Puerto Vallarta Forum (PV Bulletin Board)

Hello,

I am about to become a PV Newbie by spending 5 days there in a few days. My girlfriend and I are staying in the "Old Town" on Francisca Rodriguez st....cross street Pino Suarez....staying at Vallerta Sun Suites...near the pier...or so it looks on the map.

My question to you is regarding some info I found when I looked up PV on Wikipedia. It talked about the growth of PV and the water pollution problems... "July 2007 Los Muertos beach tested at 12 times the limit that the US EPA considers safe for swimming"

Our place is just a few minutes walk to the water.

Is the Los Muertos beach water safe? Would you let your kids swim in it?

We would like to go to the beach next week, but if the water is polluted...perhaps we need to stick to the pool?

Anybody's thoughts?


Peace,

Uncle Jimi

PS....we don't have much time in PV...don't want to waste valuable time.

Hi there my husband and I were at the hotel emperador which is right on los muertos beach in jan.2008 and my husband swam there every day and he was and is fine.Plus on saturdays and sundays lots of mexican families come down there with there children and they all go swimming.I hope this helps you a little bit.

Go in the water and enjoy PV's best beach (within the town itself that is). This time of the year the water is fine...you won't be disappointed.

My little ones swim there every year. They are both quite healthy. I have been swimming in the water on that beach at least once a year since I was 15. I'm 34 now. Enjoy your vacation.

I agree with the previous postings, but just wanted to add you picked a great hotel. It's a little gem on the south side, sparkling clean and so quiet...the owners and staff are top notch, I can't say enough good things about them. I have friends I travel with every year who won't stay anywhere else - in fact, they raved about it so much and after several visits to them while staying there, I've taken the plunge myself for this coming fall. Can't wait!

Enjoy.

Thanks folks. Always good to hear from folks who have personally been there.

Also...thanks for the great review of our Sun suites stay...my girlfriend found a gem it sounds like.

Cheers,

Uncle Jimi

Jennybean wrote:I agree with the previous postings, but just wanted to add you picked a great hotel. It's a little gem on the south side, sparkling clean and so quiet...the owners and staff are top notch, I can't say enough good things about them. I have friends I travel with every year who won't stay anywhere else - in fact, they raved about it so much and after several visits to them while staying there, I've taken the plunge myself for this coming fall. Can't wait!

Enjoy.

When in the fall Jenny. Myself and group of girlfriends will be down Nov 8-15/08 ... celebrating my big 50! There will be 6 or 7 of us in total... staying in old town. OMG... PV should be warned!! LOL!

It would be wonderful to meet up!

Sandra

To the OP.. I too was so impressed with VSS. We checked it out on our last visit at New Years.. it is a gem! Enjoy ALL that PV has to offer, you will be hooked! I know we are. We're heading down in a couple weeks for visit number 3 in six months. The grey dreary fall and winter on the west coast can only be cured by some PV sunshine!

You'll miss me probably by about 2 days, I'll be heading home likely around Nov. 6. But happy 5-0 anyways!

Well Jen, we will not miss you. This will be the 6th year in a row and 7th out of the last 9 that we will hit the town at the same time. Time flys when you are having fun.

Uncle Jimi, I am one of Jen's friends who has fallen in love with Vallarta Sun Hotel (the Suites building is actually one street south) and Oct/Nov will be my 6th year in a row to stay there. It's become my second home and echoing Jen, you will love it there. She and I will be pool neighbors come fall and with my best friend with me and hanging out with Jen, PV is likely to never be the same. Oh, and Howard, well we keep him around to carry the bail money should we land in jail.

As to your question about the Los Muertos beach water, I am not a very strong beach swimmer, but I do go in the water to cool off when spending hours on the beach with Jen (she forces me....not). I also do not put my head underwater (not on purpose anyway), only because my eyes are sensitive to salt water. But I've never had any problem from getting in the water. And Los Muertos beach is the busiest and best beach for people-watching, shopping (lots of vendors) and good beach bars and restaurants. You will be right in the middle of a lot to do where you're staying, but when you walk through the gate at Vallarta Sun, it becomes a wonderful, quiet little oasis in the middle of all the activity. And you will gain some new leg muscles walking up the hill to the hotel.

Contessa, I'll be in PV till 11/9, so if we cross paths, I can promise that I'll do my best to make up for Jen's early departure and help you and your friends paint the town red.

And if Howard is out fishing, you two will have Gail and I to keep you out of trouble.

yeah right

"Yeah Right" should be in all caps, but I don't want anyone saying I'm shouting. But you saying that you and Gail would be there to keep us out of trouble is like saying Kerosene can come to the party in case the fire needs to be put out. I can just hear you and Jen now...."Hhhheeeeyyyyyyyyy"

I would like someone to address the Wikipedia "July 2007 Los Muertos beach tested at 12 times the limit that the US EPA considers safe for swimming" without trashing the US EPA. Thanks. chuck...

You're aware Wikipedia is written not by experts or a single source, right? It's written and edited by regular people - you, I, lobbyists, lawyers, politicians, scientists, etc. It should be considered in 99% of all cases a dubious source at best for most information, simply because anyone registered can edit the content.

IIRC, I read somewhere else 2 other water testing sources contradicted the bulk of the EPA results anyways.

All I know is that I've been swimming in the ocean at Los Muertos more times than I can count over the last 10 years and 15 trips, and I've yet to be sick, develop a rash or any skin irritation, and not once had any issues from doing so other than banging my foot once against a large rock underwater and getting a bruise from that. And honestly, it's the same ocean at Los Muertos as it is in the hotel zone, marina, and Nuevo Vallarta - so why doesn't the EPA mention them as well?

Hmmm...questions lead to more questions...

Sure, I'm aware of who writes Wikipedia. However, the US EPA is quoted. I Googled...pollution los muertos beach... and came up with a bunch of sources other than Wikipedia that cited the same EPA study. As far as Wikipedia accuracy, I came up with an article on the CBC News site that said: " Science articles in Wikipedia, the free online resource, are about as accurate as those in Encyclopedia Britannica, Nature magazine says. " There was another article on the Eco-Cide website that says: " Greenpeace activists take part in a protest against the unloading of sewage into the sea and pollution of beaches at Los Muertos beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Aug. 1, 2007. They set a giant inflatable toilet with the words reads, “Clean beaches […]". I really don't think that it is such a good idea to get into the water if such opposed organizations such as the US EPA and Greenpeace are on the same page about something. Chuck...

Well, I can tell you from VAST experience...as in, I spend almost every single day on Los Muertos on every vacation...that I'm skeptical as H-E-double hockey sticks about their information - where is this supposed sewage being unloaded from? I've been up and down that beach for a decade and other than the usual runoff points from streetside when it rains, there is nowhere TO dump sewage. What, are there clandestine midnight sewage dumping gangs going out in balaclavas with 5 gallon buckets or something? LOL

You asked for people not to rag on the EPA, well sorry - I think they've got an agenda here. And we all KNOW Greenpeace has agendas.

You also asked for honest information, and I gave you that. Frankly I think I'm a little more reliable source as someone who has swam in that area of the bay for 10+ years without illness or incident than a bunch of people holed up in an office plotting to launch a beach toy.

Shouldn't the EPA in the US be spending some time and energy trying to clean up your own country's ocean polluting and sewage dumping before they start lording it over another country? I have no qualms about getting in the water in PV but there are an awful lot of places on the US coastlines you couldn't pay me to get in that water in a full HazMat suit. IMO, maybe suggest to your EPA to go clean up your own backyard first.

I am not going by what I have read but what I have seen..
There is no way Bill or I will swim in the Ocean anywhere near PV.
If others choose to it is fine with me..

Nice pretty photo taken by Las Palmas Resort..Hotel Zone


Same area
What was running into the Ocean was not spring water..
When we asked the vendors what was happening they shugged and said
once a week the sand parted and stinky crap ran into the Ocean.. The vendors told us that they would not walk in the water.. They waited for Mother Nature to bring the sand back...

On the right LP Resort...

I guess my knee-jerk reaction to this last post is..."I thought we were talking about Playa Los Muertos?" The hotel zone is a FAR cry from the pier, and further south...

I'll tell you when I wouldn't go in....summer-time. But between November and April? NO problem. I'm not dead from it, nor have I ever contracted ANY kind of symptom that could be associated with ocean contamination.. In fact, as I've previously noted...I drank the tap water in PV...DAILY! Not exclusively, but I NEVER had any adverse reaction to it either.

So, no beach water issues, no tap water issues. And believe me when I say, you won't find anyone with a more "sensitive" constitution than I...I have IBS.

I chalked this up to another "Dear me the sky is falling" story, from the poster 2 above.

I have my Opinion..You have yours..