Driving through Tepic? Consulate warns to be extra careful

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - Today's message board in La Manzanilla had a posting of a notice from the U.S Consulate General in Guadalajara, warning U.S. citizens to be extra vigilant when traveling in certain areas of western Mexico.

Here is a link to the full posting: Warning on message board

Site of shooting in October

The part of the warning that seemed the most relevant was for the city of Tepic, the site of a drug-related shooting in late October at a car wash.

The warning says to "avoid all unnecessary travel to the city of Tepic, Nayarit. Exercise extreme caution on the non-toll portion of the Route 15 bypass around Tepic."

Tepic is north of Puerto Vallarta. Here is a link to a story about what happened Oct. 27: Tepic shooting

 Given that this is the month when many people are heading south along the highway from the U.S. border to La Manzanilla - passing right through Tepic or around it on the highway bypass - the warning couldn't be much more timely.

National Public Radio had a story earlier this week about how the guns being used by the drug cartels are believed to be coming into Mexico from the U.S.: NPR story on guns in Mexico

News video of people tearing down gate to Tenacatita Beach

TENACATITA, Jalisco, Mexico - In doing some YouTube research, this video (and many others) popped up of the recent incident in which a group of people tore down a part of the fence blocking the highway to the beaches at Tenacatita.

The video shows how explosive the situation is - even the television camera operator got doused with some kind of spray by the police guarding the property being held by Jose Villalobos, property he seized with the police August 4, evicting the residents.

The spray obviously hurt people's eyes - a lot. The TV reporter remarks on it in detail.

Recent reports from gringos who have been allowed into the area (without cameras) are that Villalobos has bulldozed all of the restaurants but is building some new palapas with concrete floors.

The video commentary of the confrontation is in Spanish, but the pictures tell the story:

Arroyo Seco may take seasonal campers with Tenacatita closed off

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - For several years, the Cuevas family of Arroyo Seco has been building an RV park on the beach at Arroyo Seco, never quite getting it finished, though the spaces are laid out and there is a nice picnic area overlooking the lagoon to the east.

It's still unfinished, as of this writing, but already some campers who normally would go to the Tenacatita beach area - now in total lockdown thanks to Jose Villalobos and his company - are looking for another space near the water for the winter and spring.

Jim Monaco (of Monaco Realty in Arroyo Seco and Melaque) has made some arrangements for some campers on the Arroyo Seco beach already on some other properties with ocean access.

Anyone interested in trying to find space along that stretch of beach should contact him at his Melaque office. The telephone number there is 315-355-5224.


Playa Grande in Arroyo Seco: Campers welcome, but facilities in short supply

Looking for photos and links about the land-grab at Tenacatita

TENACATITA, Jalisco, Mexico - The research has been slow on getting all the news of what has happened at Tenacatita since the August 4 armed takeover of the area.

But there has been a great deal of effort on the part of many good people to help the people who were evicted.

And a lot of effort to show that there is no access to the beach - at least not access most reasonable people would consider, well, reasonable access.

Of course, if you consider going through the portal below reasonable, that might be different.

New look for the 'Tenacatita Bay Bugle' this season

TENACATITA, Jalisco, Mexico - After several seasons of playing around with this website, it seemed that this year might be the year to make it more useful to the community. The page has been redesigned and in the next few weeks some links will be added making cruising the area electronically a little easier.

It might have been reading about the sewers overflowing in La Manzanilla, (or maybe the crocodiles wandering the streets after dark), but certainly all of the largely terrible news out of Tenacatita and Rebalsito suggests another central repository of information, updated frequently, might be useful.

How frequently will depend on a lot of factors.

The message board in La Manzanilla run by Daniel is hands-down the best resource in the area for keeping up daily on the news. Tomzap also has some good information, though it is complicated sometimes to find the latest stuff.

Perhaps this site can add to those efforts.

And who knows, maybe the ghost of Charles Foster Kane will rise out of the sand on the beach near where the Fiesta Mexicana restaurant was to point a finger at the Rodenas company and say 'shame on you.'

This quote from the film, Citizen Kane, seems apropos at this moment:

"It's also my pleasure to see to it that decent, hard-working people in this community aren't robbed blind by a pack of money-mad pirates, just because they haven't had anybody to look after their interests..."

Here's a link to an interesting clip from Citizen Kane:
How to Run a Newspaper 

Hard to believe, but all those restaurants are gone - and so is access to the beach