Restaurant Gorditas Rellenas Lolita Has Been Serving Traditional Mexican Breakfast and Lunch for 40 Years in the Cinco De Diciembre Neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta. It all began in 1954, when the circus came to Town
Medium to Puerto Vallarta, Kennedy Morgan has a new Place Called The Mystic Circle Café
Requirements for Temporary and Permanent Residency in Mexico is Always Changing, I Interview Immigration Advisor Kim Bitz From Green Go 4 Gringo About The Newest Requirements
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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, in keeping with reasonable eats I’ll be taking you to a cute traditional Mexican restaurant in the Cinco de Diciembre neighborhood in Puerto Vallarta Called Gorditas Rellenas Lolita. They have great food and a really cute story. You will love the daughter Deyanira. We’ll be talking with her.
We will be revisiting our friend Kennedy Morgan, the medium to paradise. Kennedy has a new place called the Mystic Circle Café, in the Zona Romantica. We’ll see what’s happening with him and the mystical circles he’s making breaking through the veil in Vallarta.
My wife and I are busily preparing on making a move to Vallarta, and requirements are always changing, in fact changing rapidly to get temporary and permanent residency, so we’ll be talking with our friend Kim Bitz at Green-Go 4 Gringo to walk us through the newest hoops you need to jump through to get out of Dodge, or Calgary….you know.
We have some Vallarta news and more so let’s see what’s happening this week in Puerto Vallarta, the 13th of August 2024.
The Puerto Vallarta Travel Show Is Moving Permanently to Puerto Vallarta
Wow, it’s been a while since we’ve spoken. Those of you who’ve been following of late, know that my wife and I are getting ready to move to Puerto Vallarta at long last.
Almost 40 years since our first visit in 1984, when we stayed at the Playa Los Arcos Hotel, right on Los Muertos Beach, for a week, and fell in love with Vallarta, and with each other, we are finally ready to make the plunge.
So, for the last 2 months we have been emptying the house we’ve lived in for 26 years. And everything’s got to go. And I’d say 75% of the contents are either gone or spoken for. It’s been a real slog. Nobody leaves our home without something. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of our friends have caught on and are avoiding us for that reason. We aren’t planning on bringing more than 3 large suitcases, a roll on and a daypack each, for our first trip down, and we’ll have other suitcases packed to bring down each time we return to Los Angeles for something. So, we are really getting rid of everything. And on top of emptying the house, we’ve been painting, tiling, carpeting, scraping acoustic ceilings, updating bathrooms, cleaning, landscaping, you name it. The major item that needed to be addressed was repairing the deck on the backyard pool.
We have a really nice pool, which we built 22 years ago. It’s rectangular, 40 feet long by 15 feet wide, with a large spa that empties like a waterfall into the pool. The spa has a hand painted tile mural of the beach in Puerto Vallarta on one side, and an underwater seascape tile mural on the other side which I had done at this great tile store I found in Tijuana. It’s pretty nice I have to admit. When we had the pool built, the pool deck pour was divided into two sections. The first pour was the coping, or the edge around the pool, as well as the steps for the spa, that was the first pour of concrete they pumped from the first mixer truck, and the next pour from the second mixer, was the deck itself. When the guys did the first pour for the coping and spa steps, that mixer truck had cement that was too wet. And that’s no Bueno!
So, over the years, the coping around the pool and spa deteriorated quickly. It was cracking, and rebar was rusting and popping and busting the cement up. And we knew that before we could put our house on the market, we needed to do something about the pool.
So, for the last few months, after I recovered from my hernia surgery, I’ve been jackhammering out the old coping, and prepping, and laying down the new coping. And let me tell you, it was hard work. It’s been pretty hot here in Southern California, Like between 90 and 105 degrees almost every day. So as you can see, I’m getting ready for the tropical heat. Although in Southern California, it’s a dry heat.
One thing’s for certain, I won’t have to work on my tan when we get back to Puerto Vallarta in September. And this time, it’s for good.
Anyway, that’s my story, and I have pictures in the show notes of the pool and spa with the Puerto Vallarta vibe. And the new coping around the pool, Really, check it out if you’re interested in the show notes.
So after all that deck work, along with all the work we did in the house which I already mentioned, we were able to list the house, and we are now in escrow.
And now I finally feel that I can take the hours I need, to finally get back to the podcast. And I thank you for being so patient with me.
So that’s where I’ve been.
Now, I promised you that I’d give you a step by step rundown of our journey, but I want to hold off on that step by step thing, until we are finally in Puerto Vallarta, with our feet on the ground, for good. I’m doing this for reasons that I will explain to you when that day comes. And it’s coming soon. Really soon. I just can’t be specific as to the timing, and again, I’ll explain it to you, like I said, soon.
Mexico Elects Her First Woman President
While we’ve been gone, Puerto Vallarta got a new mayor, and the country elected a new president. Mexico elected a new president, by what many call a landslide, Moreno Party Favorite Claudia Sheinbaum
, who received at least 60% of the popular vote making her the first female president of the Mexican Republic.
Sheinbaum, as I’ve explained in earlier episodes, was the handpicked favorite of Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador, to succeed him in the Presidency.
From the BBC…
Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected as Mexico’s first female president, in a historic landslide win.
Mexico’s official electoral authority said preliminary results showed the 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City winning between 58% and 60% of the vote in Sunday’s election.
That gives her a lead of about 30 percentage points over her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez.
Ms. Sheinbaum will replace her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on 1 October.
Ms Sheinbaum, a former energy scientist, has promised continuity, saying that she will continue to build on the “advances” made by Mr López Obrador, further building on the welfare programmes which have made the outgoing president very popular.
But in her victory speech she also highlighted what has set this Mexican election apart from previous ones. She told cheering voters: “For the first time in the 200 years of the [Mexican] Republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico.”
She said it was an achievement not just for her but for all women.
“I’ve said it from the start, this is not just about me getting [to the top office], it’s about all of us getting here.”
She added: “I won’t fail you.”
Ms Sheinbaum also thanked her rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, who has conceded victory.
Prior to running for president, Ms Sheinbaum was mayor of Mexico City, one of the most influential political positions in the country and one that is seen as paving the way for the presidency.
Ms Sheinbaum, whose Jewish maternal grandparents immigrated to Mexico from Bulgaria fleeing the Nazis, had an illustrious career as a scientist before delving into politics. Her paternal grandparents hailed from Lithuania.
Both of her parents were scientists and Ms Sheinbaum studied physics before going on to receive a doctorate in energy engineering.
She spent years at a renowned research lab in California studying Mexican energy consumption patterns and became an expert on climate change.
That experience and her student activism eventually earned her the position of secretary of the environment for Mexico City at the time when Andrés Manuel López Obrador was mayor of the capital.
In 2018 she became the first female mayor of Mexico City, a post she held until 2023, when she stepped down to run for president.
The article continues, and you can find a link to that B BC article, in the show notes.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp4475gwny1o
So, we’ll see how the new president does when she takes office the first of October.
Dollar Improves Against the Peso
I can tell you that ever since the Mexican election, the US dollar has improved against the peso, fluctuating between 18 and 19 and a half pesos to the dollar, and today, if I check out the exchange rate this August 13th, 2024, the peso is at 19.01 to the dollar, and that is a big improvement over last May when we were getting barely 16 pesos to the US dollar. We’ll see if the trend continues.
It was a deadly election season as they were electing mayors, congress, presidents. It was a big general election, and they are saying as many as 37 politicians were assassinated across Mexico this election cycle. A bit of an eye opener.
But hey, not to be outdone, didn’t we see some political violence just recently in the US?
Puerto Vallarta Elects Luis Ernesto Mungia, Mayor
As for the new mayor of Vallarta, it was Luis Ernesto Mungia from the Verde or Green Party emerging as the victor.
Mungia had a lot of money behind him. He had signs everywhere, and in May when Debbie and I were in Vallarta, we saw him twice campaigning. Once on the Malecon, handing out t-shirts and politicking , and another time in Plaza Pitillal doing the same. A very handsome young man by the way.
It was a weird election season in Vallarta There was a big push for a woman to be elected. They even tried to stop the current mayor from running because they wanted some equity. He eventually gave in, but ran a campaign for his wife instead. By the way the soon to be former mayor Luis Alberto Michel Rodriguez is currently under investigation for “fraud, illicit enrichment and the diversion of federal resources” according to an article from Vallarta Daily News, linked in the show notes by the way.
In the end, there were too many women running for mayor. Nobody got behind just one female candidate and as a result, they ended up splitting the women’s vote, and Mungia, who probably got lots of votes cuz he’s cute, ran away with 39% of the votes.
So congratulations to Verde party candidate, and the new mayor of Puerto Vallarta, Luis Ernesto Mungia.
Malecon Construction and Improvements
They are working hard to get construction done on the Malecon for High Season. They are putting concrete caps on the seawall that’s been crumbling over the years, kinda like my pool deck.
The improved the amphitheater, they are working on the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Cuale, the one paved with red brick. Well, they are finally getting rid of the bricks which if you ever walked on them, you would know why.
It seems that the company that got the contract to do the bricks, used bricks that were unfired, or improperly fired, and therefore almost immediately, began to dissolve, kind of like our pool deck, to where the white grout lines between the bricks would protrude upwards, making for an uncomfortable and uneven walk.
So, they will have the pedestrian bridge all fixed up for the visiting throngs expected for this upcoming high season. So look for changes on the Malecon when you get back.
Go Fund Me For Gerry at Joe Jack’s
I received a note from listener Trisha who asked me if I could make a brief announcement on behalf of Gerry Lara at Joe Jacks.
Gerry was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of leukemia.
According to this post from Joe Jacks, He is currently convalescing at a cousin’s home in Guadalajara as he is required to have treatments two times a week. He remains on paid leave with great hopes for a full recovery and a return back to the restaurant where his magnanimous presence is greatly missed.
An old friend of Gerry’s has set up a GOFUNDME page on his behalf.
If anyone is interested in any amount of support or kind words you can find that here….
And I have an embed of that post from Joe Jacks Fish Shack, along with that GoFundMe link, in the show notes. Help Gerry out if you can.
And thank you Trisha, for bring this to our attention.
Green Go 4 Gringo Immigration Services in Puerto Vallarta
There’s so much we need to catch up on, and I have a number of interviews I need to post over the next few weeks before I head south to live in paradise, and start reporting from, and producing my podcasts, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It’s getting real, real fast. And we can’t wait.
And one of the things that both Debbie and I have had to do is get our residency in order, so we can stay in Mexico past the 6 months allowed on the current Mexican Tourist Visa.
And things are changing really quickly as far as requirements for those of us, who are hoping to move to Mexico, legally that is.
One of the things AMLO did, was raise wages for workers in Mexico. It was a keystone of his administration. So, every year, the minimum wage increased while he was in office. And it’s expected to do the same under President Scheinbaum as well. And so every year, the monetary requirements for those applying for residency go up.
It’s also why locals are seeing inflated prices like rents and food by the way. Pata Saladas, are quick to blame the Americans and Canadians for the rise in rents, but the increase in the minimum wage also has an effect as well.
But I do digress. Let’s talk with someone who lives and breathes this stuff, and who can help you if you need to
navigate through the windy roads of Mexican immigration the changes you should expect when applying for your residency in Mexico. Let’s talk right now with Kim Bitz, from GreenGo 4 Gringo, Immigration Services for Gringos, and Canadians too.
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Thank you, Kim. You have been more than helpful in our journey towards temporary residency.
I’ll tell you all about it in due time. As I said, we need to hold some stuff back till we get closer to our date to go back to the Mexican Consulate in the US and have that appointment for our temporary. More on that to follow, and make sure to check out this blogpost for links to the website, phone number, Facebook page and all you will need to get a hold of Kim and Dave at GreenGo 4 Gringo.
Contact Information for GreenGo 4 Gringo.
- Website for Green Go 4 Gringo
- Phone: (360) 910-5782
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/greengo4gringo
- Email Address: Greengo4gringo@gmail.com
Kennedy Morgan and The Mystic Circle Café, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Next up, we need to go back a little way to an interview I had with our friend, Medium, Kennedy Morgan back in March of 2022. Kennedy has a gift of being able to communicate with the dead.
Well, Kennedy now has a really cool spot in Zona Romantica, near the Rio Cuale called the Mystic Circle Café. And I’m going to let him tell us about it right now. Let’s go to Naranjo 129, in Zona Romantic, and let’s have a chat with medium, Kennedy Morgan, talking about the spirit world, and his new place in paradise, the Mystic Circle Café, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico…
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Thank you very much Kennedy. By the way, Friday, September 6th at 7:30, you can reserve your spot for an online event called The Whisper of Souls.
From the Mystic Circle Facebook Page…
If you haven’t yet reserved your spot for this exclusive, limited engagement, now is the time. Join four extraordinary mediums— Vicki Cartwright, Chrystal Reeck, David Michael, and Kennedy Morgan—as they channel messages of healing, hope, inspiration, comfort, and peace from the other side. This international event is open to all, so invite your family, friends, and neighbors to share in this transformative experience. Secure your place today!
Link: https://kennedymorganmedium.net/…/the-whisper-of…/
And I have a link to the event as well as links and maps to the Mystic Circle Café, in Zona Romantica, Puerto Vallarta.
Mystic Circle Café Information
- Address: Naranjo 129, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
- Phone: +52 322 309 8029
- Email: mysticcirclemx@gmail.com
- Website For Mystic Circle Café in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Restaurant Gorditas Rellenas Lolita, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Our last stop is a sweet little spot on calle San Salvador in the Cinco de Diciembre neighborhood called Gorditas Rellenas Lolita, and it’s a small traditional fonda, a home with the restaurant downstairs and often, the restaurant continues out on the sidewalk out in front, and the family living quarters, separate and upstairs. Gorditas Rellenas Lolita serves Antojitos, which translates to “little cravings” in Mexican Spanish. Antojitos are a category of Mexican street food or appetizers that are often small and savory, like tacos, tamales, quesadillas and gorditas.
Gorditas, as we will hear from Deyanira in a few minutes, are made with thicker corn tortillas that have a pocket in the middle that can be filled with various fillings. The pocket is created when the tortilla puffs up during the grilling or frying process.
Now we were introduced to Deyanira and her mom by listeners Mitch and Donnalee, from Alaska. They were so kind to give us a tour of the Cinco de Diciembre neighborhood, near where they were leasing a place for the winter, and this was one of their favorite places to eat. They introduced me to Deyanira who spoke beautiful English. So I asked her if she had some time to tell us about their restaurant, and she agreed! As she got ready to sit and talk with me, I had an opportunity to look inside the small, cozy restaurant. The kitchen is visible to diners, so you can see your food being prepared as you eat. There were black and white family photos, framed on the walls, and curiously, some old pics from a circus.
I went back outside where Deyanira was handing off her child to her mom so she could sit with me for the interview. So sweet.
So let’s go right now to a table set outside this cute fonda, Gorditas Rellenas Lolita on San Salvador #432 in Colonia 5 de diciembre and let’s meet a young lady, Deyanira, Gutierrez Villegas, who will tell us how it all began the love affair between her grandfather and her Grandmother Lolita, when the circus came to town, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
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Thank you so much Deyanira. What a great story about the circus coming to town. The food here is so good, so fresh and super affordable. Make sure you look at the photos on the walls, and don’t be surprised to see food tours stop by here for a bite. The food is that good. Have a gordita. You won’t regret it.
I have links and photos of food and a map that will take you right to the front door of Gorditas Rellenas Lolita, in the Cinco de Diciembre neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta.
Contact Information For Gorditas Rellenas Lolita Puerto Vallarta
Address: San Salvador #432
Colonia 5 de diciembre
- Phone: +52 322 222 1881
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057388002075
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 Kim Bitz from Green Go 4 Gringo for updating us on the current situation for those of us looking to secure temporary or permanent residency in Mexico. I have her contact information in the shownotes. Thanks to Kennedy Morgan from Mystic Circle Café in the Romantic Zone. Follow him on Facebook for all his events.
Thanks to Deyanira Gutierrez Villegas for telling us about your lovely family restaurant Gorditas Rellenas Lolita. Go there for breakfast or lunch. The food is fresh and delicious. Made with love like Lolita would say, right?
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.