Traveler’s Insurance is Extremely Important When Traveling to Mexico
Expats Need Healthcare Coverage in Mexico with an International Medical Plan
Covid 19 Coverage is now Covered by Many Traveler’s Insurance Companies
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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.
This week we are going to get us some insurance. Travelers insurance for vacationers and health and property insurance for folks living in Puerto Vallarta. Also what about Covid coverage? Yup, we will talk about that too with our upcoming guest Brett LaMar, an insurance broker from the US living in Puerto Vallarta, but before we get to our guest Brett LaMar, let’s see what’s happening this week in Puerto Vallarta, the 21st of March 2021.
Contact Information For Novamar Insurance, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Facebook Novamar Insurance
- Website Novamar Insurance Mexico
- Email Novamar Insurance Mexico
El Torito Restaurant Closes after 38 years
I got a message from my buddy Bill who gave me a heads up about an all time favorite, calling it quits in the Emiliano Zapata Neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta and that’s El Torrito. After 38 years on the corner of Venustiano Carranza and Ignacio Vallarta, El Torritos is hanging up their bull, at least in the downtown store. They are keeping their Marina Vallarta location open so when you need the rib and sport combination you will
need to head over to the Marina, but wow, I’ve had lots of fun times in that place! In the 80’s that was the hot spot to eat and dance. The bottom floor was the dance floor and cantina, and upstairs was the seating for the restaurant. They always had a line to get in. It was a hopping spot. Over the years it morphed into a sports bar and lately, with the pandemic it’s hard to keep a place as big as El Torito open. Felix, best of luck to you and your family. We’ll see you in the Marina brother!
El Torito Marina Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Accident Closes Puerto Vallarta Airport For a Few Hours
The Airport was closed for a few hours the other day and flights were diverted to Guadalajara and elsewhere as an airplane had some major technical difficulties before takeoff…here’s the story from Mexico News Daily…
Landing gear collapse halts Viva Aerobus flight in Puerto Vallarta
The aircraft was about to take off when the nose gear collapsed.
Published on Friday, March 19, 2021
A Viva Aerobus aircraft lining up to take off from Puerto Vallarta International Airport Thursday afternoon sustained a nose gear collapse, forcing the airport to close temporarily while a maintenance check was conducted on the plane.
None of the 127 passengers and crew on board flight 4343, which was bound for Monterrey, Nuevo León, was hurt, the airline said. In accordance with the airline’s safety policies, all were evacuated via slides.
The passengers were transferred to another flight to Monterrey.
It was the first landing gear failure in the discount airline’s operating history, according to the aviation publication Aerotime Hub.
The nose gear collapse occurred as the Airbus A320 was backtracking on the runway in preparation for takeoff and made a 180-degree turn to line up, according to Aviation Herald.
The Mexican airline, based out of Monterrey, uses 43 Airbus A320 planes that have an average of 4.5 years of service in Viva Aerobus’s fleet, according to Aerotime Hub, which also said that the aircraft in question was 15 years old.
“We regret the inconvenience that this incident has caused and reaffirm our commitment to security on each of our flights, our company’s No. 1 priority,” VivaAerobus officials said in a statement Thursday.
And I have a link to that article in the shownotes.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/landing-gear-collapse-halts-vivaaerobus-flight-in-puerto-vallarta/
Of course the mess is all cleaned up so don’t hesitate to come on down…okay?
Thanks For Your Emails
I’ve been getting emails from some of you who have taken the plunge and gone to Vallarta during the pandemic, and I’m so happy to see some of you coming to Vallarta and helping the local economy while getting some well deserved R and R from the crazy rest of the world. Please keep the emails coming.
And with that in mind I have this article from Vallarta Today
People are coming to Puerto Vallarta
They will be arriving from cities such as Santa Ana, Denver, and Las Vegas on flights operated by Southwest Airlines and Frontier
It is very noticeable that in the last few weeks foreign tourists have been arriving to this Port and have been seen on beaches, in shopping centers as well as in the restaurants of the city since their arrival has been increasing. Some causes have been that the vaccination process in the countries has been very significant, which has given them confidence to travel and return, enjoying the activities offered by this tourist destination. Another important factor is the reactivation of the connectivity of new flights that will be arriving starting March 11.
Luis Villaseñor Nolasco, Acting Director of the Public Trust for Tourism Promotion and Publicity in Puerto Vallarta, informed that the destination will have flights from Santa Ana (California), Denver (Colorado) and Las Vegas (Nevada), starting this Thursday March 11th. Flights from Santa Ana and Denver will be operated by Southwest Airlines, and flights from Las Vegas will be operated by Frontier Airlines starting next Thursday, March 25.
“The recovery of these flights is a very positive message for the local tourism sector and also as a country that Puerto Vallarta and Mexico continue to take firm steps in their economic reactivation and their reinstatement of connectivity; this speaks volumes of the confidence that North American airlines have to fly and return with routes to our country, as part of the restructuring that the airlines are having” pointed out the interim director of the Trust for the promotion of tourism in Puerto Vallarta.
It is worth mentioning that 50 percent of the passengers arriving in Vallarta come from the state of California, this state being the main outbound market led by passengers from Los Angeles, second only to San Francisco and San Diego, and will represent good expectations for the tourism sector of Puerto Vallarta. Thus, during this month of March, the International Airport of Puerto Vallarta could surpass the arrival of 1,400 national and international flights to this beach tourist destination.
And I have a link to that article from Vallarta Today in the show notes.
I found this article in Mexico News Daily which they pulled from El Universal…
Concerns raised over fake Covid tests, lack of standardized controls
Fake test results are being sold to international travelers, association warns
Published on Friday, March 19, 2021
An association of private medical laboratories has called on the federal government to crack down on companies and people selling fake Covid-19 test results to international travelers.
The Mexican Council of Medical Diagnosis Companies (Comed) said fake test results are being sold in hotels and airports and called on the health regulator Cofepris to identify and sanction those guilty of the practice.
A negative test result is required to travel to various countries including the United States and Canada.
“Fake test [results] are easily detected and those responsible for issuing them must be sanctioned immediately. People traveling internationally can and must do legal tests performed by authorized and serious laboratories that provide service to airports and hotels,” Comed said.
“… This illegal trafficking [of fake results] only promotes greater spread of the virus at the time of a serious health emergency and the appearance of new variants of SARS-CoV-2.”
Comed also called on the government to work with social media companies to identify people selling and buying fake Covid-test results online.
Daniel Uribe, CEO of GenoBank.io, a company that provides secure digital wallets to store DNA data, told the newspaper El Universal that security features on Covid test results issued by the government and authorized labs should be increased to avoid falsification.
He said test results should have QR codes that allow them to be certified, explaining that would avoid fraud by phony laboratories and everyday citizens won’t be able to falsify results.
“There are people who sell tests with false negatives, that’s why it’s important … to improve security features on the results of diagnostic tests,” Uribe said.
He also said that unreliable Covid-19 testing kits that are sold on the black market are a concern in both Mexico and the United States.
Guillermo Máynez Gil, general director of Comed, said that eight laboratories are already using blockchain technology to ensure that their Covid tests results are not vulnerable to falsification or other illegal practices.
There are 129 laboratories, hospitals and research centers with federal government authorization to conduct Covid tests but there is a lack of effective regulation of testing in Mexico.
El Universal reported that there are no standardized testing controls in Mexico’s main tourism destinations.
“The airports and hotels chose the laboratories with which they work and in all cases it’s said they are certified by health authorities; However, there is not a regulator at a national level that supervises the … tests that are applied to tourists,” said the newspaper, which spoke with authorities in Oaxaca city, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco
It noted that a laboratory in Cancún where a group of Argentine tourists were supposedly tested was shut down by Quintana Roo authorities on Thursday. Many of the tourists tested positive for Covid in Argentina after traveling home with negative Covid results provided by the now-shuttered lab.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Monday that the lab, Marbu Salud, wasn’t authorized to perform Covid tests.
El Universal said that about 80 hotels in Los Cabos have their own testing stations where antigen rapid tests are performed whereas tourists in Oaxaca city that need a negative Covid test result in order to travel home have to seek out a testing location on their own.
However, there is no official list of authorized labs in Oaxaca where foreigners can get tested, the newspaper said.
Lilzi Orcí, president of the Los Cabos Hotel Association, said hotels in that destination are working with authorized labs, noting that international guests are normally tested two days before their return flights. El Universal was not able to verify Orcí’s claims that the hotels are working with authorized labs.
In Puerto Vallarta, 16 hotels offer free antigen testing and 32 offer antigen and PCR testing at a special price, El Universal said. That city’s tourism trust has also published a list of authorized Covid testing providers.
Covid-19 tests are also performed by authorized providers at many airports across the country including those located in Oaxaca, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Mexico City.
Source: El Universal (sp)
Fundraiser to Help The Beach Vender Luis
Have you ever seen the little vender on the beach near the Los Muertos Pier? The guy who looks like he has no legs? Well, his name is Luis, and he has Thyroid Cancer. I got a note from my buddy Renee let me know there’s a GoFundMe set up for Luis…. Let me read from the GoFundMe post…
Help Luis Beat Thyroid Cancer
This is Luis. He is a remarkable young man with a wife and two kids. He lives in Puerto Vallarta Mexico where my husband and I met him selling scarves on the beach. He has become part of our family and his kids are like grand children to us. He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last week and is scheduled for thyroidectomy on Saturday March 13. 2021. He must raise 100,000 pesos about $6,500.00 Canadian before he can have the surgery. Mexico does not have Go Fund Me so I am doing this on Luis’s behalf. I have set the goal at 10,000 cdn as he will not likely be able to work as he undergoes follow up treatment. Any amount you can donate would be greatly appreciated. Below is a note I received from Luis when he came home from the Oncologist.
Hello friend, I am going to have surgery on Saturday they are going to remove the thyroid tumor, they will remove the entire gland and some glangios, fortunately it could be detected in time, now I need to raise money for my surgery on Saturday, the surgery will cost 60 thousand pesos and the hospital intensive care will be 40 thousand pesos, it is a total of 100 thousand pesos, what I need to raise for my surgery, whoever likes to help me would thank them with all my heart, I have many dreams to realize and I do not want to die, I have one reason to stay alive, my family, for them I will fight and I will be cured, thanks to GOD that it is a cancer with excellent prognoses but even so it has to be removed so that it does not advance, please help me, you are my angels and GOD wants I will have my surgery on Saturday, thank you very much to all my friends, I love you…and I am so happy to post this update to that …. MARCH 17, 2021
by Vikki Danilkiewicz, Organizer
Hello Friends and Donors to Luis
I know I shared this information at the beginning of the campaign and have been sharing updates, however Go Fund Me wishes me to share it again.
So as many of you know my husband David and I have been close to Luis and his family since 2014 – Litzy was just a baby and we fell in love with Luis and his spirit. We consider them to be apart of our family despite the lack of blood relationship. Since Go Fund Me is not available in Mexico, I set this up for Luis and all funds raised will be funnelled through my Canadian bank account to Luis via deposits to his Bancomer account. He has already received the first $3000.00 cdn which he used today to pay for part of his hospital stay. I will continue to transfer $3000.00 cdn every 24 hours (the limit of my account) until all the funds provided by you the donors reach him.
As Luis is now out of the hospital and the fundraiser was such a success I will be closing fundraiser at 6 pm March 18, 2021 pst. No further donations will be possible after that time.
Once again Thank You all for helping this young man get the medical care he needed without the worry of supporting his family while he recuperates. Vikki
So, this is wonderful. Let’s keep Luis in your thoughts and prayers. Will keep following the story but thanks so much Vikki and Family and the whole Vallarta Family….Wow…Well now you know about Luis.
If you think there are problems all around the world getting people to take the Jab, it’s no different in Mexico here’s an article to prove that from Mexico News Daily….
Whole towns are refusing COVID-19 vaccines in Mexico
For Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, vaccinating all Mexicans is a matter of responsible national health policy as well as social justice.
“Vaccines will start arriving little by little,” he said on February 15, during his daily morning press conference, a week after returning to public activities after contracting COVID-19.
“Today we launched our vaccination plan and it won’t stop. We will press ahead with the goal of vaccinating all the people, according to pre-established priorities,” Obrador added
But there are already clear signs that not every Mexican is ready or willing to get a shot in the arm.
In Aldama, a small town of about 7,000 located in the central highlands of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, some people say they will not get vaccinated, regardless of any vaccination plan or where the vaccine comes from.
“Why would I get vaccinated? I’m not sick. It wouldn’t be good if they tried to force us to get vaccinated. I don’t know,” said María Magdalena López Santís, an Aldama resident to CNN in broken Spanish.
Indigenous communities like Aldama have a history of mistrust toward the federal government. In the best of cases, community leaders say, they have been ignored. In the worst of cases, they’ve been subjected to land-grabs, discrimination, abuse and attacks. This time, it seems a lack of information and conspiracy theories that have spread in the region like wildfire are to blame for vaccine hesitancy.
Tomás López Pérez, Aldama’s town secretary, told CNN that people there, including himself, strongly believe vaccines can do more harm than good.
“People are not well informed regarding this. Since we don’t really know what vaccines are made of, we believe that they contain the [COVID-19] virus and that’s the main reason why people don’t want to get vaccinated,” López said.
Since many people in those towns communicate in their native dialects, government information about its COVID-19 pandemic strategy gets, in many cases, lost in translation.
But in a way, Aldama has also been fortunate. Its residents, mainly Tzotzil Mayans, rarely travel to big cities and very few people ever visit, sparing the town the worst of the pandemic — and meaning that many residents don’t see a need to be vaccinated.
Local officials proudly assert that no one here has been infected by the coronavirus, though health officials could not confirm that claim. Nevertheless, the town did shut down for several months, at the same time the federal government imposed restrictions throughout the country.
Adolfo Victorio López Gómez, Aldama’s town mayor, told CNN he also credits traditional medicine for the low impact of COVID-19 on the town and trusts its efficacy.
“Fortunately, we have our ancestral way of thinking regarding traditional medicine and we asked our grandparents and great-grandparents for guidance and that helped us a lot,” López said.
Indigenous towns like Aldama are autonomous. The Mexican constitution allows towns like these to rule themselves under the principle of “traditions and customs.”
As of 2018, there were 421 municipalities in Mexico with this designation out of a total of 2,469 (17%). And it is not the only town in southern Mexico where people are refusing to get vaccinated.
Earlier this month, José López López, mayor of San Juan Cancuc, another indigenous town located in the Chiapas central highlands, sent state health authorities a letter, informing them of his municipality’s decision to refuse any vaccine.
In the letter, López writes that the municipality of 24,000, composed of 45 communities, held a meeting in late January in which town elders decided that “the vaccination campaign will not be allowed.” The letter also talks about “benefits and possible adverse effects” of the vaccine.
The Chiapas State Health Department responded that it respects the autonomy of the original populations, although officials insisted that they will continue to promote dialogue with those communities for the sake of everybody’s health.
Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón has recently focused on discrediting conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine. “I ask the people of Chiapas not to fall prey to the lies of those trying to take advantage of a health emergency, those who are selling ‘vaccines’ on social media. Vaccines are not privately available. They are free and will be available for everybody,” Escandón said on Twitter.
Asked specifically about the Chiapas indigenous communities’ refusal to vaccinate during his morning daily press conference, President López Obrador emphasized that no one will be forced to take the coronavirus vaccine.
“Everything is voluntary,” the president said. “I repeat: nothing by force, but everything by reason and rights. [We must] convince, persuade, inform, orient, make aware, without imposing anything.”
Flying Tijuana to Puerto Vallarta
I got a great email from listener Marty about flying out of Tijuana. I’m wondering if any of you listeners have flown out of TJ during the pandemic, if you have, I have questions for you but here’s Marty’s email…
I check flight information every day from ORD to PVR. For quite a while the round trip pricing (non-stop) is about $900 per person! To say that United and American are proud of their planes is an understatement. Then I remembered you took a light (ok, you had some issues!) from TIJ to PVR. Believe it or not, I can fly nonstop from ORD to SAN for $49. I can then fly from TIJ to PVR for $54. What’s wrong with this? I get into SAN at 9:50 a.m. and the flight leaving TIJ is either at 1:20 pm. or 3:45 pm. With a 20 minute bus ride, am I missing something?
So he did come back and mention baggage charges are almost the same as the flight price, but that’s still cheap. My question is this…traveling from point A to Point B in Mexico doesn’t require a PCR or Antigen test. So if you fly Vallarta to TJ, and then walk across the border, do you need a test?
I’m tempted to try is just to see….
Patsari Stoves…next week…I promise!
Let’s get to the interview shall we?
Insurance For Travelers Vacationing and Expats Living in Puerto Vallarta with Brett LaMar
Contact Information For Novamar Insurance, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Facebook Novamar Insurance
- Website Novamar Insurance Mexico
- Email Novamar Insurance Mexico
It’s been a while since we have had someone on the show talk about insurance in Mexico and with the current health crisis gripping the planet, the pandemic has made people take a second look at health insurance and travelers insurance in particular. So I thought I would bring you another voice to talk travelers insurance, long term and short term insurance for expats particularly. That would cover international healthcare plans to cover you while you are living in Puerto Vallarta, or in Mexico.
So today I want to introduce you to my friend Brett LaMar. Brett is an American Expat. In fact, the day I met with Brett was the birthday of the United States Marine Corps., and I learned that Brett was a Marine, or is a Marine, I don’t know how that goes like once a marine always a marine but thank you for your service before I forget Brett. Brett Has a with a great story which he will tell you shortly. And part of that story is his current business..Expat Insurance with WeExpats and Novamar insurance company. Let’s go to one of my favorite restaurants in Puerto Vallarta, on the corner of Lazaro Cardenas and Constitution, Restaurant San Lucas…on the roof, let’s meet Brett LaMar…
Listen to The Podcast
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 Brett LaMar of WeExpats Insurance and NovaMar Insurance Mexico. I have all his contact info in the shownotes…Remember to cover your rear ends whenever you travel to Mexico with a good travelers insurance policy, either through Brett, or wherever you get your coverage.
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!