The People of Puerto Vallarta promote their city – againt Swine Flu
About 10 days ago a video was posted on Youtube by “Diegotopet” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DknNF51058w) that showed us the reality of Swine Flu in Puerto Vallarta. It’s since been a huge success with over 50,000 viewings, and a great reality check for anyone scared of the swine flu news and it’s impact on their travels to this paradise.
Since then, a number of new productions have recently been posted on Youtube, this time by “Infochannelvallarta” – at we’re proud to announce the staring of none other than our very own Marketing Director at Pacific Coast : “Grant Choules” on one of these videos (below) ! feel free to leave some teasing comments 
, he won’t mind – honest …
There are 3 versions that can be found here below (English and then Spanish) :
Influenza Porcina Español Version 1
Influenza Porcina Español Version 2
Influenza Porcina Español Version 3
Please feel free to circulate !
Pacific Coast Website now in Spanish
We’re very happy to announce that we’ve now gone live with the Spanish language version of our Real Estate website www.pacificcoastmexico.com
It can be found either by clicking on the small Mexican & Spanish flag at the top left-hand side of the screen or by going directly to the following address : www.pacificcoastmexico.com/es/
Estamos complacidos de informarle que tenemos lista la versión en español de nuestra pagina web www.pacificcoastmexico.com
Lo puede encontrar en la parte alta del lado izquierdo de su pantalla, haciendo click en el icono pequeño de la Bandera Mexicana o yendo directo a la siguiente dirección: www.pacificcoastmexico.com/es/
Puerto Vallarta Swine Flu Update
As of yesterday evening, it seems that the Swine Flu roller coaster we have all been riding has finally come to an end in Puerto Vallarta. Yesterday evening the Governor of the State of Jalisco announced that businesses could reopen on Wednesday the 13th May.
The international media and tabloid press have had a field-day with the swine flu and even with very sketchy statistics the news panic has spread like wild-fire. Clearly, this has and will continue to have a negative economical impact on tourism in Mexico.
A couple of weeks ago when this was the world’s #1 topic you will have heard that many businesses in Mexico, including Puerto Vallarta, had been ordered shut until Wednesday the 6th of May. This included indoor restaurants, cinemas, bars and nightclubs. On the 6th of May when it was widely established that the scare was perhaps exaggerated Mexico got back to work. Then, what you perhaps didn’t hear is that on Friday the 8th May the State of Jalisco decided to re-close these businesses until the 18th of May due to some confirmed cases in Guadalajara (the state’s capital) . This decision was criticized by many in Puerto Vallarta and since today, as mentioned above, things have returned to “normal”.
So, where does this leave us? Firstly, to answer the burning question “is there Swine Flue in Puerto Vallarta” let’s look at the official stats.
Are there any confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the state of Jalisco ?
Yes, there are currently 36 confirmed cases of Swine Flu in the state of Jalisco. These are mainly located around the Guadalajara area (about 5 hours from Puerto Vallarta) and are in steady decline.
Taken from the official information webpage on Swine Flu for Jalisco : http://informacioninfluenza.jalisco.gob.mx/
Are there any confirmed deaths from Swine Flu deaths in the state of Jalisco ?
No, there are currently 3 cases that have been classified as “suspicious”, but there are currently no confirmed deaths from Swine Flu in our state.
Taken from the official information webpage on Swine Flu for Jalisco : http://informacioninfluenza.jalisco.gob.mx/
Are there any confirmed cases of Swine Flu in Puerto Vallarta ?
No. There are currently NO confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 “Swine Flu” in Puerto Vallarta as shown by this map (Puerto Vallarta is where the circle is located). The cases are shown by the yellow and red shading, far from Puerto Vallarta.
Taken from the official information webpage on Swine Flu for Jalisco : http://informacioninfluenza.jalisco.gob.mx/
What about Nayarit?
Nayarit is our northern boardering state. Places like Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerias, Punta Mita and Sayulita are popular destinations for visitors to the Puerto Vallarta area and are all located in the state of Nayarit. Today, there are currently only 9 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 in Nayarit, and non of those infected are in a life-threatening condition. Taken from the official information webpage on Swine Flu for Nayarit: http://www.nayarit.gob.mx/notes.asp?id=16617)
Putting things into perspective
We’ve all heard the statistics relating to “common flu vs swine flu” but I think it’s important to mention them once again. Taken directly from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu
…approximately 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations are directly associated with influenza every year in the United States.
So, ignoring flu seasonalization, that means that every month in the United States of America about 3,000 people die from existing types of flu. The Swine Flu has been with us for about that same period of time (1 month) and there are currently 58 confirmed deaths in Mexico and 3 in the United States of America.
Should I stay or should I go ?
I don’t pretend to be an expert in this matter and I have no medical background. I am purely stating the facts and writing about my experience living here, today, in Puerto Vallarta.
Before traveling or moving to a foreign country it is the responsibility of each and everyone of us to inform ourselves of the risks and dangers associated with the destination, and I would advise anyone considering traveling to Puerto Vallarta to check all these facts for themselves. I simply ask you not to let CNN or FOX News make the decision for you.
I personally would recommend my friends and family to come to Puerto Vallarta.
What now ?
It is now time for all of us to try to repair the damage that has been made to our local economy and I urge those traveling to Mexico to not enter into the panic. Please feel free to circulate this to your friends and family and spread the word.
Today in Puerto Vallarta there is virtually no one wearing face-masks in the streets. There are no confirmed cases of the swine flue. There is no panic. All business are open. The sun is hot. The beer is cold. Everyone is as happy and friendly as always.
Resources
Jalisco State Information Page : http://informacioninfluenza.jalisco.gob.mx/
Nayarit State Information Page : http://www.nayarit.gob.mx/
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) : http://www.cdc.gov/
World Health Organization (WHO) : http://www.who.int/
Puerto Vallarta Scene (local info page in English) : http://www.pvscene.com/?p=4081
You Tube Video showing Puerto Vallarta during the Swine Flue outbreak : http://tinyurl.com/q3fwqa
New web features at Pacific Coast
As the hype about swine flue seems to be finally fading away (as I write this post there are still no cases of the A/H1N1 flue virus in Puerto Vallarta) we’re excited to tell you about some new web features that we’ve been developing here at Pacific Coast.
What’s great about these features is that they give us the opportunity to communicate with you more easily and openly. They also give you more relevant and up to date information about Mexico and Puerto Vallarta.
You can now find us at www.twitter.com/Pacific_Coast . If you don’t know twitter, think of it as a free text messaging service from computer to computer – the twist being that messages can be viewed by everyone. Why is this interesting? Well, firstly it enables real-time rapid communication between people all over the world, and secondly, it enables you to search these conversations.
For example, if you are traveling to Puerto Vallarta in the near future and are interested to learn about who and what is being said about Puerto Vallarta in the “twitter world” you can search for “Puerto Vallarta” at www.search.twitter.com. This is what I got doing the search this afternoon :
So you could see that christinebpc is looking forward to a wedding tomorrow in Puerto Vallarta, or that alteredattic swam with dolphins yesterday and loved it. These may be topics that interest you and you could then continue to communicate with these people.
Our twitter account is a place where we will “tweet” regular info about Puerto Vallarta, life in the office, the weather, real estate etc… Feel free to “follow us” or search for us. We’re at www.twitter.com/pacific_coast and our user name is “Pacific_Coast”
We know that many of you that are interested in buying a second home in Puerto Vallarta don’t live locally and probably only come to Mexico once or twice per year. We take great care in giving our customers up-to-date and quality photos of our properties so that they can get a good idea of what it looks like in real life. To improve things even more we’ve recently created our own section on youtube (the internet’s largest free video sharing website) and we will be filming all our properties to offer free video tours online. You can visit our video section at www.youtube.com/vallartarealestate.
On our website (www.pacificcoastmexico.com/picoday.html) we will be posting a new picture everyday from Puerto Vallarta and the Bay of Banderas region. The aim is to bring you your “daily dose of Mexican sunshine” to you wherever you may be in the world. We’ll be taking the photos whilst out and about in the area so most of the photos will be taken by our sales agents with their cell phones. If you use RSS Feeds you can grab our Pic of the day feed here.
Created by the twitter people, twitpic is a real-time picture sharing website. Along side our “Puerto Vallarta pic of the day” page on our website we will be posting daily photos onto twitpic so that you can get your daily dose of Vallarta sun. See our page at http://twitpic.com/photos/Pacific_Coast
As always, we appreciate your comments and suggestions so feel free to contact us or get in touch using the above tools !
