for today,,,

BPE wrote:Fideicomiso Changes: Don’t panic. It’s true that HSBC, Banamex, and Bancomer are no longer offering the Fideicomiso or bank trust necessary for foreigners to hold title to property in the restricted zone in Mexico (pretty much all of Baja). If your fideicomiso is with one of these banks, it appears that you are fine until you need to make a change such as selling or renewing if your 30/50 years are up. To-date, HSBC and Banamex are not transferring (seceding) the rights to existing trusts. If your fideicomiso is with one of these banks and you want to sell your property, you’ll need to cancel your trust (generally a Seller’s expense) and your Buyer will need to start a new one. Bancomer is also not offering new fideicomisos but they are still allowing you to secede (transfer) the rights to your existing trust to a new owner. This means less competition but it could also mean that the banks that are still offering trusts actually want that business and will provide better service.🙏 Things are in flux but right now Scotia, Interacciones, Banco de Bajio and Santander are all options. If you are with one of the banks getting out of the Fideicomiso business and are planning on buying or selling soon, feel free to contact me for more information. HomesAndLandOfBaja.com office 624-124-8083

New pricing scheme another step toward an unregulated market
39 3
Mexico News Daily | Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Gasoline prices will drop 3% on Friday as a result of the next step toward an unregulated gasoline market in Mexico when a new pricing scheme goes into effect.

Unlike 2015, when a single gasoline price was officially calculated and established at the beginning of the year, 2016 will be characterized by monthly fluctuations, following the behavior of the international market.

The Finance Secretariat (SHCP) announced that the maximum price of magna will drop 41 centavos to 13.16 pesos per liter, and premium to 13.98. The price of diesel will drop to 13.77 pesos per liter. It will be the first time in nearly seven years that fuel prices will have dropped.

Monthly prices will be set within a range of no more than 3% above or below the previous month’s price, said Revenue Undersecretary Miguel Messmacher Linartas, who explained that the idea behind the pricing scheme was to allow consumers to get used to an unregulated market.

He said new pricing scheme comes as a result of energy reforms, which call for a completely liberalized market by 2018. As part of the transition process, service stations other than Pemex franchises will be able to operate beginning Friday.

By 2017, the market will be opened to allow gasoline imports.

In the north, meanwhile, fuel prices will remain lower than the rest of the country, at up to 9.59 pesos within 20 kilometers of the border, a continuing strategy intended to dissuade Mexican drivers from crossing the border to buy their fuel in the U.S.

Despite the strategy, some of those drivers have been ticked that Texans can buy Pemex gas for seven pesos now that the state oil company has opened a station in Houston, its first outside Mexico.

The president of the Association of Mexican Gas Station Owners, Pablo González Córdova, said customers in northern Mexico, when asked if they wish magna or premium, say they want neither.

Instead, they ask for the “gringo gas” for seven pesos.

ventana view wrote:***LA VENTANA CLASSIC - JAN. 6-10, 2016***

Volunteers still needed

UBEeR drivers to help folls get to event and home after parties
Come and join our fun international team and help raise scholarship money - write shirlalderson@gmail.com
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Selling Raffle tickets at the Hot Springs:  
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday (Jan 6-9)  3:00-5:00 pm
Sunday, January 10  1:00-3:00 pm

Selling T-Shirts in the Evening Events:
Thursday, January 7,  6:00-10:00 pm  at the Hot Springs Beach Party
Friday, January 8,  6:00-10:00 pm  at Club Cerralvo

Selling Beer & Margaritas in the Evening Events:
Friday, January 8,  6:00-10:00 pm  at Club Cerralvo

Drivers for SUP Downwind Races:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (Jan 7-10),  9:00 am  
Drive Racers to the downwind location to a beach near Las Cruces
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Thanks to all our  generous local sponsors!! Captain Kirks, La Ventana Bay Properties, Morris Smith Starns and Sullivan, Baja Joes, Elevation, Pelican Reef, La Ventana Windsports, Club Cerralvo, Diamante, La Ventana Beach Resort, Baja Kite n Surf, Downwinder Inn Palapas La Choya, Pro Windsurf, Casa Duna, Kiteboarding Baja, Teddys

Sign up online now and save 5 usd ..  Prices go up on Jan 3

Avoid the lines with jan 5 all day jersey handout and registration at Palapas Ventana

LV Classic Q&A

Q: Hey bro Im goin to Las Cruces on my own
A: no your not dude - you may have had your malibu surf days but  youre not that famous - you dont know Dezi, Frank or Bing and youve never even seen a guitar shaped pool. The gates locked but the La Ventana Classic has a key and were in with the owners and the brat pack. Want a ride there, a killer lycra jersey, a picture at the 3 crosses, a boat supported SUP 8.5  mile downwinder and a  fun time to raise scholarship money for LVES kids? Then sign up as a sportsman or competitor in the SUP portion of the  LV Classic - its the chance of a lifetime - dont have a board? Rent one from any hotel in La Ventana - get a leash and a pfd -may never happen again

ventana view wrote:-----------------------------------------------
***LA VENTANA CLASSIC - JAN. 6-10, 2016***
LV CLassic Volunteers needed .. join our international crew and help raise scholarship money for local kids come sign up anytime at Palapas Ventana Restaurant or email shirlalderson@gmail.com to help in pangas, selling beer, driving sup racers upwind, Selling raffle tickets, registering racers for the expo, driving drunk people home, making trophies, wearing clown wigs and jumping in the club cerralvo pool AND MORE......
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Clinics to kick off the Classic - each clinic supports our schools!!

Party Island Downwind Poker Run - Its on!! Jan 6 sign up on line or at Baja Joes - get the lowdown from Party Island Admiral Grom at the LVC Skippers Meeting Jan 5th at 630 pm

Womens Island Crossing Fun Ride!!! - Jan 5 - 100 doll hairs - Hosted by Marie Leclerc of Elevation Kiteboarding, and Laura Maher of Slingshot. Girls of all levels welcome, but if you can’t go upwind, you have to return in one of the boats! Spend a day at Isla Cerralvo riding the flat water! At the end you’ll do the crossing. Price includes transportation and lunch on the Cerralvo Island beach. This clinic specifically benefits scholarships to keep local girls in High School. sign up online www.laventanaclassic.com or at Baja Joes

F-One Foiling and Racing Clinic with Nico Landauer - Jan 6th -100 dollhairs per person - Take your Foiling and Racing skills to the next level with F-One Team Rider Nico Landauer 1 day foil and race clinic with F-One. Meet at The LVC event site at Hot Springs beach @ 10:30 am, Jan. 6. Support our schools and learn from the best. register www.laventanaclassic.com

Strapless Clinic with Cabrinha's Evan Netsch- Jan 5 - 100 Doll Hairs Get schooled and tips to help you in the surf and your strapless board skills. sign up www.laventanaclassic.com meet at Hotsprings at 1030

Freestyle Kite Clinic with Cabrinha's Evan Netsch - Jan 6 - 100 doll hairs -Spend a day and learn the secrets of going big and doing unhooked tricks - teaching seminar and practice session with coaching from Evan Netsch, who is the 2-time Freestyle Champion of Lord of The Winds! meet at Hot Springs at 1030 am

SUP Performance Paddle Clinic with Anthony Vela- Jan.6 .. 100 doll hairs - conducted by Anthony Vela, Pro SUP Racer and 2012 LVC event winner! Learn how to paddle correctly and win!! sign up on line www.laventanaclassic.com meet at Hot Springs at 830 am

SUP Yoga Clinics - with Yoga guru and Pro Racer Jeramie Vaine - each morning Jan 6-10 at 830 am at the LVC event site at the Hot Springs Beach
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LVC Q & A

Q: Is surf legend Micky Munoz attending the La Ventana Classic?
A: Yep youll find the mongoose himself chilling in the SUP zone and stay tuned for his happy hour story session at the Palapas Ventana Bar

Q:Is it true Rainbow Sandals has donated 600 pairs of sandals to help the LVC raise scholarship money?
A: Si Senor!! retire those sad flippers before they blow out and buy some bombproof ones to support the kids!

Q;how do I sign up for the LVClassic?
A; get on the interweb son - www.laventanaclassic.com

Q: Is there a crossing this year
A: yes ... and more...It is the Classic afterall

Q: Do foils get their own starts?
A: were gonna keep em separated

Q:Are pros coming?
A: oh ya - 5000 usd wind prize money and 1000 usd SUP prize money is a good magnet

Q:can I just enter and cruise?
A: viva la SPORTSMAN!!


STAY TUNED for more LVC NEWS!

Restrictions on air transportation between Mexico and the United States were lifted today in what U.S. officials described as a “landmark agreement” which leaves airlines from both countries free to fly the routes they choose.


Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza signed the new air services agreement today with U.S. Transport Secretary Anthony Foxx in Washington, D.C., after the completion of discussions that began in 2012.

They described the accord as “transcendental” because they expect it will result in improved connectivity, generating more tourism and trade, while Foxx called it a great day for civil aviation for the two countries.



More frequent flights are expected as a result, and lower fares are also possible. The pact also facilitates the establishment of alliances between airlines of each country.

Foxx and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry forecast a “significant” increase in trade and travel between the U.S. and Mexico.

“The new agreement will benefit U.S. and Mexican airlines, travelers, businesses, airports and localities by allowing increased market access for passenger and cargo airlines to fly between any city in Mexico and any city in the United States,” they said in a joint statement.

“Cargo carriers will now have expanded opportunities to provide service to new destinations that were not available under the current, more restrictive agreement.”

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Expansion of the air cargo industry is anticipated because a Mexican or U.S. carrier will be able to transport freight from either country to a third.

The deal still requires approval by the Mexican Senate, but Ruiz Esparza predicted that would come early in the new year. No such ratification is required in the U.S.

While some Mexican airline executives and workers have been critical of the agreement for fear of domination by the larger American aviation industry, Aeroméxico has welcomed it.

But Mexico’s largest airline is seen as being in a favorable position for its alliance with Delta Air Lines. Its Mexican competitors have no such arrangements.

Mexico’s carriers have a fleet of 300 planes. U.S. carriers have 7,500.

If you've never made a wish on a falling star, now's your chance to make up for lost time. The Geminid meteor shower, which is best viewed without a telescope and in clear, dark skies, should peak from 13 to 15 December with scores of meteors expected to shoot across the sky each hour.

The Geminid shower has quite a reputation for generating large numbers of "shooting stars" (meteors) that appear to emanate from a radiant point in the constellation of Gemini. The characteristic streaks and flashes of light created by meteors are the result of tiny particles of dust and debris, ranging from a millimeter to a centimeter across, that burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds.

The Geminids are not like other meteor showers, though. Usually the dust particles we see as meteor showers emanate from comets. As a comet approaches the sun, it forms a distinctive tail as its "dirty ice" melts and some of the ice, dust, rocky materials and organic compounds that make up the comet appear in our skies as a meteor shower. Comets are generally believed to have formed deep in space and travel extremely long orbits around the sun.

But the Geminid meteors originate from an asteroid named 3200 Phaethon, which is a little over 3 miles (5 km) in diameter, and orbits the Sun in a close elliptical orbit once every 1.43 years. This close-orbiting object is made up of metal and rocky matter that was probably formed at around the same time as our solar system's planets.

So it looks like an asteroid and acts like an asteroid … but the mystery of 3200 Phaethon is that asteroids don't usually throw dust into space. Scientists suspect that perhaps hundreds or thousands of years ago, it may have been a comet.

The Geminid shower has only been recognized in our skies since 1862. In more recent years it has become brighter and more intense because Jupiter and Saturn's gravitational forces are drawing a denser part of the Geminid stream closer to Earth.

Compared with other showers, Geminid meteors travel slowly, at around 22 miles per second, and burn up in the atmosphere with a distinctive bright yellowish hue, which makes them easy to spot with the naked eye.

Where to look for the meteor shower

To observe the Geminid meteors, check that the sky will be clear and find a place as far as possible from light-polluted areas. Give yourself about 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark and look in the general direction of the two brightest stars of the Gemini constellation, named after the twins of ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux.

Although the meteors often appear from their "radiant" point in the constellation, you may see meteors at any point in the sky. As the constellation moves higher overhead, the number of meteors you'll see should be much higher.

"A good meteor shower is a spectacular sight," says Prof Martin Barstow, President of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society. "If you have clear skies, there are few better and easier ways to get an impression of the dynamism of the universe we live in, and how the Earth is directly connected to events in the rest of the Solar System."

Border News Abounds
Customs and Border Patrol started using biometric identification scans, a new technology, on Thursday. The scans capture an incoming traveler’s facial photograph to match existing records.

KPBS reports that Tijuana may be badly affected by El Nino this year.

The Union Tribune reported that nearly half the bank branches in San Ysidro have closed in the last two years, affecting small businesses the most. The backbone of San Ysidro boulevard is small businesses, in particular the Casas de Cambios, here’s the good, the bad and the messy: their businesses are failing due to the effective crackdown of drug related money laundering. Councilmember David Alvarez is trying to address the matter effectively.

Voice of San Diego begins a bimonthly Border Report written by border enthusiast Enrique Limon.
The newsletter this week included that San Diego developers are building more affordable housing inTijuana. Although the U.S. doesn’t keep records of how many Americans have immigrated to other countries, it’s estimated that 50,000 Americans currently live in Tijuana where the cost of living is more affordable. The article explains that construction by American builders could bring better infrastructure for the city, but also has its drawbacks.

Tijuana has plans to improve its transportation. They begun construction on a 23-mile bus rapid transit system and are looking into a light-rail system.

SENTRI border crossing hours extended for motorists.
Mexico’s Pemex oil company opens 5 gas stations in US.

lpg wrote:La Paz, Baja California Sur (BCS).

By February 2016, La Paz will have an international flight to Los Angeles, with a frequency of once a week, which could remain after four months of operation if the market permits, said Luis Genaro Ruiz Hernández, head of the Tourism Department of the State Government.  

He clarified that this flight will not have cost state coffers "as happened previously when he was at the head of that unit Ruben Reachi Lugo, whose tenure as head of the Tourism Ministry, is subsidized international flights to La Paz with public money from the tax on lodging "reports The Sudcaliforniano, this time the air link was thanks to an agreement between the Tourism Board and a private company, the official said.  

Finally, the Secretary of Tourism also announced that next Sunday for the first time will be docking at the port of Pichilingue in the state capital -the Pacific Princess cruise of the television series "The Love Boat" itself - amid his tour to mark its 50th anniversary, plus the arrival of 17 cruises for next season is expected.    Sheryl Owner of La Paz Gringos

lpg wrote:Mexico will be the first country in the world to have a vaccine available for dengue fever when it begins shipping early next year following approval today by Mexican authorities.


But the new vaccine, developed by the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, has produced the best results among people with previous exposure to the virus.

Guillaume Leroy, leader of the dengue team at Sanofi Pasteur, the company’s vaccines division, said the vaccine acted best as an immunity booster for such people.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease seen by the World Health Organization as a threat to about half the world’s population. Some 400 million people are believed to be infected annually.

Called Dengvaxia, the vaccine has only been approved in Mexico for patients aged nine to 45 who live in areas where the disease is endemic, barring its use for younger children — considered to be more at risk — and tourists.

Leroy added that additional data will be needed before considering whether the vaccine may be of use to travelers.

“Mexico is one of the countries where we started our clinical trials, which has been associated with the program from the very beginning and whose regulatory authority is certified by the World Health Organization,” said Sanofi Pasteur executive vice-president of vaccines, Olivier Charmeil.

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Mexican regulators cleared the use of the vaccine based on the results of a clinical testing program that included over 40,000 people of different ages from 15 countries.

During the trials, the vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by 80% and lowered the possibility of developing the most severe, hemorrhagic form of the disease by 93%.

Deliveries to Mexico from a plant near Lyon, France, will start early next year, said Charmeil and Leroy.

Charmeil said the drug’s pricing would be determined with the Mexican government over the next few weeks. He told the Wall Street Journal that the price would reflect the “value” of the vaccine in terms of the savings that it could bring about elsewhere. He said the total annual cost of treating dengue was around $9 billion globally, and that prevention strategies such as mosquito nets cost a further $6 billion to $9 billion.

Dengvaxia is shaping up to be a “blockbuster” product for the company, said Charmeil, who added that the vaccine is the “innovation of the decade” and is expected to generate over US $1 billion per year in sales.

Other drugmakers including Japan’s Takeda and the United States’ Merck are also working on dengue vaccines but are believed to be several years behind.

In Mexico, 7,136 cases of dengue were reported between January 1 and July 28 5,728 of which were classic and 1,408 hemorrhagic, with 11 deaths.

Congress is poised to enact a law denying or revoking passports for U.S. citizens who haven’t paid their taxes.

Under a new law expected to take effect in January, the State Department will block Americans with “seriously delinquent” tax debt from receiving new passports and will be allowed to rescind existing passports of people who fall into that category. The list of affected taxpayers will be compiled by the Internal Revenue Service using a threshold of $50,000 of unpaid federal taxes, including penalties and interest, which would be adjusted for inflation.
The rule has been passed in similar versions by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is part of a highway-funding bill, H.R. 22, that is now before a conference committee. Congress is expected to pass it in early December

lpg wrote:With the new fiberoptic line installed by Telmex this past week, I'm getting ~20 mbps download and 5 mbps upload or more, according to speedtest.net. This is in El Esterito on the borderline with El Centro, and I'm on the 599/mo plan.

lpg wrote:FYI: Monday the 16th is a national holiday in Mexico (Revolution Day) and banks, schools, government offices & some businesses will be closed.The following weekend, Nov 20 - 23rd is "Buen Fin" which is similar to Black Friday in the US - many stores have storewide sales with big discounts. 

Gerardo Left

La Paz, Baja California Sur - The municipal administration of La Paz approved a forensic audit of the prior administration for the period 2011-2015, headed by mayor Esthela Ponce Beltrán, and later Francisco Javier Monroy Sánchez, as according to what is indicated today in a press release, they have detected diversions of funds of 377 million pesos (US$23 million).
 
A diversion of 123 million pesos (US$7.5 million) from a loan of 150 million made in 2013 was detected, and more than 254 million pesos (US$15.5 million) of federal funds earmarked for public works was revealed.

The Mexican Supreme court has opened the door for the possibility of legalizing recreational marijuana use. On Wednesday, the Supreme court ruled that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreational purposes is legal under a person's right to personal freedom. A professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico, Catalina Perez Correa Gonzalez, explains this new ruling. 

bpe wrote:Courtesy of the Ventana View:  Heads up people crossing at Tecate! As of October 27 at 9am construction at border. Normally you would go through the border and inspection and go straight through the traffic light, not now, construction! Be warned if you go left at the light you continue past more construction which continues until you end up going up an incredibly narrow and STEEP hill! If you are driving anything bigger than an SUV this is a very dangerous and potentially disastrous way to go, you may have to back down because there is nowhere to turn around. I would highly recommend going RIGHT at the lights because left is a disaster and has no road marking for detours. I don't know what is to the right but it has to be better than going left. Bien Viejo.