The Children of Puerto Vallarta - Mexico Travel Story

Everywhere I went in Old Town , the downtown core of the old part of Puerto Vallarta , and other areas in and around the city, I saw the faces of happy children. No tears, no whining, no tantrums, just smiles and laughter. In fact, in Yelapa, a picturesque secluded area accessible only via boat, one girl, about 10 or 12 years old giggled so much, I thought she just might burst at any minute. It was quite a refreshing sound in the sticky humid surroundings as we awaited the return of our water taxi to take us back to Boca de Tomatlán .

I watched two of the smaller children play, perhaps her younger siblings. They made a game of hiding amongst a bunch of cloth chairs that had been stacked in piles during the off season. No video games or TV's for these kids. In fact, one local man told me that Yelapa had only received electricity four short years ago. No pizza pops for these kids to stuff their faces with, no MP3 player blaring in their ears, no $110.00 pair of name brand sneakers endorsed by some sports mogul dawned their feet. And yet – they were ecstatically blissful. Imagine that

Apparently, no one had thought to inform these children that they live in poverty. I say that sarcastically for they are the wealthy ones. Some of the kids from the Vallarta area take a bus from school to catch a water taxi back to their homes in the heat of two o'clock in the afternoon. A city bus driver looked caringly at a small child passenger who boarded the city bus in her school uniform. He waited to drive away until the child had safely exited to her mother's open arms.

This seems to by why the children are so amazingly cheerful. Each of the non-crying faces I witnessed was a part of a loving community. Their parents showed affections for one another by holding hands, kissing, or hugging, perhaps instilling a security in the child's mind of a secure family. Those same parents pay attention to their children; they show affection for them; they include them; and they watch out for them.

In the supermercado , one father was grocery shopping with his young daughter. She was standing in the cart with an adorable little halter top on. He leaned down to kiss the bare belly of his small child making her giggle with innocent delight.

We could learn a lot from the Mexican way of life when it comes to child rearing. These children I saw, though they live in a third world country, seemed to have the best of all the riches in the world – real love – by a family and community. Though the average wage of a mason or construction worker is a mere 32 cents per hour, the parents seem to put more value on time with their children than trying to obtain material possessions. Despite of, or perhaps because of the poor living conditions around them, these families inspire a tight-knit community with the obvious love of family.

The faces of the proud parents and family members said it all at a Saturday night ballet performance at the municipal building located near the south end of the malecón (seawall.) Everyone came out in their Sunday's finest to watch the children perform. The tiny dancers were dressed in adorable elaborate outfits of the finest looking materials. After their performance, they showed their stuff in the gazebo in the square at the municipal building. There was no complaining about the heat, or the late hour, or whose turn it was to dance in the gazebo. Happy times were had by all. Not even the babies in attendance fussed. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and in the case of the Puerto Vallarta area, this adage is quite apparent.