SAYULITA, Mexico — Bookended by seaside rocks that protrude into warm Pacific Ocean waters, the relatively small Playa de los Muertos, or Beach of the Dead, features gentle waves, pelicans diving for fish and sunbathers lying on the sand. Vendors sell beer and grilled fish-on-a-stick, and two locals climb a palm tree to fetch coconuts.

But just beyond the laidback beach is a peninsula that hosts a new and posh 62-property development, highlighting that Sayulita, once a tranquil fishing village, continues to grow into one of Mexico's top tourism and retirement destinations.

The town was even featured in an offshoot of ABC's popular reality series "The Bachelor: Paradise," though one local who watched the filming thought it was a telenovela.

"Every time I've said it can't get bigger, it does," said Jody Meacham of New Jersey after finishing a surfing session on Sayulita's main beach. Meacham has been visiting Sayulita for 25 years, back when there were "more burros than cars." ''I still love it. I come back every year," he said.

Located about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast, Sayulita presents an alternative to the towering all-inclusive resorts that line the beaches south of it. However, all types of destinations in this part of Mexico are seeing bolstered tourist numbers. Direct flights from major U.S. cities have increased here. Passenger counts, both international and domestic, have risen as well.

In December, the federal Mexican tourism department named Sayulita a "Pueblo Magico" or "Magic Town," positioning the town as the crown jewel of the Nayarit Riviera, the coastline of its home state. The naming also comes with the promise of federal money for upgrades, which residents say are needed. The town has grown to about 5,000 residents, plus the scores of visitors that cycle through.

Sewage and electricity services have had a hard time keeping up with the growth; "aguas negras," or literally "black waters," have spilled into the ocean.

"Any additional tourism development would worsen this disastrous health situation," said Indalecio Sanchez Rodriguez, an activist for the group Green Coast Alliance, which has criticized the area's growth.

The current main project is burying power lines under the town streets.

"It's bursting at the seams, the infrastructure," said Richard Brassard, an architect, who first visited Sayulita around 1970 after a friend read about it in a surfing book.

Sayulita's attractions are plentiful: surfing, charter fishing, seasonal whale-watching, lush-green jungle hikes and horseback riding, baby sea turtle releases, among others.

On the south end, its main beach still hosts small local fishing boats. Farther north, surfers ride waves as the town disappears into the jungle. Playa de los Muertos and Playa Carricitos provide quieter and more isolated alternatives within a few of miles. If it's not raining, take a walk to those beaches on the dirt roads lined by the dense forest.

Sayulita boasts chic restaurants to attract foodies and excellent street chow (Tacos El Ivan is top-notch and so is a cake stand named La Gorda, near the town square). Nightlife can be a dance party on the beach or the happy sounds of children playing at the central plaza.

Back in Playa de los Muertos, the sun sets and the town cemetery behind the beach is lit up by candles placed on tombs as my girlfriend and I walk back to town.

Streets hum with activity. Motorbikes and cars buzz about while the sounds of live music, families, hawking vendors and even rowdy drunks fill the humid air. Many of the tourists transport themselves on golf carts.

"Now it's like Puerto Vallarta was back in the '60s. It's developed to that point," Bassard said.

SUYALITA, MEXICO BEACH

______

If You Go...

SAYULITA: Direct flights are available to the Puerto Vallarta airport. From there, car service is available to Sayulita. Prices earlier this season ran about $130 round-trip.

ZIKA: Mexico is on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of areas affected by the Zika virus. Sayulita is located in a sub-tropical climate, next to lush jungle, and mosquitoes are not uncommon.

Pianist Arthur Hanlon pays tribute to Mexico with his new music video "Huapango," a Mexican classic, composed by Jose Moncayo. Shot entirely in Mexico, the video combines Mexico's beauty with Hanlon’s passion for music and culture.

"Huapango" is included on Hanlon's recent musical journey called Viajero (Traveler) -- which contains 11 tracks -- recorded between Spain, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Miami and, of course, Mexico. "The language of music opened the door for me to find fascinating people and stories and discover and celebrate life and music in many corners of the world," said Hanlon about his experience.

This month, Arthur Hanlon will be in Mexico to perform with Il Volo in Monterrey, Mexico City and Puebla. See the dates below:

July 7 - MONTERREY - ARENA MONTERREY

July 8 – MEXICO CITY – MEXICO CITY ARENA

July 10 - PUEBLA - AUDITORIO METROPOLITANO DE PUEBLA

Purto Vallarta, Mexico.- A little over a decade ago San Pancho began a cultural, ecological, environmental and artistic revolution that changed the town’s history and now offers one more tourist attraction for visitors.

The Punta de Mita Foundation will award a MX$60,000 grant to the best sustainable project or projects; the call for projects ends July 22, 2016.

The famous 160-meter swimming pool at La Tranquila in Litibú served as one of several stages for the bathing beauties, as did several other locations in Sayulita and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: Olympic divers Kevin Chavez, Domonic Bedggood, Annablelle Smith, Melissa Wu, Brittany Broben, Esther Qin and Grant Nel.

Santa Barbara/Puerto Vallarta Sister City Committee (SBPVSCC) has won Sister Cities International's (SCI) 2016 Best Overall Program Award for a city with a population between 50,001 and 100,000. The 2016 SCI Best Overall Program Award recognizes sister city programs that demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in 2015 in advancing the goals and mission of the sister cities movement.

In 2015, SBPVSCC successfully facilitated all sister city exchanges between Santa Barbara and Puerto Vallarta, prepared individuals for life in a multi- cultural world, facilitated and enhanced the relationships that promote international trade opportunities, and were the premier international resource organization utilized by Santa Barbara-area governments, businesses, organizations, educational institutions, and residents on all things Puerto Vallarta.

SBPVCC conducted several programs in 2015, including giving $6,000 for first response medical equipment to Puerto Vallarta and scholarships in the "Sponsor Student" program from the Rotary Club. They sponsored the 2015 Tequila Harvest Festival, hosted the community Valentines Dinner/Dance at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History that featured a Mariachi group, participated in the Old Spanish Days Festival, the United Nation Walk and pot-luck dinner, and the 9/11 Peace Concert. In addition, they hosted a "Las Posadas" event, attended the 9th Annual Sister Cities Association of Americas International Conference in Puerto Vallarta, the 25th Anniversary Celebration De La Fraternidad Universal en Yucatan, Southern California Sister Cities Association regional meetings, the US/Mexico Sister Cities Association Annual Conference, and 10th Annual Puerto Vallarta I. Madonnari festival. They continued 17 years of the Law Enforcement Exchange, supported the "Save the Turtle" project in the Bay of Puerto Vallarta by donating $1,000 towards hatchery equipment and classes, supported the Puerto Vallarta Rehabilitation Clinic by donating $2,000 to helping needy families, painted the Boca de Tomaltan Health Clinic. SCI's Annual Awards are awarded in several categories including Best Overall, Innovation (Arts and Culture, Economic Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and Youth and Education), and Volunteer of the Year.

Award winners will be honored at the Lou Wozar Diplomatic Awards Dinner on Saturday, July 16 during SCI's 60th Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC. SCI's 60th anniversary celebration will include an Annual Conference and Youth Leadership Summit in Washington, DC July 13-16, 2016. The celebration will bring together hundreds of the most influential global leaders in diplomacy, foreign affairs, policy, business, and innovation. Elected and municipal officials, business leaders, youth delegates, and citizen diplomats will discuss this year's theme "Peace through People," building on President Eisenhower's initial vision of creating a more peaceful world by building global relationships.

The center received 1,510 drawings from different elementary schools in Nayarit and Jalisco from children who now have an added awareness regarding the conservation and protection of the species.

In the winter of 2013 we agreed to provide assistance to needy members of Club Tercera Edad in Bucerias in exchange for the senior women making craft items to sell at the weekly markets. The monies raised at the markets provided for medication and health care for the club's needy members.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.- Presentations are ongoing in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario, reaching over 3,500 travel agents.

Dr. Darrel Carter Seeing Patients as a Volunteer during a trip to Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.- Nearly 20 years ago ACMC-Granite Falls family medicine physician Dr. Darrell Carter took his family on a tropical winter getaway. Over the next several years he and his wife—and sometimes his family—traveled to Acapulco, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.

Nearly 20 years ago ACMC-Granite Falls family medicine physician Dr. Darrell Carter took his family on a tropical winter getaway. Over the next several years he and his wife—and sometimes his family—traveled to Acapulco, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.

After a few trips to Puerta Vallarta, Dr. Carter and his wife Hazel wanted to find a way to help while they were in Mexico. Hazel came across an organization that was working to help the people in one of the poorest areas of Puerto Vallarta.

The World Outside the Resorts

While tourists are basking in the sun and enjoying vacations of a lifetime in one of the luxurious resorts that line the beaches of Puerto Vallarta, extreme poverty lines some of the villages nearby. Vacationers can’t even imagine what life is like outside those resort walls for many locals.

It’s a world so poor that “houses” are ten-by-ten shacks pieced together with bed box springs, dirt floors and tin roofs; where the view is the mountainous garbage dump across the street. There’s no running water, electricity or sanitation. It’s a world where adults and older children scavenge through garbage day in and day out just to provide a meager existence for their families. It’s one where children fend for themselves and are poorly nourished and uneducated. For those living near the dump, their life is all about survival.

Children of the Dump

“We wanted to help anyway we could,” said Dr. Carter. “Hazel found this organization called Children of the Dump through a church in downtown Puerto Vallarta. Over the years what this organization did and how we got involved evolved.”

At first Dr. Carter and his wife helped with the food programs they offered. They’d assemble food and take it to local elementary schools to distribute to the kids. The kids would get rolls and a drink—some kind of nourishment to help get them through the day. Then they’d join a group of volunteers who traipsed from one local excursion to another. Resorts often host these day trips for their guests; many excursions include meals. Food that was leftover was donated to the church, and gathered by volunteers like Dr. Carter and his wife, to distribute to local children who needed the food.

As the years passed, the program began to change its focus. They began to visit the dump with the goal of helping some of the most destitute children and families in the region. In addition to bringing food to them, a number of other projects began to take shape. One was to get the children in school, which meant getting them birth certificates and uniforms. They also worked with the city to pass a law that wouldn’t allow children under the age of 14 to work the dump. The Carters remained active in the feeding program, and one day a volunteer announced that a doctor was there.

Soon Dr. Carter had a line of 25 people waiting to see him. As a former nurse, Hazel helped care for the patients, too. The two worked hand-in-hand, visiting with the people from the dump and caring for a variety of ailments from infections to sick kids and even advising pregnant women on how to care for themselves. Though they continued to help with the food programs, a new mission was born: bringing medical care to this underserved area.

ACMC Comes Together in Mexico

It was while in Puerto Vallarta in 2004 that Dr. Carter first met Linda Gallagher, a nurse at ACMC in Benson.
“It’s such a small world,” Linda said. “We practically live in one another’s backyards, and we meet more than 2,000 miles from home.”

Like Dr. Carter and his wife, Linda and her husband wanted to do something to help others. The resort Linda and her husband stay at supports the same ministry Dr. Carter and Hazel were involved in. Linda and her husband went to the dump on an excursion organized by the resort.

“That day Dr. Carter and Hazel were also at the dump to volunteer, and one of the organizers announced they had both a nurse and doctor from Minnesota there. When we met we found out we both

And now 11 years later, through the work of the ministry and the generosity of the owners of the resort, many of those families have housing and clean water. More than 300 of those children of the dump are in school, the oldest of which has already graduated from nursing school. There is a local physician available to care for these families a few times a week. So Dr. Carter and Linda’s involvement in Children of the Dump has evolved yet again.

“It’s really special to see how far so many of these kids and families have come. To know we played even a small role in making life a little better for them is so humbling,” Dr. Carter said.

For more information about Children of the Dump or to learn how you can help, go to http://childrenofthedump.or

Karaoke Party

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.- Join us every Thursday at 7:00 pm for the biggest party of the summer.

Encore bar is the place where expats meet n greet every single Thursday.

It all starts at 6:00 with the 2 x 1 drink specials.

At 7:00 we start what has become the best place to be all summer long until October 27.

Join Alfonso Lopez, Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus and ACT II Musical Artistic Director.

Join us every week and watch your friends sing a song as you cheer them on.

Music Sing-Alongs

Sing-Alongs return to Act II Entertainment.

The Movie Music Sing-Along was such a huge success that they are doing it again, every Tuesday until June 21 at 7:00 pm with themes changing every week.

From Movie Music Sing-Along to Broadway Music Sing-Along to Camp Fire Music Sing-Along and Everything in-between.

Your hosts will be Marsha Ward Ross and Alfonso Lopez.

You will get a song book as well as the words being projected on the screen and we will sit in the Encore Lounge around the stage and sing along with some of the best Broadway Musicals in the History of the stage.

The Act II Sing-Along was created as a fun way to raise money for the Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus. For many years the Chorus has had to go from rehearsal space to rehearsal space with no home during the high season to perform. Now with your help we are building for the PVGMC a FOREVER HOME on the roof of Act II Entertainment. Hobo´s no more. So, please come join us in the fun and at the same time help build a forever home for the Chorus before winter comes and they are out in the snow.

Dance All Night

"Dance All Night" with the Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus in our 5th annual series of gay pride concerts.

Celebrate our "1 Family" with your friends and the men of the chorus as we sing and dance to pop love songs and hits from musical theater. This year's gay pride concerts will be at the Main Stage of Act II Entertainment Stages at 5:00 pm on Sunday, May 22, and at 8:00 pm on both Monday, May 23, and Friday, May 27.

At 7:00 we start what has become the best place to be all summer long until October 27.

Join Alfonso Lopez, Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus and ACT II Musical Artistic Director.

Join us every week and watch your friends sing a song as you cheer them on.

Music Sing-Alongs

Sing-Alongs return to Act II Entertainment.

The Movie Music Sing-Along was such a huge success that they are doing it again, every Tuesday until June 21 at 7:00 pm with themes changing every week.

From Movie Music Sing-Along to Broadway Music Sing-Along to Camp Fire Music Sing-Along and Everything in-between.

Your hosts will be Marsha Ward Ross and Alfonso Lopez.

You will get a song book as well as the words being projected on the screen and we will sit in the Encore Lounge around the stage and sing along with some of the best Broadway Musicals in the History of the stage.

The Act II Sing-Along was created as a fun way to raise money for the Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus. For many years the Chorus has had to go from rehearsal space to rehearsal space with no home during the high season to perform. Now with your help we are building for the PVGMC a FOREVER HOME on the roof of Act II Entertainment. Hobo´s no more. So, please come join us in the fun and at the same time help build a forever home for the Chorus before winter comes and they are out in the snow.

Dance All Night

"Dance All Night" with the Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus in our 5th annual series of gay pride concerts.

Celebrate our "1 Family" with your friends and the men of the chorus as we sing and dance to pop love songs and hits from musical theater. This year's gay pride concerts will be at the Main Stage of Act II Entertainment Stages at 5:00 pm on Sunday, May 22, and at 8:00 pm on both Monday, May 23, and Friday, May 27.

The Puerto Vallarta Gay Men's Chorus is proud to be the first gay chorus in Mexico, bringing together foreign and national singers of all ages. The chorus is completing its second year under the artistic direction of Alfonso López, a graduate of The University of Texas-Pan American in vocal performance. The chorus provides musical education and training with a number of concerts in the Bahía de Banderas area throughout the year. The chorus is also a familiar group of faces in community parades and at other events supporting worthy local causes.

Invite your friends and family to join the chorus for a fun-filled and uplifting fiesta of gay pride, music and dance! We will have a reception after each concert in the Encore bar to meet the men of the chorus and participate in some fun fundraising activities to support and help us build our new rehearsal space home at ACT II.

Also at Act II in May, from award winning Director Juan Pablo Hernandez and Best Actor winner Juan Carlos Ramirez TRAMOYANAS presented in Spanish on May 18th at 8:00 PM ... And from the sick twisted mind of Edgar Sanchez and team we bring back DIVAS DE RANCHO, The most hilarious 2 hours ever on the stages of Act II, Also presented in Spanish, but trust me hilarity has no language. Join us every Saturday from May 14 until July 9 at 9:30 pm.

You may purchase your tickets now at the box office or online at Act II Entertainment Stages, Insurgentes 300 and up the stairs on Basilio Badillo in the Romantic Zone, telephone 322-222-1512.

Act II Entertainment STAGES complex is located at Insurgentes 300 (corner of Basilio Badillo & Insurgentes), 2nd Floor Zona Romántica Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. Tel 322.222.1512. Tickets can be purchased online at Act II Entertainment or at the Act II Box Office which opens on show days at 2:00 pm.