Visiting Puerto Vallarta - Part 3

History of the region continued:-

In the mid 1800’s a young boatman from Cihuatlan who was called Guadalupe Sanchez started a business importing large amounts of salt. He obtained these from the Marias Islands and landed them onto Los Muertos Beach in Banderas Bay. His business was quite successful so he found himself spending increasing amounts of his time in the area. As the region was so pleasant he decided to move himself into the area along with his wife and several companions. As other people joined him a small town started to grow; Sanchez decided to call it Las Penas. So once the port had been established it was naturally called Puerto Las Penas.

In the early 19th century when the United States discovered silver, the price of the metal dropped a lot as did the profitability of the mines in the area. Agriculture once again took off as a way for the displaced workers to live. The land was especially fertile in the valley of the Ameca River which is an area now known as Nuevo Vallarta. As there was no infrastructure in the area or roads out of Las Penas, the harvested goods had to be shipped by boat to other areas. The growth in importance of Puerto Las Penas caused it to become a Municipality in 1918. The area and the port were renamed Puerto Vallarta in honour of the Governor of Jalisco, who at that time was Ignacio Vallarta.

In 1963, word of Puerto Vallarta spread to the United States. This was mostly as the result of gossip about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton who were on location in Puerto Vallarta to film the movie Night of the Iguana. You can find out more about this in a previous article I have written entitled “Why Puerto Vallarta”.

The increasing demands of tourism from this period up to 1971 caused the governor of the state of Jalisco to move forward with a vision he had. This was to create the development and infrastructure needed to turn Puerto Vallarta into a modern tourist destination. He obtained the backing of Mexico’s President Gustavo Diaz Oradaz for this plan. So Puerto Vallarta officially became a city and received the financial resources it needed to build bridges, roads, and an international airport, as well as bring in electrical power and telephone service.

The population of Puerto Vallarta still continues to increase each year. This is mainly from tourists who have visited and decided to return and become residents and expats. Although expats in Puerto Vallarta come from all corners of the world it is primarily Americans and Canadians who choose this as their retirement location. In the ten years from 2000 to 2010, the resident population increased by 71, 000 to a record of 255, 000 people.

In addition to its residents tourists fill the area year round because of the pleasant weather conditions and prices. Currently Puerto Vallarta is Mexico’s third largest vacation destination and hosts around 2. 5 million visitors each year.

Continued in part 4.