Mexican industriousness is evident in Puerto Vallarta. The city is replacing overhead wires and adding Internet cabling inside underground tubing jutting in the air alongside sidewalks. The port recently added another cruise ship dock and we saw major cruise lines daily.

Programs to serve impoverished Mexican workers draw support from US and Canadian tourists and residents. Several hundred English-speaking volunteers at a church in the Paradise Community Center minister to families who live near, and work at, a large garbage transfer dump where they sort out recyclables. Volunteers sell those people’s jewelry and art to generate alternative incomes. Volunteers are raising funds to build a women’s shelter, driven by surveys that show 70 percent of the women experience physical, emotional, economical or verbal violence.

At the PV Rotary Sur Club, educational and government leaders described a family community center under construction to provide nutritional information, medical services and recreational alternatives for youth in a low-income area north of Puerto Vallarta.

The Club also coordinates a scholarship program, where $300-350 per year pays technical and college costs for one impoverished student. They’re recommended by the elementary system for further schooling. The coordinator and a sponsor told me students must report excellent grades twice every year.

Artistry abounds. We dined for economical prices at busy gourmet restaurants. Mexican chefs prepared sirloin steak kebobs, mushroom stuffed grouper and lobster in limitless styles and sauces. Foreigners own many of the restaurants, but some of those chefs already own their own restaurants.

Most people reported the economy slightly lower than last year. Artists from northern villages in the central market in Puerto Vallarta sold exquisite beadwork and painting on wooden bowls. They planned to avoid violence reported in Acapulco by driving their pickups and trailers north for home instead of going south.

Negotiating with them made me wonder if I was undermining them. We bought necklaces and bracelets from an artist with a booth at our resort. He’d offer a price, and we’d offer a little less. Each time he asked, “Why? It is a good value.”

And then the price came down a little. I told Karen his question made feel guilty. We absolved ourselves by concluding he’s probably happy he sold the quantities he did at his normal price.

In a store a day later, we asked a shop owner for a discount on hats for $5 each since we were buying four.  He asked, “Why? They’re already a good price.” 

I crumbled. We paid a third of what we’d pay here.

We love vacationing in beautiful Puerto Vallarta and our Mexican hosts. We plan to return and support their courage, industriousness and artistry. We also pledge support for policies that ease their struggle with drug cartels. They’re our neighbors in a beautiful land.