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Years ago, the rule throughout Mexico was, dont drink the water. We moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1997 and one of the selling features of our beautiful new villa was an in-house water purification system. It had dual cartridges, one charcoal, the other chemically treated paper, and dual ultra violet lamps for additional treatment. We also had filtration units below the kitchen sink as well as in the refrigerator. Even with the household treatment, purification, and filtration systems, we were told to thoroughly rinse all vegetables and fruit in water treated with Microdyn, a chemical used for killing bacteria, etc. For additional protection, we were instructed to take a three day treatment of pills every six months in order to prevent becoming ill from amoeba or bacteria. With all the aforementioned filtration, purification, and medication, we still used bottled water to brush our teeth and were suspect of ice cubes! Of course, when dining in restaurants, we would have only bottled drinks and would rely on our semi-annual drug treatment to protect us from getting sick.

Approximately seven years ago, Puerto Vallarta, known as Vallarta or PV by the locals, constructed new water treatment and purification systems throughout the city. During the past seven years, we have become more and more lax when it comes to maintaining our in-house purification system. In fact, we havent changed the ultraviolet lamps for more than five years and the charcoal/paper cartridges for two years. The ultraviolet lamps have been dead for at least three of those years; however we did rinse the paper filter cartridge a year ago. The sale of Microdyn in Vallarta has probably dropped to almost zero, since all fruit, vegetables, etc. are purchased in large, modern, and clean supermarkets, comparable to Safeway and Kroger in the US. The bottled water truck that used to pass our villa, ringing its bell on a daily basis, hasnt been seen in five years.

Ten years ago, the local grocery stores were filthy, non-air-conditioned, and with flies everywhere as one might expect in Mexico. The situation was dramatically changed when Sams Club and Walmart moved to PV five years ago. In order to compete and survive, all new grocery stores had to be large, clean, air-conditioned, and ultra modern. The existing stores either remodeled or closed the doors.

Ten years ago, only a handful of restaurants were air-conditioned and their kitchens were all totally unregulated as was their source of foods. Today, they are all inspected on a regular basis and if they dont meet the strict standards, they are red tagged, locked up, and sometimes put out of business. The last thing the restaurateurs can afford is to have tourists return home sick. During the ten years weve lived here, weve met many visitors, mainly on the golf course. Only a handful of them have complained of stomach pains or head aches and in every case, they admitted that their problems were brought on by an over-consumption of margaritas or cervezas during the previous evening, and it wasnt the cubed or crushed ice! There are hundreds of fine restaurants in Vallarta offering every type of cuisine imaginable and there should be no fear of food poisoning in any of them.

Today, the risk of becoming ill in Vallarta from drinking the water, eating in restaurants, or shopping at the local supermarket is about the same as in Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles. Of course the corner taco stand could be suspect and water taken from some village in the hills twenty miles out of PV could create problems, however, the thought of dont drink the water never occurs to us anymore in Vallarta.

Jim Scherrer is a retired entrepreneur from Houston, has owned property in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for 24 years, and has made Vallarta his permanent residence for the past ten years. He founded Puerto Vallarta Real Estate Buyers Agents (PVREBA), whose mission is to reveal all the recent changes that have occurred in Vallarta while dispelling the misconceptions about living in Mexico. PVREBA acts exclusively as buyers agents by introducing North Americans to Vallarta, showing them properties that meet their needs and budgets, and assisting them through the foreign buying process, with all payments made by the listing agents. For the full series of articles regarding Retirement in Puerto Vallarta as well as pertinent Puerto Vallarta links, please visit us at http://www.pvreba.com/

golf umbrellas are not just for the golf course. The beauty of a promotional umbrella is that it can be used in so many different settings. As well as on the golf course, golf umbrellas can be seen at the beach, the cricket, the football and even at childrens sports days. Add to that the high usage of umbrellas for community events, and even clusters of umbrellas sheltering market stalls, and you soon see that promotional umbrellas are a good branding tool for your business.

Imagine that you have had a successful promotion and have given away your branded umbrellas to conference participants, clients or staff. Your umbrellas may go to all parts of the city or indeed, the nation. The one thing they have in common is that your company name and logo is on every single one of them.

Now lets take that one step further. The clients take the umbrellas with them on their weekend outings. Some of your promotional umbrellas are seen at the beach. People passing by notice them for their visual appeal. On a particularly hot day they may attract envious looks from people whod like some shade. No matter what attracts their glance, your logo is in their line of sight. That all reinforces your brand name and heightens awareness of what you have to offer.

All of those people who notice your promotional umbrellas are potential customers. If they arent in the market for your services or products right now, they may be in the future. Dont underestimate word of mouth. They may pass on your company details. How many times have you jotted down a number youve seen in passing because you thought it would be useful for yourself, a colleague, friend or family member?

But now for the jackpot. Some of those participants are bound to take your umbrella to a televised sporting event for some shade or to fend off the rain. Mad keen sports fans arent going to let either scorching sun or rain stop them. They come prepared, and part of their sports outing toolkit is the trusty umbrella. When the television cameras pan the crowd and home in on a spectator with your branded umbrella, imagine the kudos and awareness factor for your company.

Given the number of televised local, regional, national and even international outdoor sporting events, that umbrella with your brand name could be seen on television by thousands, if not millions of viewers at home. Do you know the cost of television advertising? Let me tell you, a promotional umbrella campaign is a very inexpensive investment.

In Australia a popular radio station encouraged listeners to be creative with getting the station logo on television at televised outdoor events. Incentives were given and of course, it created a media buzz too. Like the radio company, you can get other people you dont even know to partner with you in advertising your business. All it takes is deciding on your promotional umbrella campaign. You can start right away.

For additional information on printed umbrellas, promotional gifts, advertising marketing business gifts and corporate promotional products simply check out the internets leading promotional gift suppliers where you will find a massive choice of promotional items and whats more available at highly competitive prices compared with traditional offline gift companies.

Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK's leading online promotional umbrellas and printed umbrellas company based in the north of England. Established in 2001, he has taken the UK gift market by storm by the application of modern business thinking and the latest search engine marketing techniques. For more details visit www.ideasbynet.com