Best of Vallarta 2004
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BEST Children's Activity:
PAPALOTE MOVIL MUSEUM
What’s the best way for kids of all ages to learn? Have fun while doing it, of course! And that’s why the federal government’s traveling science and technology fair, which was here for three months during the winter, made everybody a fan eager for it to come back.
Not the kind of thing you just show up for, entry is in three daily shifts, so everyone gets the chance to walk through the nearly three-hour experience. Easy-to-grasp explanations, lots of computers and demonstrations of neat things like dissecting cow hearts and blowing bubbles manage to make science seem simple.





BEST Safety Move:
LIFEGUARDS ON LOS MUERTOS
Thanks to the persistence of schoolteacher Roberto Villavicencio, a strong swimmer who moved here from Mexico City five years ago, we now have our first lifeguard station on a public beach, with plans for three more.
Three dedicated volunteers – Roberto, his son and one of his students – take shifts manning the Los Muertos tower near the pier seven days a week. Recognizable by their blue shorts with orange stripes and white Aquatic Rescue Team T-shirts, several more students will have been trained to help save lives by the time you read this.

MOST Misunderstood Day of the Year:
DECEMBER 28
Year after repetitive year, we gringos get taken hook, line and sinker on December 28, Day of the Innocents, the Mexican equivalent of April Fool’s Day.
Last year, the fallout from one tongue-in-cheek newspaper report that our international airport was to be closed and leveled because it had been built on contaminated land was incredible. People who had lived here a long time and who I thought would know better actually believed it! And until they were set straight, they wandered around in a confused daze trying to figure out how on earth they were going to be able to get in and out of the city once it happened.


MOST Hyped Mañana Project:
CONVENTION CENTER
Well, we’d love to be able to tell you that a dedicated convention center is finally going to be a reality after 10 years of conjecture and way too many announcements in this magazine that it was a go. Now all we can say is, your guess is as good as ours – or anyone else’s, for that matter.
In fact, it’s become somewhat of a joke. Here’s a good one: On the same day, in the same newspaper, by politicians supposedly on the same page, "The first stone will be laid March 31" and "We haven’t heard a thing."