World Travel News

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and other legislators complained Thursday that Southern Nevadans were hurting Northern Nevada by rejecting funding for a state Tourism Commission office in Mexico City.

The spending of $100,000 for the office was turned down during a meeting of the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee. Most Democrats, particularly those from Southern Nevada, rejected the expenditure, while Republicans generally supported it.

Reno and Sparks officials and a Lake Tahoe ski resort operator testified that having a state Tourism Commission office in Mexico City would help them attract Mexican airlines to the Reno-Tahoe Airport and Mexican tourists to the ski slopes.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority already staffs a Mexico City office. One of its administrators testified in favor of the state opening an office in Mexico.

Raggio, R-Reno, said approval would help the entire state and complained that he did not like north-south sectionalism.

JANUARY
January 1: A?o Nuevo (New Year’s Day), is an official Mexican holiday.
January 6: D?a de los Santos Reyes is the day when Mexicans exchange Christmas presents in accordance with the arrival of the three gift-bearing wisemen to Jesus Christ. This day culminates the Christmastime festivities.
January 17: Feast Day of de San Antonio de Abad is a religious holiday during which the Catholic Church allows animals to enter the church for blessing.
FEBUARY
February 2: D?a de la Candelaria or Candlemas, is a religious holiday that is celebrated with processions, dancing, bullfights in certain cities, and the blessing of the seeds and candles. The festivities are best seen in: San Juan de los Lagos, Jalapa; Talpa de Allende, Jalisco; and Santa Maria del Tuxla, Oaxaca.
February 3-8 (2005): Carnaval is an official Mexican holiday that kicks off a five-day celebration of the libido before the Catholic lent. Beginning the weekend before Lent, Carnaval is celebrated exhubrantly with parades, floats and dancing in the streets. Port towns such as Ensenada, La Paz, Mazatlán and Veracruz are excellent places to watch Carnaval festivities. Dates change slightly as follows: 2005: Feb 3-8; 2006: Feb 23-28; 2007: Feb 15-20; 2008: Jan 31 - Feb 5; 2009: Feb 19-24; 2010: Feb 11-16.
February 5: D?a de la Constituci?n an official holiday that commemorates Mexico’s Constitution.
February 24: Flag Day, This Mexican national holiday honors the Mexican flag.

More: juiceenewsdaily.com

Passport law irks border-crossers

Like many Midwestern retirees who spend winters on the Texas border, Fred Farley doesn’t have a passport. So when he heard he’d need one to cross back from Mexico, he wondered if he would still make occasional trips to buy handicrafts.

“You about have to live down here to make it pay for itself,” the 71-year-old from Blue Grass, Iowa, said Friday of the $97 cost of getting a passport.

But word Friday that President Bush ordered a review of the newly passed requirement relieved frequent border-crossers such as Farley and local businesses, who say they’d be devastated by a lack of binational traffic.
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