Lix Ice Cream is a Favorite Ice Cream Shop for Tourists and Locals With 3 Locations in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Lix Ice Cream in Puerto Vallarta Makes Wonderful Hand Crafted Ice Creams, Sorbets, Frozen Bananas, and Shakes and More

An interview with YouTubers Ada and Stefan from Living Simply in Mexico

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Hello fellow travelers, welcome to 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’ll be visiting with our friends Kathleen and Todd Atkins from Lix Ice Cream. It’s been years since we’ve had a chance to catch with the crazy couple spreading sweetness throughout Puerto Vallarta. We’ll talk

about all of their locations and much more. We will go to our latest open microphone meet and greet we had on the 4^th of July where we were fortunate enough to have Ada and Stefan from Living Simply in Mexico, one

of my favorite YouTubeing couples, they dropped in and filled us in on what’s happening in their new home in Vallarta. It’s literally been years since they have been on the show, so Ada and Stefan will be joing us on this

episode as well but before we get to Ada and Stefan and Todd and Naomi, I just got back from Vallarta recording interviews, let’s see what’s happening this week in Puerto Vallarta the 24^st of July 2023.

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Ceviche and Aguachili Festival July 29th 2023 at Parque Hidalgo 12-8

It’s hot in Vallarta and tourism wise it’s a bit dead but leave it to our friend Edgar Rivas, food event promoter extraordinaire,  we have the Ceviche and Aguachili Festival, the 14^th edition as a matter of fact coming up next weekend Saturday July the 29^th…from Edgar himself…

If you love seafood…you can’t miss the Festival del Ceviche y Aguachile PV on its 14th edition. Get ready to try the best ceviches and aguachiles in town presented by 12 different local restaurants. Join us at Parque Hidalgo (downtown Puerto Vallarta) to live this gastronomic experience from 12-8pm.

Entrance is free and you just pay your food and drinks. There will be live music shows, craft beer & cocktails.

It will be a fun time for sure and right in the Cinco de Diciembre neighborhood, in Hidalgo Park. Remember it’s from noon till 8 in the evening. The Ceviche and Aguachili Festivel 14^th edition. Imagine that.

New Bus Service From El Tuito to Mayto and Tehuamixtle

For those of you who have taken the trip from El Tuito to the beaches of Mayto or to Tehuamixtle, we’ve done that many times now over the years on the show, and if you don’t have a car or a driver, you take a bus from the Zona Romantica to El Tuilo, then you look for a taxi driver to take you the rest of the way to the beach, and then you arrange with the driver to return to pick you up and take you back to El Tuito, then grab the bus back to Vallarta from El Tuito, making sure you catch one before the stop they service around 6:30 in the evening. Well, they now have a bus to take you to the beach from El Tuito…

From the Delagation Municipal Mayto, this Facebook post,

To the entire General Population, they are informed that from Monday 26 of this month, this was back in June by the way,  public transport service will begin to be provided.

Departing from Ipala-Tuito at 7:00 am and from Tuito-Ipala at 4:00 pm, from Monday to Sunday, with the following rates per person.

• *From Ipala and Villa del Mar $100.
• *From Tehuamixtle $85 pesos.
• *From Mayto. $80 pesos.
• *From Llano Grande $50 pesos.
• *Children under 12 years old, half a ticket.

Likewise, they are asked in the most attentive way to avoid continuing to give RAITES once the service begins, with the purpose that this service lasts for the benefit of all the inhabitants of Cabo Corrientes.

So very interesting. I didn’t get a chance to try out the new bus this last time down, and the hours of operation are a bit suspect. Also, it will be interesting to see if the residents of Cabo Corrientes will use the service. The last time I used a cab to go to and from El Tuito to Mayto cost me about 600 pesos each way, so there is a good sized cost difference, that is unless you are a group of 4 adults sharing the cost of a cab. But the big question is,

will I, as a tourist be welcome to use a public bus to Mayto or Tehua, seeing as I might be taking up a seat designated for a resident of Cabo Corrientes, so I can pay less, thus possibly making it harder for a local to enjoy a day at the beach. Plus, the possibility of missing that last bus back to Tuito and having to scramble for

another mode of transportation back. Or maybe that last bus back will be packed and too full to fit you and your friends. So, time will tell if they keep the program, and how well it works. If any of you have taken the new bus, drop me an email and let me know what your experience was. Just send it to pvtravelshow@gmail.com and I’ll share it with the listeners here. I’d like to know what’s going on there if you know first hand. I also have an embed to that Facebook post in the shownotes.

Changes Upon Arrival in Mexico From The US

Now my wife and I have just returned from a couple of weeks in Paradise so I have a few reports to share with you. First of all, for arriving passengers we have some changes. First of all, they have not only eliminated the

FMM paperwork, the tourist card you used to fill out on the plane or in line going through immigration, but they also eliminated the customs declaration form as well. When you get to the customs line after you have picked up your luggage, there will be employees asking if you have any fresh fruit, sandwiches, vegies, and if you do, they take that away from you, and then when you get to the Red light Green Light part of the line,

they’ve basically eliminated that too because they were making everyone run their luggage through the x-ray machine. So tourist card, gone, customs declaration paperwork, gone, and now, finally, years after they reported they were phasing out the red light green light pushbutton thing, looks like finally they are going to just run everything through the x-ray conveyor belt.

Now you are thinking wow, lots of changes, right? But there’s more. If you are a smoker, the smoking area I

Doggie Relief Station and Smoking Area

spoke about a few weeks ago near the departure door, near the magic trash cans, now has no smoking signs, and the ashtrays have been removed. But if you continue down that sidewalk away from the terminal you will see a new pet potty area where you can relieve fido and, smoke a cigarette at the same time. They have an

ashtray set up there, for now. So, you can get some relief for your nicotine habit, while you enjoy the smell of doggie urine rising from the hot AstroTurf baking in the tropical sun. It’s a jungle out there.

By the way, as far as the smoking ban in Mexico is concerned there was a victory for the Mexican Restaurant Association lately in court,

From the Vallarta Reporter Online…

Restaurant Association Wins Exemption From Anti Smoking Law dated July 18^th, 2023…

Restaurant Association Wins Exemption from Anti-Smoking Law

And of course, to keep the matter totally confusing and up in the air, we have this news three days later…

Health Sector Urges Restaurants to Maintain Anti-Smoking Measures,,,From Vallarta Reporter July 21^st…

Health Sector Urges Restaurants to Maintain Anti-Smoking Measures

So…go ahead, if you are a smoker, find a safe place to light up and have at it.

Being Tour Guides For Our Kids in Puerto Vallarta

We, my wife Debbie and I spent a little over 2 weeks in Debbie and Ray’s casa in Pitillal. It was wonderful. I recorded some great interviews which you will be listening to over the coming weeks. We had a great trip. If you recall from the last episode, I said my oldest son Zachary, and his fiancé Allia were flying in for a week, and they arrived on my wife and my 35^th anniversary date, June 26^th. Their flight was landing at 1 in the afternoon, so we hit Mr. Creams at the Marina for breakfast before heading to the airport where we met them, loaded them and their luggage into a van and took them to The Barracuda for lunch while we waited for their Airbnb to become available up on the hill in Cinco de Diciembre. Then we loaded them into an Uber and sent them off to their place. Then, later in the day we met at Cuates y Cuetes for their first Puerto Vallarta Sunset, then a

quick cab ride up the hill for a romantic dinner at La Capella with a view of the church, violin music and fireworks from the Margalante. Sad to say, these kids have been ruined. How do you get better than that for your first 6 hours in paradise, right?

Now I got a note from listener Trish, who’s been on the show with her husband Chad. If you have been a regular listener you will remember Trish as the lady who likes to jump out of aircraft. She reached out to me to check on the rising prices in Vallarta. She told me that a couple of her friends went to La Capella and ordered 2 entrees, 1 appetizer and coffees, and the bill came to 350 Canadian. Wow! I wonder what they ordered. So for the 4 of us, the bill came to about $150 US. Now, there were entrées on the menu that were like $100-$130 each, US. But that was for surf and turf. I ordered lasagna, which was very good. My wife ordered a salmon dish which she wasn’t that impressed with. We split a salad. She had a margarita and shot of tequila. The kids both had pasta dishes, and neither of them drink alcohol. So, with dessert, the bill was pretty reasonable.  And the experience was top notch. Actually, we’ll be talking about La Cappella with Stefan and Ada coming up in an interview in just a few minutes.

Well, as it turned out, our kids ran us ragged. I thought for sure they’d be like, doing stuff on their own every

day but no…..The first day the Botanical Garden, then San Pancho and Sayulita, then the next day it was a panga trip to Quimixto with Super Mario, then up the river to Moro Paraiso for some strong margaritas and house raicilla. By the way, add El Moro Paraiso to the list of good honest strong margaritas. Also served in the fishbowl glass. By the way Jeff and Jo from Minnesota, I did stop by the Red Onion to sample their margaritas

and you are right, they are good amigo. I also got a chance to sit with the new sculpture by Jim Demetro, the jackass holding a margarita. It’s an interactive sculpture and if you check out the picture in the show notes, you’ll see us sharing a drink and a joint together. That’s the blog at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com . Great job Jim, cute sculpture, it’s just in front of Burro’s Bar and by the way, almost right outside the balcony of Jim’s condo at the Plaza Mar. How cool to look out your window and see your handy work out there on the Malecon. Pretty nifty I’d say.

When Debbie and I arrived the 23rd of June, the Cuale was totally dry. I’d never seen it so dry. Ever. But luckily, about 3 days into the trip, the rains finally started to fall and by the time we left town July 8^th, the rivers were flowing again. All of them. The Ameca, the Pitillal, the Cuale and the Horcones. The hills have really greened up. The danger of fires has lessened immensely, and reservoirs are being recharged, giving some relief to some colonias that have been having water rationing and outages. I’ll talk about those problems next week if we have time, but for now, the rain is falling, although according to Angela up in the Rivera Del Rio area we are only a third of last years rainfall to date.

At any rate, the kids had a great time and surprisingly, they really leaned on us for things to do, and we were thrilled to give them a first-class tour of paradise and assure them that their parents were going to be fine moving to Mexico.

Caguamas

Getting back to big alcoholic beverages, living in Pitillal has it’s advantages in that you get to hang with your Mexican neighbors. And Mexicans are very helpful when it comes to teaching you their ways and the proper pronunciation of a particular word, and they’ll drill it into you, you know? And if you’ve paid any attention at all

to the vendors, laborers, the common everyday worker sitting on a bench or a sidewalk, you’ll notice they are cuddling a big bottle of beer. And the slang name of the big bottle of beer is caguama. Spelled  CAGUAMA. A Caguama in reality is a loggerhead sea turtle, but in Mexico it can also be a 32, or more likely  a 40 ounce bottle of beer which, in the case of the 40 fluid ounce caguama,  is the equivalent of approximately 3 and a half beers, about a liter and a quarter. The type of beer in a caguama sized bottle isn’t anything special, like it’s not a malt liquor or anything. It’s just a half a six-pack, disguised as a bottle of beer. And it’s a good excuse for when the wife asks if you’ve been drinking and you can honestly say honey, I just had one beer.

Now living in the hood, staying at Debbie and Ray’s casa in Pitillal,  I felt it was time to purchase my first caguama, so I could feel like one of the gente. So, I went across the street to the handy nearby deposito, and I ordered up a Corona 40 oz cold caguama. 45 pesos. It says right on the label, familiar, which means, family sized. Really! So, it’s made to split with the wife and kids too. How sweet.

Anyhow, then I walked that big coldie back to the sidewalk in front of the casa, and made like a Mexican and consumed it leisurely while making small talk with the neighbors. And by the way, when acting like a Mexican, you should always empty the bottle slowly keeping in mind the last half of the beer will be warm. I mean, you are sitting in the tropical sun. And when you do finish the last of your warm beer, make sure you keep that empty bottle for when you buy your next caguama.  It’s the way the Mexicans do it.

A couple of notes of interest speaking of drinking, I noticed for the first time, I’m sure they’ve been there a long time, the taxi driver said so, but I saw several sobriety checkpoints set up on the weekends. One near the plaza in Pitillal, and another one almost guaranteed is set up as you leave the downtown and cinco de diciembre neighborhood on Calle Colombia where all the funeral homes and mortuaries are, and now where a good number of prostitutes now hang, waiting for a lift out of town. They hang out there since they were shooed away from Calle Bolivia and the Colonial Condos. Not really, you can still find them there too.

So yeah, after you pick up your prostitute and hang a left past the running track and then turn on to Francisco Medina Ascencio, there is this sobriety checkpoint. So, if you are renting a vehicle, don’t drink and drive at night. Especially driving around town on the weekends. They seemed to be pulling everyone over except for the Taxi drivers. And speaking of taxi drivers, we’ve come to the conclusion that if you need a taxi, do all you can to avoid the sitio across the street from the Hotel Rosita. These taxistas are different than all others in town. For the most part, they are snobs and jerks. They overcharge and are rude and unhelpful. Also, because it’s summer, and really hot. 4 showers a day hot. If you can, take an Uber over a cab and here’s why. First, we had to ask every cab we got in to turn on the air. That is, when we wanted air. When we summoned an Uber, the driver always had the air on. Always. Add the fact that an Uber is generally slightly cheaper than a cab, it’s a no brainer.

Speaking of taxis and prostitutes….we were talking about that weren’t we? So Debbie and I had been taking lots of taxis back and forth from Ray and Debs Casa in Pitillal, into town. Sometimes two or three times a day. And we determined it’d be a better idea to have the taxistas drop us off not at Debs and Ray’s house, but close by, where we could be dropped off easily, and somewhere away from their place so as not to call attention to a house in the neighborhood, owned by an American or a Canadian. So we decided to have taxistas drop us off in front of a local carwash not far from their house. There’s a restaurant attached, pinball games, a bar and hot and cold running girls at night. And when we have the taxistas drop us off there at midnight, right in the middle of that menagerie, they can’t believe it. They ask…here? And we are all…yes…right here.

We had a great time with that trick I’ll tell you.

And speaking of great times…. let’s get to the meet and greet we had on the 4^th of July, and the resulting interview I had with Youtubers and good friends of mine, Ada and Stefan from Living Simply in Mexico.

Ada and Stefan from Living Simply in Mexico

When last we spoke I was packing for this trip to Vallarta, and I mentioned we would be having our open microphone meet and greet at Nacho Daddy, we were planning on crashing JR’s regular Meet and Greet he has every Tuesday. And I checked with Tammy at Nacho Daddy to make sure there were no special events

planned for the 4^th of July and she said no, there weren’t. But then a week later she sent me a note saying they were so slow that they were going to close for the slow season. So I had to make a last minute change of venue, and we had the meet and greet and celebrated the 4^th of July at Restaurant San Lucas instead. Speaking of

margaritas in fishbowl glasses, here’s where you get them. At restaurant San Lucas. And even though we changed the venue at the last minute, we had a really nice group. We had JR of course. We needed a Brit to help celebrate the 4^th of July for goodness sake. We had listeners and contributors Reggie and Donna from Tennessee. We had listeners and contributors Gilbert and Chris from Colorado. We spent some time trying to talk these two into starting a YouTube Channel, they are pretty interesting, and handsome, and funny  too. My friend Steven Tenney, the drummer from Tequila Rush was there, and Stefan and Ada came down to chat, so, I mean, we had a good crowd for a rainy 4^th of July evening. So let’s go right now to the corner of Insurgetes and Lazaro Cardenas, to one of my very favorite restaurants in Puerto Vallarta where wonderful, flavorful and reasonable seafood dishes live, and strong, honest and ample margaritas in fishbowl glasses creep up on you faster than a warm caguama, let’s go to 355 Lazaro Cardenas in the Romantic Zone, to the second floor overlooking it all, at Restaurant San Lucas, and let’s chat with Ada and Stefan from Living Simply in Mexico, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

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Subscribe to Stefan and Ada’s YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@LivingSimplyinMexico/featured

Okay, thank you so much Ada and Stefan. If you don’t follow their YouTube channel, you really should. They are

very cool folks and genuine, down to earth people. Great information and they just love Puerto Vallarta. They really do. I have links and embeds from their channel in the show notes. And I think it might be an interesting idea to get JR and Stefan’s dad on their own channel. What would we call it? Hummm.

Okay, next we are going to cool off a bit with the best ice cream on the bay. We’re going to be talking with Kathleen and Todd Atkins, From Lix.

If you remember last year I told you about how Lisa and Billy, our friends at RISE, RISE is a local orphanage here in Vallarta, Billy and Lisa asked me if I would include sponsors to their fundraiser talent show, So You Think You Can RISE, on the podcast as a bit of a thank-you and to get the word out about the special folks who care, and who dish out money to sponsor important fundraisers like this one which is a major fundraiser for the kids at RISE. And of course I’m happy to bring them on the show because as it turns out, these sponsors for the So You Think You Can Rise event have been some of the better interviews I’ve had over the years. So as Lisa and Billy at RISE ready themselves for their third big event, let’s head on down to Cuates y Cuetes for a margarita and a little Jazz, and lets have a talk with, and see what’s happening at a cool, cold sweet little ice cream chain, located in our Mexican paradise let’s talk with Todd and Kathleen Atkins from Lix Homemade Ice Cream, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico…

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Contact Information For Lix Homemade Ice Cream in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Website For Lix Homemade Ice Cream 

• Facebook For Lix: https://www.facebook.com/lixhomemadeicecream
• Instagram For Lix: https://www.instagram.com/lixhomemadeicecream/?hl=en

Contact Information For RISE

• Website: https://risepv.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/risepv/
• Phone: +52 322 276 6853
• Address: Ricardo Flores Magón 251, Colonia Benito Juarez 48389 Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
• Email: contacto@risepv.com

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Okay, thank you Todd and Kathleen. Great to have you back on the show, and great to catch up with you two to see what’s new.

By the way, the gentleman they were talking about who helped some of the So You Think You Can RISE contestants prepare for the competition, Allan Carswell is a very interesting person who I had a great conversation with a few months back. I’ll be having Allan on the show real soon.

Anyway, thank you very much Kathleen and Todd for talking with us and for all you do to support local Vallarta charities. It’s so cool to see but hey, we’re talking ice cream here, right?

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 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 follow share with a lover of Puerto Vallarta or give me a good review wherever or however you happen to be listening. 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 all our friends who visited us at our 4^th of July meet and greet open microphone podcast at Restaurant San Lucas. Thanks to Ada and Stefan for coming down the hill to join us and fill us in on what’s happening with you and your Youtube channel Living Simply in Mexico. Remember to follow and subscribe to

their content. And thank you to Kathleen and Todd Atkins from Lix, our favorite ice cream in Puerto Vallarta. Remember they have 3 locations around town and I have links and maps in the show notes which you can find at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com. Thanks for what you do to help our Vallarta community.

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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