Qualla: Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Microstar, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1963, John Huston brought a film crew to a remote fishing village on Mexico's Pacific coast to shoot The Night of the Iguana. Richard Burton came along, and so did Elizabeth Taylor -- who was not in the film but was very much in the headlines. The tabloids chased their affair through the cobblestone streets and jungle-draped hillsides of a place most Americans had never heard of. Within a year, Puerto Vallarta was no longer a secret. Burton and Taylor bought a house. Huston built one on a secluded beach. And a sleepy port named after a nineteenth-century governor of Jalisco began its transformation into one of Mexico's most celebrated resort cities.

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Image: Microstar | CC BY-SA 4.0

Puerto Vallarta: The Bay of Flags and the Beach of the Dead

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Melikamp, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bay that cradles Puerto Vallarta carries a name rooted in a sixteenth-century misunderstanding. In 1524, Francisco Cortes de San Buenaventura -- nephew of the more famous Hernan -- marched soldiers into the village of Tintoque. Indigenous warriors surrounded them, weapons rai...

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Image: Melikamp | CC BY-SA 3.0

Puerto Vallarta: From Las Penas to a City of Light

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Melikamp, CC BY-SA 3.0. Puerto Vallarta's founding is officially traced to December 12, 1851, when Guadalupe Sanchez Torres and a handful of companions established a settlement called Las Penas de Santa Maria de Guadalupe, named for both the rocky coastline and the patron saint whose feast day it was. T...

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Image: Melikamp | CC BY-SA 3.0

Puerto Vallarta: Where the Mountains Meet the Sea

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BurseraLinanoe, CC BY-SA 4.0. Geography defines Puerto Vallarta as much as its history does. The city sits on a narrow coastal plain at the foot of the Sierras Cuale and San Sebastian, fingers of the Sierra Madre Occidental that plunge directly into the Pacific. Three rivers -- the Cuale, the Pitillal, and th...

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Image: BurseraLinanoe | CC BY-SA 4.0

Puerto Vallarta: A City That Learned to Welcome Everyone

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zeroslashed, CC BY-SA 4.0. Puerto Vallarta evolved from a conservative fishing village into one of Mexico's most inclusive destinations. Its south-side Zona Romantica became the heart of a vibrant LGBTQ community, with the city sometimes called the "San Francisco of Mexico." The municipal government, once ...

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Image: Zeroslashed | CC BY-SA 4.0

Puerto Vallarta: Galleons, Film Stars, and Surf

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Romazur, CC BY-SA 4.0. Before the tourists, Bahia de Banderas was a stop on the Manila galleon route, linking New Spain to Asia. Before the galleons, indigenous peoples of the Aztlan culture inhabited these shores from at least 580 BCE. That depth of history still surfaces unexpectedly -- in archaeolog...

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Image: Romazur | CC BY-SA 4.0