The Jaltemba Express Community Newspaper English Languag

Please forgive the virtual delivery boy if makes he makes an error, is practicing yoga or is caught taking a siesta. (Back Issues can be viewed here)

The Jaltemba Express

The Almost Daily Newspaper for Jaltemba Bay and Surrounding Areas Circulation 1266

Good Morning - Buenos días.... and Welcome to Paradise

Wednesday January 3, 2007 A different perspective everyday

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe Email: editor@ontheroadin.com

Bill Bell Photograph

Headlines

3,000 Soldiers Head for Tijuana - Click here

Smuggled Mexico Puppies Drops - Click here

Calderon Addresses Nation - Click here

Moth Attacks Nopal Cactus - Click here
Don't Forget Your Passport
Three years after Congress first moved to require every traveler entering this country hold a passport, including US citizens, the rule is finally taking effect Jan. 23.

Jaltemba News & Notes

La Peñita NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

The La Peñita Neighbourhood Watch meeting will take place on January 9 at 4:00PM at the Hotel California. This is for all residents of La Peñita. You do not need to be a property owner to attend.

If you are concerned about keeping La Peñita a quaint, safe, clean village attend this meeting. Contact anesthesia94@yahoo.ca for more details.

HAMMOCKS FOR HOUNDS

Hala has pulled through again!

Without a doubt, Hala's got the most gorgeous hammocks in the Bay Area. She has personally selected the best craftspeople in Merida and has worked with them to produce some of the most sought after hammocks in the country. These aren't the kind that you will toss after one season. No. She has selected the best fibres, the tightest weaves to ensure you get quality when you buy from her shop.

Once again, Hala has opened her heart to the community and given the Animal Rescue Group a Hammock to kick start their fundraising efforts. It is a beautiful brightly covered hammock chair, one of her most popular sellers, that will keep you swinging in your home in Paradise. It is the perfect gift for tourist or residents alike.

Carole Thacker at the La Peñita RV Resort and Spa will be auctioning this hammock chair as well as a few other great prizes in the next few weeks. You can purchase tickets from her at the La Peñita RV Park at Taco Tuesday and Hamburger Nights. If you are not a Park resident and wish to purchase a ticket write editor@ontheroadin.com and we will make sure you can get a ticket.

Repairs for the Bridge of Life

DO SOMETHING REALLY GREAT FOR EVERYONE AROUND YOU

Volunteers urgently needed to donate time and /or money to fix the walk and bike suspension bridge between La Peñita and Rincon on January 7th 2007 PLEASE MEET at the BRIDGE at 0700am. The estimate to fix is 1300USD and volunteers will be adding and pulling cable, replacing screws and boards, installing new cyclone fencing, installing two posts to stop the motorized vehicles that are tearing up the bridge, two trash barrels at each end. THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL APPRECIATE THIS IS THOSE WHO USE THE BRIDGE - BUT THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL REPAIR THE BRIDGE IS YOU

Golf For a Cure

On February 25, 2007, the Field of Dreams Golf Course, Campo Ensueño will be the host Golf Course for the1st Annual Community Golf Challenge. Teams from throughout the Bay Area will compete for the Jaltemba Cup - the Best Golfers in the area. Each community will challenge the others to determine which Town receives the Cup. We are expecting a sell out crowd of 150 people including players, audience and media.

All proceeds will go to Cancer Research, specifically the Dana-Farber Research Hospital in Boston, associated with Harvard Medical School. Their work has been a benefit to cancer patients throughout the world and they continue to be a leader in the field of cancer research.

The event will attract a large number of people because it involves community pride - the Best Golfers in the area. Each town will have at least one team representing their community. It will also have a number of smaller events within the event; Driving Competition, Putting Competition and potentially best Cheerleading Squad. The goal is to have a fun event and to raise money for a Cure to this deadly disease that has touched all of our lives.

WE NEED YOUR HELP.

We are seeking sponsors for the event who will donate prizes for the players and participants. We are looking for all kinds of prizes - large and small - T-shirts, Gift items, Beer, Wine, Gift Certificates, Fishing Passes, Dinners for two, A weekend at a B & B or Hotel.....Everyone has something to contribute.

Every sponsor will be recognized. The Jaltemba Express will print the full list of business sponsors who have contributed to event. Major gifts will be acknowledged in detail. In addition, every player will receive a list of sponsors in their Golf Packages and sponsorship lists will be displayed at all tables for the audiences. We will recognize the sponsors from the podium at the event.

However this event is not just about recognition. It is about giving to an event to support Cancer Research.

The cost of the tournament will be 150 pesos plus green fees, all annual members and those persons having a pass for the month of February are exempt from the green fees. Included in the price will be a spectacular rib dinner prepared by the Road Kill Grill.

Help us support a cure. Please give generously. More information to follow.

Contact Dorothy Bell if you need more information or want to contribute a prize.

Email: editor@ontheroadin.com

Letters to the Editor

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Editor,

Please subscribe this address in Canada Thank you

Dianna Belitski

Hi Dot,
Really enjoy getting the 'paper' every day, and keeping up on what is going on down there . . . since we are back in rainy, cold Southeast Alaska. You are doing a great job!
One suggestion: the font you have used for the spay/neuter clinic reports, and Ms. Maneras, is really difficult to read . . . with all the curly cues, etc. Please consider using a font that is easier to read .
. . I don't want to miss anything!
Jane Hill

(Editors Note: Different browsers "see" different fonts. Our browser looks fine. Thanks for your heads up though and we will make some changes. Let us know if they work)

Publisher Views

Pity the American Traveler who has to put up with the Smug Canadians...eh!

Bill Bell is the publisher of the Jaltemba Bay Express. He also writes a political column for the North Shore News in Vancouver Canada. The following is an extract of a column written for the North Shore News. Bill was born and raised in Canada by American parents. He now resides in Mexico. He freely admits that he is a recovering smug Canadian,

John is an American RVer who every winter drives his motor home over 2000 miles from his house in Washington State down the highways to make his winter home in a small Mexican town of Lo de Marcos, Nayarit Mexico - about an one hour drive north of Puerto Vallarta. He loves Mexico, its friendly people and the warm tropical Pacific weather. He has one problem that infuriates him. Its his neighbors, ¨the smug Canadians.¨

Lo de Marcos is on the southern edge of Jaltemba Bay, where thousands of Canadians flock every year in their fifth wheels, trailers, buses and motor homes to get away from the cold winters back home. The areas´ hotels, bungalows, trailer parks and condos fill up with Canadians in such numbers that on any given night you can go out to a restaurant where the Canucks will out number the Yankees and Mexicans two to one.

John along with many of the Americans tell me that the Canadians that they meet on the road are constantly lecturing them on everything from flawed United States foreign policy to American travelers´ rude and brash behaviour when they visit a foreign country.

So what is wrong with that eh? And where does John get off in calling us Canadians smug?
After all aren’t we the travelers that the world loves? We proudly stitch our Canadian flag onto our back packs and luggage. We are the peacekeepers of the world. We have an innate ability to recognize and deal with other cultures in a manner that respects the places that we visit.

Many Canadians believe that all of the above is absolutely true and lord it over our cousins to the south. Some take pleasure in ranting – especially to Americans - about the so called “ugly American traveler” who would complain about things not being as good as it is back in the good old US of A. Thus we have become known as the ¨smug Canadians.¨

From world politics, to a national health care plan, to our gun laws, we love to point out our superior way of doing things to anyone who will listen. We take special delight of having Americans within earshot of the conversation.

Its as if the Molson’s ¨I am Canadian¨ ad has gone to our collective head and now we along with our baggage to foreign countries carry with us a new found sense of pride.

That Canadian pride, however, is in reality not much more than America bashing at its worst. I wonder when we can define ourselves as a nation without comparing ourselves to the giant next door and worse yet, berating individuals about what their government or nation has decided or done.

For Americans like John it is rightfully infuriating and frustrating. Somewhere along the line, we have forgotten our manners and our humility and in doing so we are edging toward being referred to as the ¨Ugly Canadian.¨ And that’s not a tag that I want to proudly display.

Feature Article

Gifford and Esther Newlon: Early Residents of Rincon de Guayabitos

Meet Gifford Newlon. Gifford envisioned the first condominium development in Rincon de Guayabitos. Born in 1915 in Fairview, Montana, Gifford has traveled in Mexico for over 40 years. Now 91 years old, he recalls the early days of Rincon de Guayabitos which he first visited in the 1970’s. At that time, he was working as a land-use planner for a Hawaiian based company. The company was interested in a possible development in Mexico and hired Gifford to locate a likely spot along the Pacific coast of Mexico. After a year of wandering along the coast, Gifford and his wife Esther were most impressed by the small village in the tropical paradise known as Rincon de Guayabitos.

In those days, Rincon was a small fishing village with a few houses, a couple of small hotels and some small “rustic” restaurants famous for their fresh fish and shrimp dishes. Mostly, it had breathtaking views of the ocean and a beautiful, unspoiled beach. Back then, it was only a camera stop for vacationers on their way to more developed areas of Puerto Vallarta, San Blas and Guadalajara. They would snap photos of the fisherman pulling in their nets along with the beautiful sunsets with the backdrop of the island, La Penita de Jaltemba, seen from every location. At night during certain seasons, the sand on the beach came alive with thousands of tiny crabs scurrying about.

Original 1970 Casita on property of Playa Linda Condominios