An interview with a Family Traveling from Patagonia to Alaska in an RV converted from a Bus, Parked on The Malecon in Puerto Vallarta
Plans for the new Brewery for Los Muertos Brewery, and a new restaurant Added to The Grupo Restaurant El Granero
What Happened To Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s Head?
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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, Puerto Vallarta’s Oldest Restaurant on the famous Los Muertos Beach, and The El Dorado Restaurant and Beach Club right next door so you can enjoy that fantastic view of the Los Muertos Pier all lit up at night in beautiful colors, or during the day in its grand splendor 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 we have a couple of interesting interviews. The first is Conner Watts from Los Muertos Brewing who is going to tell us about his new restaurant he’s in the process of building and that’s El Granero or the Barn, and then you will meet a family who I encountered in May, parked in their converted bus/RV right on the Malecon next to the lighthouse. They began their journey at the very tip, the southernmost part of South America in Patagonia, and they intend to make it all the way to Alaska.
They have a very interesting story but before we get to Conner, and Matu and Shanty our travelers, let’s see what’s happening in Puerto Vallarta this week, the 11th of September 2019.
Puerto Vallarta Celebrates Mexican Independence 2019
Independence Day is coming September the 16th, and that means proclamations, parades, and
ceremonious traditions will be followed, and there are four days of celebrations during the Independence Day festivities in Puerto Vallarta from the 13th to the 16th of September. On the night of the 15th there will be the traditional Grito de Independencia ceremony, together with music and fireworks.
September 14th 2019, Charro Day Parade in Puerto Vallarta
And on the 14th, The Charros come to town with the traditional Charro Day Parade on the Malecon. Let me read from their Facebook page…
Each year in celebration of Mexico’s Charro tradition, Puerto Vallarta honors Charro Day with a parade and performance. At 10:00 am, more than 100 members of La Unión de Asociaciones de Charros de Puerto Vallarta (the Union of Puerto Vallarta Charros Associations) and delegations from other Latin American countries will parade through town with great clamor. The parade starts at Plaza Lazaro Cardenas and ends at the McDonald’s on the Malecón.
https://www.facebook.com/events/malec%C3%B3n-puerto-vallarta/charro-day/288859328159811/
So, if you are in town, you are in for a real fine treat.
Will Puerto Vallarta Uber Drivers Unionize?
They are looking to unionize Uber in Vallarta…. From Observatorio Bahia online…
Yerena says yes to Uber The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) could receive unions that are formed from Uber or other digital platforms, once they are regularized in Puerto Vallarta, Rafael Yerena Zambrano said. The secretary general of the CTM in Jalisco, said the above, when questioned about the possibility of forming a union of public transport workers based on digital platforms, once they will be regularized in the city. “If they decide to organize to organize, it can be done, but first they have to be regularized so that it is a fair competition with taxi drivers.” It should be remembered that the Secretary of Transportation of the State of Jalisco (Setran), Diego Monraz Villaseñor, said a few days ago that in Puerto Vallarta digital platforms would begin the process of regularization starting next September 17 of this month. In that sense, the labor hierarchy declared that if they wanted to join the CTM, they could be formed “with the workers and an organization of the car owners could also be made, such as the ones we have to the taxi drivers, in the taxi drivers we have an organization that is of the permit holders and another organization that the taxi drivers ”. It should be remembered that the CTM was one of the organizations that most opposed the existence and regularization of digital platforms in the coastal city of the state of Jalisco.
So let’s see what shakes out.
Mexico to start charging a VAT To Airbnb Owners
From the Mazatlan Post….
A further step in the regulation of digital accommodation platforms is underway, with the modifications issued by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) to the miscellaneous tax, in which the hosts must pay the taxes corresponding to the business activity.
In accordance with the Criteria for the VAT Law, individuals or corporations that grant the temporary use or enjoyment of goods must pay the tax at a rate of 16 percent. The document details what is meant by temporary enjoyment of assets: “the lease, usufruct and any other act, by which a person allows another to temporarily enjoy or use tangible assets in exchange for consideration.”
Although there is an exemption from the income tax of a real estate, it does not apply to spaces: furnished, destined as a hotel or destined as lodging houses. It indicates the document published in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
With this measure, the SHCP officially recognizes the existence of hosts that provide the hosting service through technological platforms and that do not contribute to their VAT payment, qualifying it as an improper practice.
The agency also issued amendments to the Criteria of the ISR Law, which considers the services offered by digital platform hosts, as a business hosting activity, so they will also be subject to the payment of this contribution.
“The lodging contract is given when someone lends the shelter to another through the agreed remuneration, whether or not they agree to provide complementary services … The contract may be tacit or by a signature … In the case of technological platforms, the service is contracted by On certain days, the rate is paid per day and a minimum period is not established for the service to be granted ”, details the document, through which it argues why the hosts must pay ISR.
Source: nitu
The Mazatlan Post
Mexico will charge VAT and ISR to Airbnb hosts and other hosting platforms
The new Mexican 200 peso note is coming..
From Mexico News Daily…
Goodbye to the nun Sister Juana: new 200-peso note coming in September
The new note will feature Mexican independence icons Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos. Feminist poet and nun Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz will no longer adorn Mexico’s 200-peso notes once new bills go into circulation in September.
The Bank of México (Banxico) has announced that the new bills will feature the countenances of Mexican independence icons Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos.
The bill’s reverse side will feature an image of the El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, a protected ecoregion in the Sonoran Desert.
Banxico’s Alejandro Alegre told the newspaper Milenio that bills are changed for three reasons: to apply more elements that will prevent counterfeits; to make them out of more durable, longer-lasting materials; and to incorporate features that aid the visually impaired and money counting machines in identifying them.
The 200-peso note is the second denomination to undergo a design change.
Last year, Banxico issued the new 500-peso bill, which replaced the faces of painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera with that of former president Benito Juárez. The change, along with that of the bill’s color to blue, has caused confusion because it resembles the 20-peso note.
But the latter will gradually be taken out of circulation and replaced by a coin.
“The 20-peso bill costs less to manufacture, but lasts 40 months in circulation,” said Alegre. “Whereas the coin costs more than printing a bill, but lasts more than 30 years in circulation, so [the change] makes better use of public resources.”
One feature of Mexican currency that will not change, and for which it stands apart internationally, is the difference in the sizes of the denominations. This is another feature that helps the visually impaired identify the bills.
Sources: Sopitas (sp), Milenio (sp)
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/new-200-peso-note-coming-in-september/
What Happened to Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla?
So, what is the Grito de Independencia I was talking about? Well as you may recall from previous years
podcasts, The Grito, or The Cry of Dolores is a historical event that occurred in Dolores, Mexico, in the early morning of 16 September 1810. Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the bell of his church and gave the proclamation that triggered the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
The exact words were never written down, but…the essential spirit of the message is…from wikipedia.. ‘My children: a new dispensation comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen three hundred years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once… Will you defend your religion and your rights as true patriots? Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the Gachupines!
And thus began the ten year battle for independence. But whatever happened to Miguel Hidalgo? It’s a very interesting story. Sure, he met the firing squad like so many of his fellow rebels and revolutionaries, but it’s what happened to his head, which I find very mind blowing.
It all began with a woman…doesn’t it always?
The woman was Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, and Josefa was the wife of the Magistrate in the City of Queretaro. She was a housewife who mainly took care of their 14 children. But Josefa was a bit rebellious, and she had a soft spot for the native Indian, indigenous population who were relegated to second class citizens with second class jobs and roles in society.
She organized a sort of secret literary society which evolved into a political society attracting such figures as Father Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, a captain in the Spanish Army, Juan Aldama who was a captain in the Queens Calvary Regiment, and Jose Mariano Jimenez, an engineer from San Luis Potosi. And in these meetings, turned from books to revolution. Last year we talked about the strange events happening in Spain that prompted many in New Spain, Mexico, to begin to worry about their stuff. Their futures, and the idea of freedom from Spain. These revolutionaries began to collect and store weapons, and supplies in various homes with the intention of beginning the revolution on the 8th of December, but
the plan was changed because there was a rat among the revolutionaries who spilled the frijoles, and reported it to the local authorities who turned to Josefa Ortiz’s Dominguez’s husband, Miguel Dominguez the magistrate of Queretaro. Of course they weren’t aware that the local Magistrate’s wife, was actually part of the conspiracy. So Miguel Dominguez had his wife locked up in her room, so she couldn’t get word out to her co conspirators. Eventually, she was able to get to warning out before the rebels could be rounded up, and they split from Queterao, to the town of Dolores, where Miguel Hidalgo de Castillo gave his famous Grito, in the early morning hours of September 16th 1810.
After the Priest gave the Grito, the Spanish Loyalists began to worry for their safety after hearing that Hidalgo’s first target would be the capture of Guanajuato. And in Guanajuato, there’s a place called Alhondiga de Granaditas, it was built to store grain and as a warehouse. A huge building with thick walls and only one door.
The local loyalists’ soldiers and their families took shelter, awaiting the arrival of the rebel forces which took some time to scour the countryside, picking up recruits for this large army. Untrained, many just with rocks and slingshots as weapons.
The 500 or so inside the Alhondiga de Granaditas were no match for the 20,000 rebels.
They were asked to surrender and refused, and so the building was attacked.
The Assault on Alhonda de Granaditas
A famous rebel hero arose, he was El Pipila. El Pipila was born a cripple and due to his unusual manner of walking was given the nickname of El Pipila (the turkey). El Pipila became the champion of Guanajuato and Mexico. El Pipila is remembered so fondly by the city that, for so many years tormented the poor cripple. And this description from guanajuatomexicocity.com
El Pipila, not fearing for his safety strapped a large stone on his back, picked up a bucket of tar and grabbed a flaming torch and ran at the only weak point of the structure, the wooden door.
On his dash to the door, the stone on his back protected him from the arrows of the Spanish defenders. Once at the door he coated it in tar and set the tar alight by his torch. The fire weakened the solid wood door and the smoke limited the sight of the archers allowing others to rush the door. The rioters forced open the door and flooded into the “Alhondiga de Granaditas”.
All the inhabitants were slaughtered, including the women and the children, and their treasures stolen, and that was the first action of the rebels in the fight for independence. The city of Guanaguato was sacked and it’s said that Hidalgo decided not to attack Mexico City, in order to avoid a complete massacre like the one in Guanajuato.
On November 25th, 1810, just Guanajuato was soon retaken by the Loyalist forces, and the rebel’s defenders that didn’t escape were put to death.
In January, the rebel army was in retreat after being badly beaten in the battle for Calderon Bridge, near Guadalajara. It was at a place on the outskirts of Zacatecas, where Allende took command of the insurgent army from Hidalgo,
And then the insurgents headed to the northern Mexican state of Coahuila ultimately hoping to cross into Texas and get arms and re-supplied in United States. It was then that the leaders of the rebellion, Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Jose Mariano Jimenez were captured, betrayed by a double agent by the name of Ignacio Elizando Villareal, the Benedict Arnold of the Mexican Revolution as he is known, at a place called the Wells of Bejan, in Coahuila de Zaragoza. That whole episode of deception is a story all in itself and maybe we will get to that in another episode, but the on March 21, 1811, just 6 months after delivering the Grito of Delores, Miguel Hidalgo and his co conspirators were and many other captured military leaders of the rebellion, were taken to Chihuahua, for trial, condemned to death, and executed by firing squad July 30th,1811. Also another story for another day, but the next thing that happened is the mind blower…The commander of the Royalist forces that retook Guanajuato and the Alhondiga de Granditas Felix Maria Calleja, ordered the heads of Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Jose Mariano Jimenez, be removed from the bodies, and taken back to Guanajuato, and when the arrived in October of 1811, the heads were hung in cages, and each cage was hung on the corners of the Alhondiga with the following inscription….
The heads of Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and Mariano Jiménez, famous criminals and leaders of the revolution, who pillaged and stole goods from God and the royal treasury. Nailed here by order of the King’s Brigadier Félix María Calleja.
The heads remained there until March28th, 1821, ten years later after independence.
Today, the Alhondiga de Granaditas is a regional museum.
And that my friends, is the answer as to what happened to the head of Miguel Hidalgo de Castilla, Priest, conspirator, and patriot.
And as I said, there’s a great story about the capture of the rebels at the Wells of Bajan I need to tell you about, as well as what happened to the woman who started it all, Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez. Next week while Patriots week is winding down.
Until then, let’s get to the interviews.
Restaurant El Granero in Puerto Vallarta
Last time I was in town, I ran into Conner Watts from Los Muertos Brewing. I’ve had Conner on the show
before, and he was out walking his dog and he said he had a surprise for me. He told me he was making some changes and had some special plans in store, so I got together with him at the restaurant in the
morning before opening, and sat down to talk about his plans, so let’s go right now to Lazaro Cardenas 302, Los Muertos Brewing, and let’s talk with Conner Watts….
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Okay, I have pictures of Conner progress in the show notes as well as a video of the arrival of the brewing tanks in the show notes. Conner says they are progressing slowly but surely, and I’ll be talking again next month so stay tuned for a follow-up
Contact for Los Muerto Brewing, Puerto Vallarta
- Website: http://losmuertosbrewing.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/losmuertosbrewing/?rf=449343242100525
- Address: Lazaro Cardenas 302 Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco 48380
The Road from Patagonia to Puerto Vallarta by Bus El Bicho Latino
You never know what you are going to see or find on the Malecon, the boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta, when you visit. And the last time down they were having the Down Vallarta BMX exposition, which
ended up on the Malecon, and I found a Bus, parked on the Malecon. It was a bright green bus with a map drawn on it, some murals, a sign on the back asking for gas money, and a couple, with some card tables set up in front of the bus, displaying books.
These people had converted a bus into an RV, and were on an adventure, traveling from the southern most tip of South America, Patagonia to their intended destination, Alaska.
I was intrigued and as you know, I’m always fascinated by people who choose to travel outside the normal modes, so I asked Matu if he would talk with me, and he told me his wife Shanti was a better
English speaker. And Shanti agreed to talk with me. Shanti Gorloo, the lady from Belgium, who gave away her small photography business to her employees before taking off on her adventure. She had no return ticket, and she purchased an old retired city bus outside Buenos Aires.
So, I sat down with Shanti, and asked her what this was all about. And she told me. Let’s go to the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, right next to the lighthouse, and meet the couple who have been traveling by bus for over 13 years, that’s right, 13 years Let’s talk with Shanti Gorloo about her bus, El Bicho Latino.
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El Bicho Latino Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/elbicholatinolibro/
Wow. 13 years. I checked up on the family and they haven’t gone too far from Vallarta, They are still in Nayarit. They spent lots of time on the beach towns north of Vallarta, so I’m guessing it’ll be a while before I welcome them to Southern California, but I’ll tell you when they do. Maybe I’ll get another interview from them. You never know. I have pictures of the bus inside and out, Pictures of Matu and of daughter as well. Check them out in the shownotes, and you can follow them on their Facebook page, which I have linked up as well in the shownotes.
Okay that should do it for this week.
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.
Thanks to Conner Watts, We’ll update you on the progress of El Granero, the new restaurant and brewery, I have pics, and thank you to Shanty Zania and Matu from El Bicho Latino, the magic green bus. Follow them on Facebook..
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!
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