Angels for Mexico Brings Surplus Firefighting Equipment and Personnel Training to Firefighters in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Angels For Mexico Arranges for Canadian Firefighters to Travel to Puerto Vallarta to Train Mexican Firefighters in Firefighting and Rescue Techniques

An Interview with Christena Callaghan Founder and CEO of Angels for 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, in fact my new home, and maybe even yours too and that’s 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 The Le Bistro Jazz Café, riverside on The Isla Cuale, and the 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. Or riverside at Le Bistro, it’s so romantic, it’s so, Puerto Vallarta my friends.

This week you are going to meet a very special person who through her time and efforts has over the last 17 years or so been responsible for bring millions of dollars’ worth of firefighting gear from Canada, to Puerto Vallarta and other parts of Mexico. Her name is Christena Callaghan, and her organization is called Angels for Mexico. You will love her story.

Contact Information for Angels for Mexico

Website for Angels for Mexico: https://angelsformexico.com/

Also, we will hear from Kim Bix from Green Go 4 Gringo. Kim will fill us in on the current requirements for those of us who are looking to get their Mexican Visas, either their Temporary or premiant residency in Mexico. In fact, I’ll be talking today about our move to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We have Vallarta news and more so let’s see what’s happening in Puerto Vallarta, the 24th day of March 2025.

Tourist Tax in Puerto Vallarta

I’ve been getting a bit of mail about the new entry fees coming to Mexico and Puerto Vallarta especially of course. It’s confusing for sure. Here’s an article from the Banderas News Dated a month ago, February 14^th, 2025.

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico – Puerto Vallarta is set to enhance its tourism infrastructure with a new contribution approved by the Jalisco Congress. With 32 votes in favor, two against, and one abstention, legislators approved a reform to the 2025 Income Law of the Puerto Vallarta City Council, introducing a 141-peso charge for foreign visitors. That’s approximately $7 US.

This contribution, proposed by Mayor Luis Ernesto Munguía and his team, aims to generate additional revenue to support tourism development and upgrade the city’s infrastructure. The measure was discussed with tourism authorities and legislators before gaining approval, ensuring it aligns with the city’s growth plans.

The fee will be valid for 365 days, allowing multiple visits within the year. Collection points will be conveniently located at both the airport and maritime terminal, simplifying the process for visitors. Exemptions apply to foreign minors under 14, individuals with disabilities, tourist guides, tour operators, airline and cruise ship personnel, and other tourism sector workers.

Collection modules could begin operating as early as March, with an estimated revenue of over 200 million pesos in the first year. These funds will be directed to a dedicated trust, specifically designed to finance infrastructure projects. Key areas for improvement include the tourist strip, the Malecón, and beach areas.

Mayor Munguía reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to improving Puerto Vallarta through street upgrades, development of key areas, service enhancements, and community investment. This new funding approach will support long-term growth, benefiting both residents and the city’s tourism sector.

However, there’s an update to that article…it reads,

UPDATE: According to information provided by the Puerto Vallarta Municipal Government, “The collection of this tax will be voluntary and will be carried out in modules located at the airport and at the API (Integrated Port Administration). In addition, work is being done on developing a mobile application that will facilitate the payment process. It is important to note that the new tax will not apply to foreign residents in the city or to those who pay taxes through mechanisms such as property tax or business operating licenses… thus ensuring that the tax is completely voluntary and respecting the free movement of visitors.”

And I have a link to that article from the Banderas News, in the show notes.

Jalisco Congress Approves Tourist Tax for Vallarta Improvements

Now the term “ensuring that the tax is completely voluntary and respecting the free movement of visitors.”

Comes from a law in the Mexican Constitution Article 117 Section 5 article 117, fraction V of the Mexican Constitution that states  “under no circumstances,” can states tax the “free transit of people or things that cross its territory.”

So, they had to back off and make the tax voluntary rather than change the Mexican Constitution. Very Interesting.

Now in an article in Mexico News Daily they write…

Currently, each foreign tourist entering Mexico pays a fee of 717 pesos (US $35) to transit or remain in the country for up to 180 days, without permission to engage in paid activities. This fee, dubbed “Non-Resident Tax,” (DNR) can only be collected by the federal government.

Until 2023, the Federal Tax Law (LFD) allowed 20% of the amount collected by DNR to be allocated to the National Migration Institute to provide migration services. The remaining 80% was allocated to the country’s planning, studies, infrastructure and tourism projects.

Since 2024, the funds collected from the DNR have been allocated to infrastructure works by the army, such as the Maya Train.

The new LFD also requires every cruise ship passenger docking at Mexico’s ports to pay US $42 passenger fee starting July 1. The DNR didn’t previously apply to cruise ship passengers stopping in Mexican ports, as they would, on average, stay in the country for less than eight hours.

And that article from Mexico News Daily, where they lifted their information…

With reports from El Informador and Crónicas Jalisco in the show notes.

Now the DNR, that 717 pesos or (US $35) is currently collected by your airline and is usually part of the price you pay when you buy your ticket. But cruise ship passengers who are going to get hit with that new $42.00 US passenger fee, starting July 1^st which is not part of the price of passage when you buy your cruise, is going to be a tricky proposition, I think.

So that’s what I have for you on those new entry fees for Mexico Travel. I’ll keep you posted as time goes by. That port fee issue isn’t going anytime soon.

Vallarta Cares at The Latest Fires in Cabo Corrientes Near Mayto

Our last episode I spoke of water shortages and the need to conserve water when you are staying in Puerto Vallarta. I also talked about a fire burning up in Mascota and about how dry it’s been. Well Last week fires broke out down in Cabo Corrientes near El

Tuito and Mayto, and our friend Jimmy Plouff from Vallarta Cares was down there with his mobile water tank and his pick-up truck, fighting fires. I caught up with Jimmy to find out what exactly happened, and how we can help some of those effected by the fire.

Let’s go to Colonia Lopez Mateos, and talk about it with Jimmy Plough, from Vallarta Cares, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico…

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Thank you, Jimmy. I have links to the Vallarta Cares Donation Page in the show notes. Remember to mark your donation specifically for fire relief for Mayto.

Contact Information For Vallarta Cares

• Vallarta Cares Website Click Here
• Address: Rio Lerma 468, Lopez Mateos 48340 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

We were down in Mayto a couple of weeks ago quick daytrip, and I had a chance to talk with Raul from the Hotel Mayto about some cool changes they are making at the hotel and the restaurant. Also I have some observations to add about that trip, but I’ll save both of those for next week’s show. Stay tuned.

Next big celebration in Puerto Vallarta is Easter baby. Semana Santa this year falls April 13^th till the 20^th. And we’ll talk about that soon. For other upcoming events, I suggest you go to the Vallarta Calendar at https://vallartacalendar.com/, That’s Marcia Blondon’s baby. Marcia is the editor janitor and dishwasher at the Vallarta Mirror. The calendar is just fantastic and you can add events to it as well. It’s a great tool, and I’ll link it up in the show notes. That’s Vallarta Calendar.com. Check it out.

Now, let’s finally get to the rest of the story about our epic move from Simi Valley, California to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. What we had to do. All the planning that went into preparing for our appointment for our Mexican Visas, for our temporary residency. Then, the preparations for the sale of our home in Southern California, the move itself, and then actually going back to the states, to sit for our immigration appointment at the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix Arizona, where we were so relieved, and grateful to be granted our visas as Temporary Residents of Mexico.

So, Debbie and I decided to move to Vallarta in early November of 2023. And what that meant, was that we needed to plan for our Mexican residency. That’s because you can’t stay in Mexico legally, past six months per 12 month period. So, we reached out to Kim and Dave Bix at Green Go 4 Gringo. I’ve had Kim on the show before, and I asked her for advice as to the steps we needed to take to get this going. After going through the options, we determined that the only way Debbie and I could qualify would be to each put a lump sum of money, into a savings account, and let it sit there, season the money in their lingo, for a year as required by the Mexican government. That’s because being real estate agents like Debbie and I, we don’t get regular checks. You know, like regular people do who earn a monthly wage. We realtors work as independent contractors. We don’t earn any income unless we sell a house. And even if you make $250,000 or a half a million dollars a year, the Mexican Government doesn’t care because if you can’t show that big, steady check coming in every month, they need another income stream, and that’s a big savings account.

So that’s why Debbie and I opted to go for the lump sum amount.

Our plan was to be in Puerto Vallarta by September of 2024. So, we made a leap of faith and put that money away in November of 2023, and then we made an appointment at a Mexican Consulate. Then, the plan was get our house ready to sell, sell everything including most of our belongings, including our cars, everything, and then, being homeless, the plan was to move to Puerto Vallarta, and then return in November, to the US, when our money had seasoned for that entire year, then to meet with that employee at the Mexican Consulate, and then, hopefully qualify for either a temporary or permanent visa.

As I said, it was a total leap of faith.

The choice of consulate was, at the time, not an issue. We could choose whether we wanted to use the nearest consulate to our home, and in our case that would have been either Oxnard California or Downtown Los Angeles, or according to Kim, we could choose in some cases, another state. Now at that time, a couple of the consulates had, on their websites different amounts listed as to the required minimum dollars you needed to have seasoned in that account for a year.  In fact, Kim pointed out to us that the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix Arizona only required that we season something like $43,000 US for a year.

Currently you need to show a monthly income of Over $4,320.93 USD per person, per month over a six-month period for temporary residency, and $7,201.54 USD to obtain Permanente residency status. Now that’s either through a monthly income, a pension or Social Security payments.

Kim will be going over some of this with us in just a few minutes, actually.

So, as I said, we went with a lump sum, seasoning in the bank for a year. Now currently, the requirement is for $72,015.44 USD per person, but when we first put the money in the bank back in November of 2023, the requirement was only, like I said, somewhere around $43,000 per person at the consulate in Phoenix.

Now those lump sum figures are based on the minimum wage in Mexico. And when AMLO was running for the President of Mexico, he promised, and came through with his promise to raise the minimum wage. In fact, during his presidency the minimum wage increased from 88 pesos a day in 2018, or $5.20 US per day, to 289 pesos or $14.70 a day US in 2024. So, the requirements kept, and still keep going up, as the minimum wage increases.

Knowing that things would most likely change over the year, Debbie thought we were gonna outsmart ‘um by putting way more money into each account than we needed just in case of unexpected increases, so we each deposited $70,000 US into two CDs at our bank. I’ll get back to that in a couple of minutes.

Other requirements, things you needed to bring for your appointment were…

1. Original Passport: Valid for at least 6 months. Make sure to have at least two blank pages in your passport.
2. Fee: $53 USD, payable in cash or by card (except American Express).
3. Passport Photo: Frontal view, in color, white background, no glasses.
4. Application Form: solicitudingles.pdf (www.gob.mx)(THE FORM MUST BE COMPLETELY FILLED OUT AND SIGNED AT THE TIME OF YOUR INTERVIEW/PRINTED DOUBLE-SIDED)
5. 5. Passport Copies: First page, pages with stamps/visas, and barcode page (last page).
6. 6. Proof of Legal Status in the US: For non-US citizens.
7. Property in Mexico: Deed, purchase, or leasing agreement (original and copy per applicant).
8. Retirees: Social security letter copies.
9. 9. Bank Statements/Investments: Letter from your banker stating sole ownership of the account.
10. Joint Accounts: Copy of marriage certificate + apostille if no individual income is shown.
11. Individual Income: Each applicant must present their own income.

And so, yes, from November 2023 on, Debbie, while we worked full time selling houses in Los Angeles, spent our time making home improvements. Painting, calking, touching up every little blemish. We put in new carpeting and flooring. I scraped our

acoustic ceilings. You remember acoustic ceilings, don’t you?  We put in a new HVAC Heating and air conditioning system.

We did a ton of work on our yard and our on our very big pool and spa, including demolition of the old pool and spa coping, which is the pool’s edge or the lip of the pool, known as coping, that over the years was cracking and falling apart and I knew I couldn’t

 

sell the house without taking a big loss, if I didn’t fix that. So, I spent months demolishing and cutting and replacing the coping on that 40 x 15-foot pool and spa all by myself and with the help of my lovely wife. And it was brutal, especially when we got to the summer heat.  And the end result looked very good. I’ll put some before and after shots in the show notes.

Oh, and on top of that, if you remember, I had hernia surgery I had to undergo and recover from in the process.

It was a wild time, but we got it done in time to put the house on the market by the beginning of July.

We determined that if we priced our home correctly, we could sell the house in 60 days. We would give the home 30 days to get into escrow, and another 30 days to close escrow.

In our real estate office, agents aren’t allowed to list their own houses due to legal issues dealing with conflicts of interest and unnecessary company exposure to said legal issues. Luckily for us, my wife’s sister, my sister in law and her husband are top producing agents with another office in our brokerage, so they handled the sale of our home, which made it really handy and easy.

So, the home went on the market the second week of July and we were in a 30 day escrow within two weeks with a young family who we were confident, loved the house enough, and were financially qualified to make the purchase and be able to stick with that escrow, and then close the deal by the end of August.

And the stars and the planets aligned, and sure enough, we emptied the house selling stuff, donating tons of stuff and giving away everything else to friends, neighbors and family. We sold our cars one day, the next day we handed our keys to the new owners, threw our luggage into the back of our son’s truck and he drove us to a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport where we boarded a plane the next morning, on a one way ticket to Puerto Vallarta where we checked in to our Airbnb in Conchas Chinas, one day earlier than we had planned months before. It was a miracle.

Then, about 2 months later, our funds we had put away had finally seasoned for a year. So, at the end of November, we flew back to California to pick up a couple more suitcases of our belongings from my twin brother’s house. He and his wife also live in Simi Valley, where we also celebrated an early Thanksgiving with them, our kids and some friends. We took time to stop and visit Debbie’s 90 year old mom, who lives in a elder care facility, and my 94 year old dad, who is also in a care home. Both of them, my dad and her mom live in The San Fernando Valley, which, if you don’t know where that is, it’s a suburb of Los Angeles with a population of somewhere near 2,000,000 people, and it’s where I grew Up. It’s not far at all from Simi Valley. So, we did some visiting and got our paperwork and bank statements in order before flying off the Phoenix Arizona for our appointment for our Mexican Visas. Lucky for us, my older brother Ken and his wife, Becky live in Sun City Arizona, just a 40-minute drive from the Phoenix Consulate.

We were treated to another pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner by Ken before we drove our rental car the next morning to the consulate for our 10 in the morning appointment for our visas.

Now back in July, before we put the house on the market It was at that time I thought I’d make sure that our appointment at the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix that we made a year ago was still on the books. So, I sent an email and received an auto response that read we’ll respond to you soon, then in red it said. Please note the updated economic solvency requirements for 2024 where the new requirement to season funds for 12 months increased from $42,164.00 each applicant, to $72,015.44.

I started to get worried because we thought we were being smart when we each deposited $70,000.00 last November, thinking that would be more than enough.

So I responded to her and wrote while we currently have enough to satisfy the current requirements, when we opened our two Money Market accounts in November of 2023, the opening balance was just at $70,000.00 each,

Currently each money market account has $72,608.08, after interest earned, but as I wrote, our starting balance was just $70,000.00 each.

My question is, will this be, okay?

Then I pointed out that we had other accounts showing that we had other funds that we could show her as well. Then we held our breath to see what the response would be.

She said, not a problem, just bring those other proof of funds for her to look at, at it will be just fine. That was our biggest scare.

We were nervous, but we had everything in order so we were pretty confident that we’d be approved.

The lady’s name was Andrea, and she was the same person who was responding to all my inquiries and who made the appointment for us a year before. She was much younger than I thought she’d be. Very pretty and spoke excellent English.

She asked to see our applications and our bank statements. She asked if we planned to work in Mexico and we said no, we planned to retire in Mexico. She asked us why we wanted to live in Mexico, and I told her that when I was in College, I had an opportunity to come to Mexico City as a student, and for 6 weeks, be immersed in Spanish, for a semester’s credit. And while I was there, I just fell in love with the people, the food, the culture, the history, and I told myself I wanted to one day, retire in Mexico. She seemed to like that. She asked for our passports, took our fingerprints and our pictures, and told us to come back after 3 in the afternoon, and our visas will be ready for us. She sent us down the hall to pay our $53.00 US each, which we had in exact change as was suggested to us, and we both excitedly walked out the doors with big, big smiles.

We grabbed a quick lunch and then drove up the road about 40 minutes from the Consulate to visit with a couple who you have heard on the show. Mitch and Donnalee, if you remember them. Mitch told us the story about how he replaced his lost passport in Puerto Vallarta, and Donnalee who was a masseuse. Well, they happened to be staying at an RV park not far from where we were, so we swung by to have a celebratory shot of Tequila, and to chat for a while before heading back to the consulate where we retuned to Andrea‘s office where she had our Visas pasted into our passports. We did it. I even have pictures of us in front of the consulate with big smiles.

We were relieved to have gotten all that done in one day because we had a hotel near the airport reserved, and a 1 o’clock flight to catch the next day to Puerto Vallarta. Everything worked like it was supposed to.

Upon arriving in Vallarta we checked in through the line for Mexican Nationals and residents, and told her we were in processo de canje, the Canje process, and she stamped my visa and marked it Canje. Same with Debbie, and we were now ready for Kim to do her magic.

She set up an appointment at the immigration office near Puerto Magico where all we had to do was show up on time, and her team walked us through the process at the INM office where we obtained our Temporary visas. It was painless.

I thought it would be a good time to bring on Kim to let us know about the new requirements for visas in 2025, and to give us maybe a little insight into things you should and shouldn’t do when applying for your visa. So let’s go to Kim’s office right now, and see what she has for us. Kim Bix, Green go 4 Gringo, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

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Thank you so much Kim.

Kim also set us up with folks who also set up an appointment and even stood in line for us, so all we had to do was show up on time, and they ran us through the process of getting our Mexican Tax ID number, so we could open a Mexican bank account. Did you know you can earn upwards of 10% interest with a Mexican bank account?

So yes, I’d recommend Kim and her team in a heartbeat. Everything was simple on our end that is. They did all the work.

I have links and phone numbers in the show notes at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com.

Contact Information For Green-Go 4 Gringo

• Website for Green-Go 4 Gringo
• Facebook Page for Green-Go 4 Gringo
• US Phone # For Green Go 4 Gringo: +1 360-910-5782

Angels For Mexico, Bringing Firefighting Equipment and Training From Canada to Mexico

Next, you are going to meet an angel in real life. Her name is Christena Callaghan, and Christena was introduced to me by my friend

Stan Gebruk from wait, hold your tender children’s ears…Master Baiters Sportfishing and Tackle, over in Marina Vallarta. I interviewed Stan years ago. Check out the interview if you haven’t heard it. It’s pretty funny. Well, Stan is always giving me good ideas for guests, and on this one, he hit the jackpot.

As I pointed out at the beginning of the show, Christena and her charity Angels for Mexico have brought literally millions of dollars worth of firefighting equipment to Puerto Vallarta and Mexico from her native Canada. Now during this interview you

will also be hearing from two firefighters, Jason Johnson, from Red Deer Canada and Mario Giovani Joya Garcia, a bombero

from Vallarta. My wife and I took an Uber out to the firefighting training facility out near Desembocada to watch them train together. So you will hear them. I inserted our two interviews into the one with Christena. So let’s go right now, to a hotel lobby

for this interview. To the Hotel Krystal in Puerto Vallarta, and let’s meet Christena Callaghan, President and CEO of Angles for Mexico…

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Thank you so much Christena. Wow. When the fire chief says you are an angel sent from God….he means business doesn’t he?  I

have pictures of those firefighting exercises, in the show notes and on the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show Facebook page as well.

Maybe you know of an organization that might want to hear Christena give her pitch, or maybe you have an in to your local fire station. Hint-hint… get in touch with her. I have all the information, website and numbers, in the show notes. And thanks to those two firefighters Jason Johnson, from Red Deer Canada and Mario Giovani Joya Garcia, the bombero from Vallarta for talking with me as well.

Contact Information for Angels for Mexico

Website for Angels for Mexico: https://angelsformexico.com/

Okay, this has been a long and informational episode. But 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 blogposts and show-notes for each episode of the show so check them out for sure if you haven’t already all-right? All right.

Thanks to Kim Bix from Green Go 4 Gringo for coming back on the show to review the newest requirements to get your Mexican Visas both permanante and temporal, and thanks again for all you and your team did to help Debbie and me to the finish line. I

have all the contact information for Green Go 4 Gringo in the show notes. Also thanks to Christena Callaghan from Angels for Mexico. Thanks for all you do to help the Puerto Vallarta Community by giving your valuable time helping Puerto Vallarta Bomberos. The local and also the firefighters in the area. You are a real Angel on Earth. I have all of the contact information for Christena and her organization Angels for Mexico, in the show notes as well as photos and video and more of the firefighters in action, learning new rescue and firefighting techniques, and also photos of our friends firefighters Mario and Jason, in the notes as well at www.puertovallartatravelshow.com .

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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