Patricia is moving in a northern direction and is slated to be closest to Baja California’s southern tip late today or early tomorrow, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is currently located about 85 miles from the Baja peninsula.

The 5 p.m. advisory from the NHC says maximum sustained winds are near 50 miles per hour — down from 60 miles per hour earlier today.

Cruise Ship Itinerary Changes

No itineraries have been impacted at this time.

Weather Outlook: Next Affected Ships & Ports

Ships in the area through Wednesday include NCL’s Norwegian Star and Holland America’s Veendam, both scheduled to be in Mazatlan today and Puerto Vallarta tomorrow. Carnival Splendor is also scheduled to join them in Puerto Vallarta tomorrow.

Representatives from NCL, Carnival and Holland America said no itinerary changes have been necessary yet, but they are monitoring the situation.

Riviera Nayarit, Mexico’s newest tourism destination, continues to grow impressively. By 2013, the region will increase its total visitor accommodations by 6,308 rooms. This is comes to a one-third increase from 2008, when the destination first started getting attention from tourists. The rooms range from hotels and resorts to condominiums and other vacation home ownership models.

The 2009-2010 openings include Imanta Resorts in Punta Mita, The Marival Residences World Spa in Nuevo Vallarta on Bahia de Banderas, La Tranquila, Taheima Wellness Resort Spa, and The Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta, which was closed for major renovations and will reopen in November. Between 2010 and 2013, numerous other developments are scheduled for completion, including a Ritz-Carlton, Park Hyatt, a Grand Hyatt and several Mexican and European brands such as Grupos Dynamica, Grupo Mayan and the major development at Marina Rivera Nayarit consisting of two more hotels and condo offerings.

In addition, several residences are expected to open in Riviera Nayarit and are currently underway; Los Veneros and Punta Sayulita are among them. In 2008, the St. Regis Punta Mita, Dreams Villa Magna and the Riu Palace Pacifico opened.

PUERTO VALLARTA

It’s tough for any tourist city to cling to its authenticity, but Puerto Vallarta, a city of 350,000 people, manages to keep its Spanish roots piquant enough for the masses. The love story that put Puerto Vallarta on the world’s tourist map involved Hollywood movie icons Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. As the oft-told story goes, Burton was working on John Huston’s steamy film Night of the Iguana on the edge of town in the early ’60s. Married to other people at the time, the pair had their own torrid affair going on. Burton bought Taylor a house (now a museum, restaurant and bed and breakfast: www.casakimberley.com), and they continued to visit PV regularly.

It gave Puerto Vallarta, once a much slower paced fishing and silver mining town along Banderas Bay, a certain sheen and cachet.

Though, it’s not the kind of destination that feels the need to reinvent itself every five years to keep the tourists coming, it’s certainly not stuck in the ’60s. As its sun-seeking visitors have evolved so has the city, but not so much as to lose its “Old Mexico” flavour. PV keeps one foot firmly planted in the past architecturally and culturally and the other preserving its heritage, wildlife and rugged mountain terrain.

A number of resorts have been participating in efforts to preserve the Olive Ridley sea turtles by collecting the eggs that are deposited along the shore from July to December. (Go to vallartanature.org for participating hotels.) Guests are invited to help out in this non-commercial tour, by either collecting the eggs or releasing them back into the sea.

Getting around PV is easy on city buses, that will take you north from Nuevo Vallarta, into Old Town and beyond to Mismaloya, where Night of the Iguana was filmed. It’s also a short walk from here where you can get to Mama Lucia’s handmade tequila factory. Tours, tastings and a boutique where you can buy the family’s specialty tequilas, are open to the public every day except Sunday.

Away from the beach, venture into the jungles of the Sierra Madre mountains for more hard-core eco-adventures like zip-lining through the trees, and trail riding on ATVs or bikes. Outfitters such as vallarta-adventures.com, one of the most popular companies, has more than a dozen sea and land day trips, plus tours into some of Mexico’s beautiful little mountain villages with colourful, sun-washed churches and bustling art, craft and food markets.

Tropical Storm Patricia Forms in the Pacific
(2:00 p.m. EDT) — A tropical storm watch is now in effect for the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula, from La Paz to Santa Fe. The National Hurricane Center says the storm is located about 245 miles south of Baja California, and maximum sustained winds have risen from 45 miles per hour to about 50 miles per hour.

(8:45 a.m. EDT) — A new tropical storm has formed in the Pacific, reports the National Hurricane Center. The center of Tropical Storm Patricia is located 305 miles south-southeast of the tip of Baja California.

According to the 2 a.m. advisory from the NHC, Tropical Storm Patricia’s maximum sustained winds are near 45 miles per hour, with strengthening possible in the next couple of days.

In an instant, a 7-foot sailfish whirls around 180 degrees in pursuit of school of sardines, rocketing past underwater photographer Tony Ludovico — all the while swishing its bill side to side missing the artist’s mask and camera lens by inches.

All it would take is just one wayward slash to send $36,000 worth of camera equipment 2,000 feet to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

For Ludovico, it’s just another day at the office.

The underwater photographer has grown to become one of the world’s foremost shooters of pelagic fish in open water.

Ludovico’s portfolio was developed extensively during five years of work in the coastal currents of more than a dozen countries, all without any scuba gear.

“I free dive and haven’t used any scuba gear in nearly 15 years,” said Ludovico, 49, a former Stuart and Port St. Lucie resident who recently moved to West Palm Beach. “Spending the entire day swimming, plus eating right and not drinking, I have found I am in the best shape of my life.”

He has conditioned himself to hold his breath for four minutes. That enables him to capture images of incredible sea-going wildlife like sailfish, striped marlin, blue marlin, swordfish, yellowfin tuna and sharks.

It’s tough for any tourist city to cling to its authenticity, but Puerto Vallarta, a city of 350,000 people, manages to keep its Spanish roots piquant enough for the masses.

So seductive are its charms, Canadians continue to flock to its palapa-lined beaches and whitewashed buildings lining cobble-stoned streets, stroll the bustling Malecon or dance in the discos that pulsate ’til the sun’s about to come up. Others become so smitten that they might buy a casa where they’ll retire, open an art gallery and befriend the locals.

Though the love story that kick-started the city’s popularity was an on-again-off-again affair, that’s not the case with PV’s enduring appeal to Canadians.

The love story that put Puerto Vallarta on the world’s tourist map involved Hollywood movie icons Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. As the oft-told story goes, Burton was working on John Huston’s steamy film Night of the Iguana on the edge of town in the early ‘60s. Married to other people at the time, the pair had their own torrid affair going on. Burton bought Taylor a house (now a museum, restaurant and bed and breakfast: www.casakimberley.com), and they continued to visit PV regularly.

It gave Puerto Vallarta, once a much slower paced fishing and silver mining town along Banderas Bay, the sheen and cachet that made people want to go there.

They came and they’re still coming. In 2008, according to visitpuertovallarta.com, around 56 per cent of visitors who arrived by air were first-timers, but around a quarter of visitors have been there at least three times.

Though, it’s not the kind of destination that feels the need to reinvent itself every five years to keep the tourists coming, it’s certainly not stuck in the ’60s. As its sun-seeking visitors have evolved so has the city, but not so much as to lose its “Old Mexico” flavour. PV keeps one foot firmly planted in the past architecturally and culturally and the other preserving its heritage, wildlife and rugged mountain terrain.

1975, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Burton was married five times and Taylor was married eight times. They fell in love with each other on the set of Cleopatra and fell in love with Puerto Vallarta during Burton’s filming of “The Night of the Iguana.” They wed at their home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico called Casa Kimberly. They divorced once and remarried but that too ended in divorce. Casa Kimberly was later sold when Burton died with the proceeds going to AIDS research.

Jalisco state tourism sector is showing signs of recovery in recent weeks

GUADALAJARA, JALISCO .- Although the results remain negative, the drop in tourism in Jalisco shows signs of recovery in recent weeks, according to official figures from the Tourism Ministry (through its Datatur statistical area).

The national analysis considers three destinations Jalisco: Puerto Vallarta in beach destinations, and Guadalajara and San Juan de los Lagos in the category of cities. Of the three places only Guadalajara shows some recovery, the other two remain in the red, but not as bad as some weeks ago.
The data is for 39th week of the year, from 21 to 27 September. During this period, Guadalajara reported a hotel occupancy of 46.74%, during the same week in 2008 the percentage stood at 46.73 points.

In Puerto Vallarta hotel occupancy was at 29.44% vs. 31.76% in 2008, with a -2.32%, a percentage lower than reported in week 38, where it stood at -9.39 percent.
Within beach destinations, the biggest drop is in Playa del Carmen (-20%), while San Jose del Cabo has the largest recovery, to 20%.

In beaches neighbors to Jalisco the percentage is also negative. In Nuevo Vallarta there is a -12.37% decline, and Manzanillo is at -1.52 percent.

MEXICO CITY, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A moderate earthquake measuring 5.5 in magnitude struck around 175 miles (281 km) southwest of Puerto Vallarta off Mexico’s Pacific Coast on Tuesday but there were no reports of damage.

Earthquakes of less than magnitude 6.0 normally cause only slight damage to buildings.

“We did not feel the quake here, or have reports of any damage,” said Jose Guadalupe Cruz at the civil protection office in Puerto Vallarta, a popular resort that attracts golfers, surfers and whale watchers.

The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake had a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km).

A telephone operator at the NH Krystal hotel in Puerto Vallarta said she did not feel the quake.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii did not issue a tsunami warning.

Frontier Airlines Monday announced seasonal increases in its flight frequencies between Denver International Airport and four Mexican resort destinations.

The Denver-based airline’s schedule changes take effect Dec. 19 and are on sale now.

The changes:

• Denver-Cancún — Increases from seven to 10 flights per week, with new flights on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.

• Denver-Cozumel — Increases from three to four flights per week, with a new flight on Sunday and additional capacity on Saturday.

• Denver-Puerto Vallarta — Increases from seven to eight flights per week, with an additional flight on Saturday.

• Denver-Los Cabos — Increases from seven to eight flights per week, with an additional flight on Saturday.

“Our customers have asked for more frequency and choice to Mexico, and we are happy to deliver it,” Daniel Shurz, Frontier VP of strategy and planning, said in a statement. “We continue to offer more flights from Denver to Mexico than any commercial carrier.”

All Mexican tourist destinations will be glad to have more flights arriving, as will the tourists, as prices will lower as more flights are once again added to Mexico.