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•  Back from Christmas holidays In all of Mexico are 30 million students, and around 60,000 in this Costa Norte region, who came back to school on January 8th after a two-week Christmas vacation. This official register includes 9,000 kindergarten students, 36,000 in elementary school, and 14,000 junior and high school students. The official school calendar has 200 days of classes. The longest recess is during the two-month (July and August) summer break. Two-week spring holidays are also part of the official school calendar.

•  The new Mayor of Puerto Vallarta takes office The local elections´ development was much like the American. The voting, counting and recounting due to nonconformity took a long time, immersing the Vallarta population in a state of uncertainty. The PRI candidate, well known newspaper businessman Luis Reyes Brambila, took umbrage to the fact that ballots bore the name of Rodolfo Domínguez Valle, the deceased PAN head candidate who died just three weeks before the election, and took the case to the federal courts. Unlike what occurred in Tabasco, where the TRIFE (Federal Elections Tribunal) invalided the vote, the case of Puerto Vallarta was dismissed and the PAN substitute candidate Pedro Ruiz Higuera was approved as the winner of the elections.. The new Mayor of Puerto Vallarta for the next two years took office along with his new working team (including Reyes Brambila) the morning of December 31 in an ambiance of controversy.

•  Airport gets a face-lift If you wondered about where the non-inmigrant tax that you paid at the airport was for, the answer is: for its remodelling! The initiative also includes the airport of Manzanillo, the second belonging to the Pacific Airport group. This modernization program was approved in 1995, but started being applied only up to six months ago, when electronic passport readers and a new closed TV circuit system were installed. The first devices automatically lights on a different color flash on the screen whenever any passport holder is being searched by some international government. These readers also fasten revision of documents which was being done at an international media of 42 seconds. Also included in this ambitious $22 million pesos project (around $2,316,000 USD) is the intallation of special seats for the handicapped and elderly, plus 500 new seats in the lounge area.

•  More money and toys! Probably not even the organizers expected to break their own fund-raising record from last year on the 2nd Annual Toys for Tots program, but they did, through two main events: a golf tournament and its Gala Awards Dinner. It all started with the $1,000 U.S. collected at the Dec. 1st U.S. Marines´ cocktail party. Days later, bright and early on December 16, some 63 golfers hit the links and teed off at the Marina Vallarta Golf course. For their participation each paid $99 U.S. The culmination of this day of sun & sports was the Awards Dinner Gala Ball held at the Marriott CasaMagna. It drew a big crowd that raised $7,500 U.S. from the day´s events. With the value of gifts, including 215 toys, the grand total stood at $11,000 U.S. And toys continued to be gathered right up to the gift-giving day of January 6th, The day of the Kings, when they will be distributed to poor local children at the Los Arcos Amphitheater.

•   More than one "Love Boat"! Cruise ships visiting Puerto Vallarta during 2000 increased an estimated 7.83 % over the previous year, according to statistics provided by API, the Port Administration of Puerto Vallarta. This implies that 124 boats anchored in our harbour compared to 115 in 1999. As for the number of passengers, cruise ships transported 205,131 in 1999 and the number increased this past year to 237,381 travellers, January being the most active month. Ships anchoring in our port are as varied as their nationalities, although most of them are American: the Elation, Seaborn Sun, Seaborn Legend, Crystal Symphony, Statendam, Rotterdam, Rhapsody of the Seas, Seven Seas Navigator and Silver Wind belong to the fleet navigating our water with regularity. The same source noted an increase in local cruise ships: 8,073 sailed to sea in 2000, opposed to 7,555 in 1999. Nevertheless there were fewer passengers: last year there were 412,755, in 1999 there were 420,713.

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