Plan Your Next Fishing Trip in Puerto Vallarta with Master Baiter’s Sportfishing & Tackle
Their Motto is..”Puerto Vallartas #1 Sportfishing Charter – Master Baiters Sportfishing won’t Jerk You Around!”
Owner Stan Gabruk Tells us Some Great Fishing Stories in Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta News and More
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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.
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 your toes in the sand right at the water’s edge. It’s so romantic, it’s so, Puerto Vallarta my friends.
Contact Information for Master Baiter’s Sportfishing and Tackle in Puerto Vallarta
- Address: Av. Paseo de la Marina 161, Marina Vallarta, 48354 Puerto Vallarta
- Phone: +52 322 209 1128
- Website: https://masterbaiters.com.mx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Master-Baiters-Sportfishing-Tackle-88817121325
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MasterBaiterStan/videos
This week we are headed to the Marina Vallarta to learn a little about sports fishing on the Bahia de Banderas. We are going meet a funny guy, his name is Stan Gabruk and Stan owns a place with a funny name called Master Baiter’s Sports Fishing and Tackle. Stan has some of the best fishing stories, and his story is pretty good too, but before we get to Stan and Master Baiter’s, I can see we may have a problem keeping this show rated clean, if you are sensitive that way you may want to bail, but hey wait…don’t go yet…not before we see what’s happening this week in Puerto Vallarta, the 15th day of December, 2020….
Today is a big day for our friends at Bonito Kitchen
Bonito Kitchen Opens in the Romantic Zone
Grand Opening of Bonito Kitchen in The Romantic Zone today December 15, 2020.
Congratulations to Francine Nguyen of Bonito Kitchen today is the inauguration day at their new location at Insurgentes 108, Emiliano Zapata, just on the south side of the old insurgents bridge, right on the river in a beautiful location that took a little longer to build out than planned, but what a lovely place to eat Francine’s great culinary creations. See her when you finally get back to town and don’t forget to bring her some spicy hot miso paste and sesame oil.
Casa Isabel Is Open Again
Isabel Manore at Casa Isabel has been busily updating her palapas at Casa Isabel. The big yellow house on the hill. She removed the palm fronds and replaced them with tent awning and it looks great! Isabel has been very careful, keeping a low profile during the pandemic, but finally she has opened up for dinner and drinks again and everything is right with the world. The view from Casa Isabel is very unique. A great view across the Zona Romantica towards the church and the bay. It is a great sunset spot or romantic dinner place. Keep Isabel in mind.
New 100 Peso Note in Mexico
Mexico has a new 100 peso note and it’s kinda pretty, and definitely different looking.
From Mexico News Daily…
Bank of México puts new 100-peso banknote into circulation
The bill has a vertical format and unique security elements
Published on Friday, November 13, 2020
A new 100-peso banknote, the third in a new family of bills, was placed in circulation Thursday by the central bank.
Featuring the likeness of 17th century feminist poet and nun Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz on one side and an image of monarch butterflies in a pine, oak and fir forest on the other, the predominantly red-colored note is made of polymer rather than paper.
“It has a vertical format and unique security elements,” Bank of México Governor Alejandro Díaz de León told a press conference.
Among them: embossing perceptible by touch on the Sor (Sister) Juana side, a transparent window similar to those on the existing 20-peso and 50-peso banknotes, a multicolor denomination and fluorescent ink.
Presenting the new note, Díaz described Sor Juana as an “erudite and combative writer who fought to overcome the obstacles that limited women’s access to culture.”
She became “one of the most important protagonists of Spanish-American literature in the 17th century,” he said.
While speaking about the reverse side of the note, Díaz said that forests cover 16% of Mexico’s territory and play an important role in supporting Mexico’s biodiversity. The monarch butterflies featured on the note migrate to forests in México state and Michoacán from Canada and the United States every year.
The new 100-peso note replaces a paper bill featuring the likeness of Nezahualcóyotl, a ruler of the city-state of Texcoco in the 15th century. That note remains legal tender but will be gradually withdrawn from circulation.
The release of the new banknote comes two years after a new 500-peso bill featuring images of former president Benito Juárez and a gray whale entered circulation and one year after a new 200-peso note was introduced.
The face of Sor Juana appeared on the old 200-peso note but was removed in favor of independence heroes Miguel Hidalgo and José Morelos on the new one. The other side of the new 200-peso bill features an eagle flying over the Sonoran desert.
The fourth and fifth members of the new family of notes will be 1,000-peso and 50-peso bills.
The new 1,000-peso note will feature the 33rd president of Mexico, Francisco I. Madero, Revolution-era feminist Hermila Galindo and revolutionary Carmen Serdán. A jaguar will stalk its reverse side next to an image of the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul.
The axolotl, a species of salamander endemic to Mexico City’s Lake Xochimilco, will be featured on one side of the new 50-peso bill, while gracing the other will be an image commemorating the founding of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire at the time of the Spanish conquest.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
A link to that article can be found at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com
JR lives on Calle Sor Juana, and I always wondered who it was name d after, and now we know.
The Saga of Marta and The Lost Daypack
So, over the last few shows I have been relaying to you the saga of the lost daypack, so let me review and catch you all up.
Last month I was on a public bus in Puerto Vallarta on my way to exchange dollars to pesos and to record an interview with a lovely lady, Luisa, a clothing designer and seamstress in centro Vallarta. When I got off the bus I quickly realized I had left my daypack on the bus which had all my recording equipment, my microphones, my recorder, some money, a credit card…stuff like that. My biggest regret in all of it was I had recorded interviews stored on a memory card, inside the Zoom H6 recorder that had never been aired going as far back as January of this year. The equipment was replaceable but those recordings were …well, important.
I had given up all hope of getting back the daypack because as my friends told me, if I had lost it in a cab or an Uber, I would have a much better chance of getting it back because the driver has more control over items left in their vehicle, but a bus driver has very little control over left items because anyone can scoop up an item left on a seat, and walk right off the bus and the driver wouldn’t even know what happened.
But when I got back to Los Angeles, a few days passed and I received an email from a guy who told me his mother in law had my backpack, and wanted to return it to me in exchange for a reward. He left me his phone number in the email and I called him up, and he said she wasn’t there, but that he would relay my phone number to her, and she would call me the following day. So, she did. Now this is all in Spanish mind you and that’s okay…but we got into a discussion about how much of a reward she wanted, and although I offered her what I thought was a fair reward of 150 US or 3,000 pesos, she wanted more. 5000 pesos which translates to 250 US.
As it turns out, I decided to send the money and get the bag back from Marta.
So I sent a MoneyGram to my buddy Anastacio Tolentino Vargas, and told Marta to call him to set up a time and date to exchange the daypack with all my stuff, for the 5,000 pesos, or 250 dollars US, and this afternoon, if everything goes as planned, Anastacio will have my daypack with all my equipment back, and I will pick it up from him when I return to Vallarta the 9th of January.
I asked him to take a picture of Marta for me to share with you all, so we’ll see if it all comes to fruition. If it does, I save myself hours of re-recording lost interviews and that will be good for the show. Especially if I am limited in any way to coming down in the near future due to pandemic regulations.
At any rate, an expensive lesson for me but I’m very surprised I got the bag back at all. It was all because of that business card I had in the bag with my email address on it. Otherwise, I’d never see it again. Kinda makes me think about doing what my mom did and stick address labels on everything. Maybe I’ll get myself a black sharpie and mark the insides of my underwear. Nawww. Remember those motel keys you used to get with the key fob that said drop in any mailbox to return, with the address of the hotel on the fob. Can you imagine that happening today? Nope.
I did notice that the exchange rate has been changing and a dollar isn’t buying as many pesos when I’m sending cash to my Mexican friends lately. And I saw this article in Mexico News Daily that confirmed my feelings…
The Peso is Strong and it’s Hard on Mexico
Remisas, which is Spanish for remittance and the term used when a Mexican sends money from the states to Maxico, to their families, are coming up short due to a strong peso….
The article confirms…
Soaring peso inconvenient to some but a quadruple whammy for economy
A more costly Corona on one side, a devastating plunge for remittance funds on the other
By Carlisle Johnson
Published on Monday, December 7, 2020
Mike might be saying to his San Diego pals on their annual fishing trip to Ensenada, “Geez guys, the Corona’s gotten a lot more expensive this year.”
Sally might be saying to Harry in their Ajijic pied a terre, “Jeez, our pensions don’t seem to go as far now as they used to.”
Mike and Sally are both correct.
On or about April 1, 2020, generally reckoned as the start date for the pandemic, the interbank dollar exchange rate stood at just under 24:1, having flirted with the round number of 25:1 only a few weeks earlier. As this is written the rate has dropped to less than 20.
It may be the invisible hand of Adam Smith in the free market. It may be, as currency traders say, a dirty float, with a policy finger on the scale from Mexico’s central bank. It may be a Faustian bargain with the U.S. to reduce emigration from zero population growth Mexico. It may be a nutrition police op to reduce Mexico’s waistline.
Or it may be all of the above.
Mike, Sally and Harry are annoyed, even inconvenienced by the 20% erosion in the value of their dollars. But the recipients of remittances from sacrificing Mexicans working in the U.S., Canada and Europe may be devastated by the roughly four-peso-per-dollar plunge in the purchasing power of the money sent back home.
It’s a triple or even quadruple whammy to an economy already struggling with loss of employment, a disappeared tourism sector, and low oil prices.
To reduce the situation to Exchange Rates for Dummies: a higher value for a country’s currency stimulates imports, penalizes exporters, hastens capital outflows, and with an expected $36 billion a year in remittances, a four-peso difference puts billions of kilos’ worth of fewer tortillas on the tables of Mexico’s hungriest.
Where are exchange rates headed? Even Don Quixote wouldn’t tilt at that windmill. But he would certainly pay attention to wind speeds.
The author, a former bank CEO, has an MBA from Harvard and has worked in Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico.
A link to that article can be found in the shownotes
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/opinion/soaring-peso-a-quadruple-whammy-for-economy/
US Ambassador Encourages Travel to Mexico
I found this article heartening, I’ve kinda been saying this for some time now…even with Cases of the rona rise in Mexico and the United States… check out this from Mexico News Daily…..
Follow protocols and traveling in Mexico is not a problem: US ambassador
The tourism sector is managing a difficult situation well, Christopher Landau says
Published on Thursday, December 10, 2020
Traveling in Mexico is safe during the coronavirus pandemic if one follows sanitary protocols established by the destination where one travels, says the United States ambassador to Mexico.
Christopher Landau told the newspaper El Financiero Wednesday during a culture and tourism event that he’s seen how seriously restaurants, hotels and other tourism-related businesses take Covid safety protocols and that it gives him confidence that tourists can continue safely traveling in Mexico.
“The most important thing is to stabilize the industry,” he said. “I have been able to determine firsthand that by following health protocols, it’s possible to go — it’s important to go. Mental health is an important part of overall health. One can’t be confined at home month after month after month.”
The ambassador’s opinion appears to stand in stark contrast to other U.S. government entities’ opinions about travel in Mexico, including the Department of State.
The U.S. agreed with the Mexican government in March to prohibit nonessential land border crossings in both directions, although the restriction does not apply to air travel. On September 8, the U.S. Department of State advised American citizens to reconsider travel to Mexico due to Covid-19 and has suspended routine consular and visa services due to Covid-19 since March 18. In late November, the United States Centers for Disease Control issued its highest level of advisory, warning against all travel to Mexico due to Covid.
Nevertheless, Landau insisted on the tourism potential of Mexico.
“I congratulate the tourism sector for its spirit of responsibility. I understand very well that if there are outbreaks associated with tourism, that is going to affect them a lot. What I have seen is that they are managing a very difficult situation quite well,” he said.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
And I have a link to that article in the shownotes.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/coronavirus/travel-in-mexico-is-not-a-problem-us-ambassador/
So, with that encouragement from the US Ambassador himself I think it’s about time we all go on vacation in Puerto Vallarta, and get to our guest.
Master Baiter’s Sportfishing and Tackle in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Our guest is a fisherman and an entrepreneur and a funny guy. His name is Stan Gabruk and he owns a sportfishing and Tackle company in Puerto Vallarta with the most unusual name. It’s actually easy to
remember, kinda…maybe for some more than others… Here’s where if you are tender, and a bit shy, you might want to stand by the pause or fast forward button…it’s Master Baiter’s Sportfishing and Tackle located in Marina Vallarta.
Stan tells people who ask him what he does for a living…”I fold t-shirts and take pictures of dead fish”.
Now even if you have absolutely no intention of ever fishing in the Bahia de Banderas, I want you to hang in here because this conversation, as you know is going to be a lot more than pulling fish out of the water. Stan has some great stories and suggestions about all things Puerto Vallarta, and even though
you may never go fishing, you may end up buying a t-shirt of two. So let’s go right now, to Avenida Paseo de La Marina 161 in Marina Vallarta, and let’s hear a story about the big fish that didn’t get away, Stan Gabruk, head swabbie at Master Baiter’s Sportfishing and Tackle, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico….
Listen To The Podcast
Contact Information for Master Baiter’s Sportfishing and Tackle in Puerto Vallarta
- Address: Av. Paseo de la Marina 161, Marina Vallarta, 48354 Puerto Vallarta
- Phone: +52 322 209 1128
- Website: https://masterbaiters.com.mx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Master-Baiters-Sportfishing-Tackle-88817121325
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MasterBaiterStan/videos
Okay Stan, great advice, terrific stories and hilarious t-shirts. I went to the wayback machine…Google, and law and behold I found an article in the LA Times from AP, Associated Press this article
By FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OCT. 5, 2007
12 AM
TAMPA — Southwest Airlines said it plans to apologize to a Florida passenger after an employee forced him to change out of a sexually suggestive T-shirt or risk getting thrown off the plane.
The incident Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, came after Southwest Airlines created a public uproar by telling a woman on a flight in July that her outfit was too revealing for her to fly.
Largo resident Joe Winiecki said he was sitting in the last row of a Columbus-to-Tampa flight when an employee told him he had to change his T-shirt, turn it inside out or get off the plane.
The shirt, bought in the Virgin Islands, uses sexual double entendre to promote a fictional fishing tackle shop. The largest lettering reads “Master Baiter.”
Winiecki argued that the airline was violating his right to free speech but changed rather than risk getting kicked off the flight and missing a day of work.
“It’s really disappointing in this country when I can’t travel from Ohio to Florida with the clothes on my back,” Winiecki said. “Who’s to say what’s offensive and what’s not?”
Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said the employee made a mistake.
“It was inappropriate for our employee to approach Joe,” he said. “We don’t have a dress code. Only in extreme situations would we want to address this to our customers.”
The issue of in-flight attire moved into the national spotlight when San Diego college student Kayla Ebbert showed up for a Southwest flight in July wearing a denim miniskirt and a summer sweater over a tank top.
An employee objected and asked her to change or leave the plane and get new clothes. Ebbert was allowed to fly after agreeing to alter her outfit. The airline later apologized and tried to make light of the mix-up in humorous advertising.
https://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trw-southwest-airlines-makes-man-change-05oct07-story.html
Stan’s Favorite Places to Eat in Puerto Vallarta
Breakfast
Lunch
- Sazon de Lupita Restaurant in Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- D’Z Route 66, Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Dinner
- Trio Restaurant, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Porto Bello, Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Benitto’s Paninoteca Bar, Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Fajita Banana, Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
So just goes to show you that any kind of media promotion can catapult you to the stratosphere. Who knew Master baitering was so disturbingly unpopular aboard aircraft and in polite company. Okay…I have links and pictures and maps to take you to the front door of Master Baiter’s in the shownotes so go and check them out. Get a t-shirt next time down.
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.
Thank you so much to Stan Gabruk from Master Baiter’s Sportfishing and Tackle in Puerto Vallarta. Make sure to check out his articles in the PV Mirror and Vallarta Today. I have links and maps to take you right to the front door of Master Baiters. If you are thinking about chartering a fishing trip, Stan is your man. Charter a trip or just stop by and buy a great t shirt to bring home to the little ones. Something they can wear to school, or to the neighbor’s house. I’ll link up his online store so you don’t have to fly all the way down to get one.
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!