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Glitz and Glamor Come to Rosarito

Does this story sound familiar? You’re tired of your job, even if you love it, and you decide it’s time to retire. You move (to make sure you won’t go back to work after a few months) to paradise. It’s beautiful, you love it, but you’re bored. So you decide to return to the job you love, but now in a new location. After all, there is only so much beach volleyball and tennis one can play.

This is what Nannette Barbera experienced, and “DIVAS…the Show” was born. Every third weekend of the month until November, a new variety show will be performed in the beautiful plaza of the Mata Ashta Restaurant located in San Antonio Del Mar, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 7:30 and 9:00 pm. The patio will be elegantly transformed each month with a new theme, décor, and mood. Future shows will include magic, comedy, burlesque, Motown, variety and more.

Performing on the domed stage the premier weekend is Ninette Terhart (direct from Las Vegas) and local talents, Theresa Mala and Tina Marie. Host Rick Rumbaugh will be on hand to entertain with his own brand of humor, but the main theme of these (and future) glitzy-yet-classy shows is to honor and empower women. And although there are two shows per night, each will have unique costumes (designed by Nannette), tunes, and performances, with each evening culminating in a slam-bang finale, and then dancing to a variety of music until midnight with a local DJ. And there is a special guest appearance, to be announced! This month, Baja Lori Chapin will be on hand to offer tequila tastings.

Nannette is no stranger to staging live entertainment. After 17 years with  Caesar’s Entertainment as Entertainment and Special Events Coordinator, she produced and choreographed  such stellar shows as “Dance Mania,” iCandy” and “Solid Gold Soul,”  as well as the television shows Star Search, Leno and Howie Mandel, among others, and now she’s brought her expertise and abundant energy to Rosarito. Her partner Buford King, who co-produces her shows, accompanied Nannette to Rosarito. When they discovered Mata Ashta after moving to San Antonio Del Mar, Nanette became the Special Events Operator for the property, and does much of its marketing.

Tickets are $20 in advance (PayPal.me/SteveSpradley or at Mata Ashta) and $25 at the door, which includes the show and your first drink. And this is a family-friendly show, so the kids get in for $10. But hey, if you come for the first show you can stay for the second on the same ticket. But that’s not the only great deal. If you mention the Gringo Gazette when purchasing your ticket, you get $5 off. And if you purchase your ticket at Mata Ashta any day before the show date you’re interested in, the Steve’s Special will include a raffle ticket entering you into a drawing for a $50 Mata Ashta gift certificate, to be held every Monday following the shows. Winners will be notified and their names posted on Mata Ashta’s Facebook page. Steve is the owner of Mata Ashta and head of promotions, so I guess he can offer any special he wants to.

There will be a different show each month until November, then after a brief hiatus, during which Nannette will be creating new shows and costumes, the show will return to Mata Ashta next spring.  And Ms. Barbera is always looking for new talent to add to her shows. In addition to looking world-wide for new acts to include into future shows, she is looking for local talent. So if you are a performer of any kind (musician, singer, juggler, comedian, magician…the list goes on and on), please contact her via email at nbarbera2@yahoo.com with a description and video of or link to a video. For more information, email stevemataashta@gmail.com, or phone 1-702-809-1482 or 1-714-606-2646.

Don’t Miss The Seashells and New Wine Festival

Like every year, the Seashells and New Wine Festival opens the path of the regional wine festivities and although it’s not an official “vendimia” event because it’s a couple months before, its organized by Provino (the same guys that bring you the official wine parties) and its definitely a “mustn’t miss” for the season.

This year, the celebration will last for a whole week (packed with workshops, guided tours, lunch and dinner events in Ensenada and the Guadalupe Valley), starting on Monday, April 29 and ending with the main festival on May 5th on the grounds of Marina Coral Hotel.

The seashells and new wine festival represents an homage to local ingredients, with different activities that take the public to know, first-hand, how local sea products are handled, transformed and paired with local wines, reflecting all the goodness that this vast region brings to our tables.

Tickets cost 900 pesos (about 50 dollars), and you can get them online clicking here https://festival-de-las-conchas-y-el-vino-nuevo.boletia.com/. A wine glass that you’ll use for tasting more than 120 different bottles of local wines is included. Food samples from participating restaurants are also available and don’t have any extra cost.

If you don’t want to get your tickets online, you can also buy them at:

  • Hotel Coral & Marina
  • Viñas de Liceaga
  • Bodegas de Santo Tomás
  • Finca La Carrodilla
  • Lomita
  • Maglen Resort
  • Madera 5
  • Cuatro Cuatros
  • Hacienda Guadalupe
  • Cava Maciel
  • Decantos
  • El Cielo
  • Hotel Misión Santa Isabel
  • Muelle 3
  • Corona Hotel & Spa
  • Corona Del Valle
  • Viajes Kinessia
  • Acuacultura Integral de Baja California
  • Tienda de vinos La Contra

You can find the full program for all the events, online at: https://provinobc.mx/eventos/.

Samples are limited, so make sure to get there early to try everything! See you there.

 

Andre Sabatucci Missing. Last Seen In Ensenada

UPDATE FROM HIS FAMILY (2019-03-04): “Andre’s mother has received a lot of phone calls from people who have seen him at different locations. Due to the language barrier it has been though getting addresses of all the locations. As of now we know he is safe, but until his mother locates him herself we would like for this post to be active. Thank you to all who have shared and helped us spread the word. The support we’ve received is insane.”

 

Andre Sabatucci was last seen in La Bufadora (Ensenada) on January 17, driving his blue Clark Cortez 1966 RV Van. His family and friends are worried about him and would like to know his whereabouts.

Sabatucci’s blue 1966 Clark Cortez Van

Sabatucci is 35 years old, about 190 pounds and measures 5′ 10. He has brown hair, brown eyes and a muscular build.

He is from Huntington Beach. CA, and was on his way to Cabo San Lucas.

If you have any information please contact Jackie Sabatucci, his mother, at US phone number (562) 283-26389.

Ensenada Backs Out Of Plastic Ban

Just 21 days after a ban on plastic shopping bags and containers in the city of Ensenada went into effect, the city council decided to suspend it.

Emilio Martinez, the Ensenada councilman that promoted the ban on plastics, informed that the suspension of the brand-new law will be for an undefined amount of time.

He stated that the city is working on promoting an intense campaign that would inform the general public about the use of plastic and the effect it has on the world, particularly in Mexico.

Martinez said that the reform of the law never had a coercive or fine-collecting objective but that it was preventive in order to strengthen the environment.

He added that along with the campaign, authorities will work closely with the private sector in order to substitute plastics for other non-contaminating materials.

Rosarito beach passed a similar law last December with steep fines for stores that give non-biodegradable plastic bags to their customers, but they are not enforcing said fines until April this year in order to give time to local businesses and people to find better options for carrying their goods.

Photo from: Sergio's Sport Fishing

Whale Season Has Started

Every year about 15,000 people enjoy the gray-whale sighting trips to the Todos Santos Island that local boat operators in Ensenada offer.

The whale season has officially started on December 15 this year and will run through April 15 of next year, stated Amador Arteaga head of the Tourism Promotion Office for Ensenada (Proturismo).

He also said that people will also be able to enjoy watching dolphins, sea lions, birds and other marine species that usually appear during the tour.

Arteaga is inviting tourists and residents alike to enjoy the daily tours that go out from the Ensenada malecon every day at 7:00AM and come back at around 3:00PM.

Reservations are highly recommended, and prices range from $350 to $500 pesos (18.5 to 28 USD) per person.

This same day tour should not be confused with the one that goes all the way to Laguna Ojo de Liebre where you can see the baby whales fool around with their folks and sometimes even touch them. That’s a great experience too but it takes at least a couple of days.

For more information about the different whale tours offered in Ensenada contact Proturismo at 646 178 2411.

Renters Beware: Baja Tom Does It Again

Over the last 3 years, we’ve had about 7 people contacting us regarding problems with rent deposits not being given back after contracts are over. One of those people was so angry and felt so frustrated that decided to pay us to publish an ad in the paper for a couple of editions. Since we’ve heard about this problem before we decided to keep printing the ad for free. The ad is still being printed in the classified section of our paper.

Today we received another complaint from another tenant, a lady that claims to have given notice to him that he was leaving the house on January before Tommy Springer just went ballistic on her, this is her original message on social media:

“Many of you know Tom Springer… I just told him January will probably be my last month in a rental… Hes giving me 24 hours to vacate before he comes in and changes locks, poisons my dogs, and takes off with my deposit and rent. I know rights are very different here… Does anybody have any advice??”

We’ve heard everywhere about Tommy’s victims in La Mision, we’ve written about it before and will continue to do it to try and help other people from falling victims to his scam.

He always refuses to give back the deposit by plain lying to people, saying he will get them their money whenever the property gets rented, which of course is not true.

In the latest complaint, we got the tenant stated that Tommy threatened to hire guys to rape her. That’s typical of him. When we printed the “Renters Beware” ad on this newspaper, Tommy called and said he was going to murder the publisher of this paper stating that he knew the car he drove and his even his VIN number.

If you’re one of his victims or know someone that is, we highly recommend to go over to the police station and file a report for threats, it will not get him arrested but if we can get enough people to file reports he could sure get himself deported from Mexico.

We Get A New President

Tomorrow, Saturday, December 1, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes President of the Republic in an investiture ceremony that promises to be lively.

Current President Enrique Peña Nieto will hand over the presidential sash to the president of the Chamber (similar to our senate), who will hand it over to López Obrador, who will then be sworn in. The new president will offer a speech that’s expected to go on for about an hour, and that will end with the Mexican anthem. This is all central time, which is two hours ahead of Northern Baja.

Expect protestors, who have vowed to jump around in a display of dissatisfaction over AMLO, as he’s popularly called, inviting Venezuelan President Maduro to the festivities, among other worries. Many people are afraid AMLO is going to lead Mexico down the same disastrous path as that country has gone.

Also, people are not happy that the son in law of the very unpopular Donald Trump is getting one of Mexico’s most prestigious awards, supposedly for helping to re-negotiate NAFTA.

And then there’s the garden variety dissatisfaction of AMLO leading the country for the next six years, although he won by a landslide.

To see the ceremony, tune in to any TV station at 9:00 am (11:00 am central time), as that part will be visually interesting. The rest of the day’s activities are going to require Spanish.

These will be tomorrow’s activities according to Forbes Mexico:

Policemen Protest And Take City Hall

About 900 municipal police agents from Ensenada took to the streets yesterday protesting that their salary, that was due on the 23rd, wasn’t paid yet. They were also complaining that their holiday bonus hasn’t been paid and is already two weeks due.

The group marched from the Macroplaza mall in Transpeninsular all the way to City Hall with signs and banners demanding the payment of their salary.

“Policeman live day to day, if we don’t get paid, we don’t have means to feed our family, I say this so citizens of Ensenada can understand us, we are not doing this because we like it, we need that money in our homes and delays in our salary can’t happen” said Rafael Ruiz, local agent.

A local cop salary starts at about $650 USD per month. Of course it can be more, depending on their rank and seniority.

Other policeman complained that their credit score was affected when the last city administration didn’t make payments on loans the agents got, even when those payments where directly discounted from their paychecks.

Before the day ended, their salary was deposited into their bank accounts but not yet their holiday bonus.

City officials said they were doing everything in their power to get more resources in order pay the amount they owe the police and that they were hoping to make the payment on the holiday bonus this coming Friday.

 

With information from El Vigia

Anthony’s Bar Building On Fire Once Again

Yesterday morning a once popular bar in Ensenada caught fire for the second time, on its top floor, where it has several rooms for rent.

The fire was reportedly caused by a failure on the electrical wiring of the building. Local firemen where able to control it in a little less than an hour with no one injured.

Four years ago, on September 2, 2014, the same top floor of the building caught fire, at that time authorities said the fire could had been intentional, but no one was apprehended.

The bar, that was almost a landmark in Ensenada with its huge gorilla, has been out of business for a couple of years now.

Watch out for those Santa Ana winds

Health authorities from Baja are recommending staying at home when Santa Ana winds are active. Problems in the respiratory tract, eyes and skin have been reported during the winds, and thus they are recommending staying home with doors and windows closed.

Dr. David Perez, chief of medical services, stated that these winds affect the health because they carry a lot of dirt with them because of the severe dryness. He also recommended to stay away from street food during this condition, as it can get easily contaminated by pathogens in the wind and can induce gastric diseases.

Perez emphasized the importance of drinking enough water and making sure house pets have enough clean water, which should be changed more often to avoid having them drink contaminated liquids.

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