic of this place. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Remember I made it easy for you to do just that with each episode I create. But if you haven’t been to my website, you really need to have a look there. I have the links to the places we talk about, interesting pictures and the more all right there in my blog-posts and show-notes for each episode of the show so check them out for sure if you haven’t already all-right? All right.
So, thanks to you Jose Chamaco Castillo, thanks for coming on the show and telling us about what you do in Paradise. I have links to bring you right to him in the shownotes, I have pictures and more. And
thanks to you JR, I love your stories and can’t wait to bring more of them to all of you in the coming weeks. Don’t forget him when you make reservations for a Puerto Vallarta Tour. He is your man, And thanks to all of you for listening all the way through this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show. This is Barry Kessler signing off with a wish for you all to slow down, be kind and live the Vallarta lifestyle. Nos Vemos amigos!