Visiting Puerto Vallarta - Part 2

History of the region

I thought that before getting into all the things that you can do around the Puerto Vallarta area that I would give you a brief summary of the history of Banderas Bay and Puerto Vallarta.

Banderas Bay was discovered by the Spanish in the early 1500s. The name Banderas originated from the fact that the native groups would carry lots of flags and banners into battle. In 1525, at the northernmost tip of Banderas Bay, Francisco Cortes de Buenaventura led a group into the region. The aim was to conquer the native people as this group was made up of 100 Spanish soldiers. One of the big banners carried by the group was an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Once on shore it was soon realized that they were outnumbered by the 20, 000 Aztatlan people who were going to defend their land. It is said that a Spanish friar went down on his knees which exposed the large image of the Holy Virgin directly behind him. The intensity of the bright sunlight illuminating the Virgin both stunned and terrified the Aztatlan. They immediately surrendered to the Spanish who convinced themselves that this whole happening was a miracle.

During the 16th century, sailors, explorers and just about everyone at sea in the region used the Banderas Bay area as a safe and protected place to stop and re-provision on long voyages. The region around the bay also served as a great place to hide out for pirates as they watched for possible ships to attack. The Spanish pushed inland from the coast and did what was normal at the time which was to seize the native lands and enslaved the indigenous people. Unfortunately during this first 100 years of Spanish rule more than 90% of the native population was wiped out. As we know now this was due to the local people having no resistance to smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria and influenza.

During both the 17th and 18th centuries silver and gold were the principle commodities from the region. These metals were mined from high up in the mountains. The three main towns for this trade were San Sebastian del Oeste, Talpa de Allende, and Mascota. Over time agriculture became less of a focus for the area as the mining activities increased. As a result the demand for salt to process the precious metals increased very quickly.

Continued in part 3.