Boca de Tomatlan is a Town Located at The Mouth of The Rio Horcones, About 24 Miles South of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
A Roundtable of Expats From Canada and The United States Discuss Life in The Village of Boca de Tomatlan, and the Needs of The People Who Live There
Boca de Tomatlan is Unique as One Side of The River is in the Municipality of Puerto Vallarta, and the Other Side is in The Municipality of Cabo Corrientes
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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. Its so romantic, it’s so, Puerto Vallarta my friends.
This week we head to Boca de Tomatlan for a round table of sorts. My buddy Polly, who’s been on the show a couple of times now, currently lives in Boca, and was kind enough to put together a group of expats who love the village and the people who live there. So, we’ll be talking with Brian Law, Cherry De Lorenzo, Michael Haywood, Jo Vella, and Ron Sedgwick, and also we have Boca native Cesar Palomera from Restaurant El Huachinango. All have chosen Boca de Tomatlan as a place to live in Puerto Vallarta and they just love the people and the lifestyle of the little jungle village by the Rio Horcones, south of Puerto Vallarta.
I had a conversation with Super Mario. Mario Cesar Morga, our panga captain in paradise. He’s going to fill us in on the conditions of the southern beaches after the Hurricane slammed into Puerto Vallarta and Cabo Corrientes. Yes. A hurricane hit Puerto Vallarta straight on so we’ll spend some time on that, and the recovery process while I’m in Vallarta next week with Jimmy Plouff at Vallarta Food bank, and with Guy Weeks with the Isla Cuale restoration project. We’ll be getting grass roots ways to help out in beautiful Puerto Vallarta. I’m currently in Puerto Vallarta right now, recording on the rooftop of Ray and Debbies casa in Pitillal, Let’s see what’s happening in Puerto Vallarta this week, the 4th of November, 2023.
The unimaginable took place this year during hurricane season, Puerto Vallarta got hit, almost straight on by hurricane, Lidia which went from a category 2 tropical storm on October 6th, to a cat 4 hurricane packing 140 MPH winds. The storm is thought to have hit South of Puerto Vallarta at the tiny village of Corrales.
The last real destructive hurricane to strike Vallarta was Kenna which skirted past the bay, but generated huge waves, wreaking havoc on beach front restaurants and properties on the Malecon.
This hurricane, Lidia was proceeded by about 2 straight weeks of heavy rains which made for the perfect storm so to speak. As the ground was made to mud, the 140 MPH winds easily pushed over large trees, old growth and power and telephone polls. Much of the damage done on the night of the 10th involved falling trees on homes and businesses, on cars and blocking roads and highways, and roofs being blown off and flying debris.
That of course lead to other problems, like people having all their belongings soaked. Mattresses, clothing, couches….it was a mess for many.
And if that wasn’t enough, two days later saw a meteorological event called a tromba. A hydro-metrological phenomenon accompanied by heavy rainfall so intense, it completely inundated the city for about 4 hours with streets completely flooded and turned into rivers. It was like the whole city was under water. Cars and busses floating along the road. People swimming for their lives. Human chains were formed to assist folks getting off busses, through the flooded street to the sidewalk. It was very dramatic.
But today, if you walk through Vallarta you would never know there was a hurricane.
The Malecon is all prettied up for Dia de Los Muertos with the even taller Catrina. The worlds tallest according to the folks here. In reality, Veracruz had the tallest, but hey…who’s counting. All restaurants are open, electricity and water has been restored for the most part around town. The people of Puerto Vallarta are waiting for you.
The people here in Vallarta are very excited about the arrival of the high season. All the places I’ve been to are excited for tourists to return to Vallarta.
Now as far as Dia de Los Muertos, I’ve talked about it many times in the show, and I’ll link a couple in the show notes.
Halloween night was amazing here as well. If you visit the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show Facebook page you will see some samples from that crazy night. It’s both family night as well as a night for the young people in the pueblo to dress up crazy and hang with their friends. Lots of devils, chainsaws, Playboy Bunnies, goblins and ghouls. It was a wild party.
The kids all have little buckets, and go shop to shop, looking for candy. Lots of the candy comes from passing cars and trucks, where people grab handfuls of candy, and throw it to the crowds lining the street. My wife and I helped Nacho Daddy celebrate their 15th anniversary. The Texas Embassy Band was playing upstairs where they had a costume party with prizes. They too were handing out candy to the kids being brought by, by their parents. Very sweet way to spend Halloween.
Now, I’m planning a meet and greet with JR the 7th of November at Nacho Daddy, so if you are in town we’d love to see you there. We get together at 6:30 in the evening. So if you are going to be in town the 7th of November, come spill the beans, tell us your Puerto Vallarta Story. If you have a favorite charity or restaurant or business you want to give a shout out to, come by and let my listeners know about it. Or just tell us what you love about Puerto Vallarta. We want to know how you spend your time here….keep it clean. It’s a family show. Well that is, if your family likes to drink or smoke weed, or both. Now, I didn’t have any t-shirts made up this time down, but I’ll tell you what, I’ve been creating jewelry using dichroic glass. So if you come, I’ll bring some earrings and pendants to give away to bling you up for paradise, how’s that? Nacho Daddy, November 7th.
By the way, add Restaurant El Brujo, in Zona Romantica to the list of very good margaritas in Puerto Vallarta.
Today, I’m having my driver in paradise Erik drive my wife and me up to San Sebastián del Oeste so she can see it. Then to Mascota and Talpa where we’ll have him drop us off for a couple of nights. So I’ll have a report for you when I get back from the Sierra.
I’ve talked with a dude who has the cure for cancer this trip. Yup, you have no idea the people I get to talk to. Anyway, I told him I’d love to interview him, but I might get him killed. Anyway…we’ll see.
Okay, next week we will have more information for you regarding hurricane recovery along the bay.
First up, I wanted to hear from Mario about what happened during the hurricane down in Boca de Tomatlan. I spoke with him two Sunday’s ago. And since we’re going to Boca for this episode, I wanted to make sure there was still a Boca de Tomatlan to go to after the Hurricane.
So let go by phone to Boca de Tomatlan, and hear from Mario Cesar Morga, in Boca de Tomatlan…Cabo Corrientes, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
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Thank you Super Mario. I have all of Mario’s contact information in the show notes for you if you need a panga pilot in paradise.
Now let’s get to the interviews I did during this round table.
I got a message from my buddy Polly. I’ve had Polly on the show a couple of times. Polly is now living in Boca de Tomatlan. She asked me if I would come down to Boca to have a roundtable discussion about some of the needs in the community with expats, who love the place, and who love the community and have made this place either their permanent home, or their place in paradise when they come to Vallarta.
So we all met at a beach restaurant called El Huichinango, and talked, while enjoying beers and margaritas and delicious seafood from the Restaurant El Huichinango. I interviewed all who wanted to share their experiences, then I edited them, and placed them in no particular order here.
So, we’ll be talking with Brian Law, Cherry De Lorenzo, Michael Haywood, Jo Vella, Ron Sedgwick and Cesar Palomera, about the coolness of living jungle life, about the intricacies of working with 2 municipalities, and about the plans for fundraisers to help the people of Boca de Tomatlan.
Let’s hear the interviews now, shall we?
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Thank you all, every one of you. These people have hearts of gold.
I will have links in the shownotes to hook you up with the things we talked about on the beach, in Boca de Tomatlan.
If you do happen to look for those show notes, give it a day or two after this episode comes out. I’ll be adding to the blogpost over the weekend in Mascota.
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 to my buddy, panga pilot Mario Cesar Morga for filling us in on what’s up on the southern beaches. Come on down. They are waiting for you.
Thanks also to our panelists Brian Law, Cherry De Lorenzo, Michael Haywood, Jo Vella, and Ron Sedgwick and Cesar Palomera from Restaurant El Huachinango. The food and drink are just awesome Cesar! Your family knows how to cook and mix a drink amigo. Check the information in the show notes.
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.