City Square
Cathedral
October 2011
The official founding story of Las Peñas (and thus of Puerto Vallarta) is that it was founded by Guadalupe Sánchez Torres, his wife Ambrosia Carrillo and some friends such as Cenobio Joya, Apolonio de Robles, Cleofas Peña and Martín Andrade, among others, on December 12, 1851, and was given the name of Las Peñas de Santa María de Guadalupe since it was the day dedicated to the virgin of Guadalupe. Although the purchase record of the property by Guadalupe Sanchez is dated 1859, his family lived there prior to the purchase year. Also even as early as 1850 the area was already peopled by fishermen, pearl divers, smugglers and foragers, all of whom had something of a permanent existence in the area. Given the existing historical documents it is simply impossible to date the first permanent settlement in the area,
There is, however, no doubt the development of Las Peñas into a self-sustaining village of any significant size happened in the 1860s as the mouth of the Cuale area was exploited to support the operations of the newly enfranchised Union en Cuale company. As such 1859 marks the beginning of Puerto Vallarta as a village. Twenty years later, by 1885, the village comprised about 250 homes and about 800 residents
In 1918, the village was elevated to municipality status and renamed after former state governor Ignacio Vallarta.
(Wikipedia)
Puerto Vallarta, or PV to Anglo locals, was a name to me from TV gameshows in America. "You have just won a trip to sunny.... Puerto Vallarta!!" I heard that city announced gleefully so many times in my growing up years. That was my only association with the city other than later knowing it was a tourist mecca on Mexico's Pacific Coast as an adult. I knew more of Acapulco (a city past its prime) and Cabo San Lucas (a place at its peak) [see: Cabo San Lucas]. Puerto Vallarta was just a name and the end point of our cruise. Brian and I were going to make an excursion to see a tequila distillery [see: making tequila] and that was about it.
Onboard ship, however, we met people who had been to PV often and spoke very highly of it. Additionally, we came to learn that there had been a large expat (mostly retired) community there for decades. People had been "retiring to Mexico" to PV years before it was a "thing". That piqued our interest. Upon arrival, PV did not disappoint - it had a fantastic beach and a nice old town (that was not really that old by Mexican standards). It was tourist Mexico at its best and we both said, "you know, not really such a bad place to retire to".
PV, in fact, had started as a small port supplying the mines of Mexico's interior, and even in those days the miners from the mountains would come down to enjoy its beaches. It seems its future as a resort started early. The city remained a minor tourist destination until it had a rendezvous with media destiny. "Night of the Iguana" was shot in a small town just south of PV and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stayed in larger Puerto Vallarta during the shoot. They had a torrid affair that was splashed all over the tabloids. "Puerto Vallarta" was discovered more or less by two Hollywood film stars in 1964 and the city has never looked back. In 1970 President Nixon met with President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz to sign an important treaty there, which showcased the city's importance even more.
These days Mexico has developed in tourism. The days where Acapulco was the only real beach destination are long gone. Puerto Vallarta had its moment but then suffered when the Yucatan destinations of Cancun and Cozumel took off. PV is still an important tourist town and increasingly a place for Norteamericanos to retire. I have to admit there was a moment we both said, "this might work" - but as with many people, it was just the vacation buzz speaking.