Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta was named less than 100 years ago in 1918 for a former governor of Jalisco (1872-1876), Ignacio Vallarta. (Puerto is Spanish for Port.) Before, as a small port serving the much more important mountain mining towns, it had been known as Las Peñas de Santa María de Guadalupe (from 1859). The Bahía de Banderas (Bay of Flags), Mexico’s largest, was named by Francisco Cortés, the Conquistador’s nephew, in 1524.

It remained a small town well into the 20th century. An airport opened in 1932 and the first road connecting the village inland in 1942; the first paved road wasn’t until 1956. Tourists and expats began arriving in the 1950s. In 1963, John Huston brought Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr and Sue Lyon to film Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana. Elizabeth Taylor joined Burton and the international media followed to publicize their affair.

(Burton bought Taylor a 22,900-square-foot home in PV as a wedding gift, Casa Kimberley. They lived there and in Casa San Angel, another home across the street connected by a pink bridge, for 11 years.)

Puerto Vallarta, having been “discovered” is now a city of 250,000. Presidents Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and Richard Nixon met there in 1970.

At 20°40′N. Puerto Vallarta is in the tropics (technically anyplace between 23° 26′ 16″ S. and 23° 26′ 16″ N. latitude). It was 80-85º each afternoon, dropping to 68-70º at night. Perfect late January, early February weather if you ask me. Most of the bay side of the house was windows and sliding glass doors.

We stayed 10 miles outside Puerto Vallarta near Mismaloya where The Night of the Iguana was filmed. One evening we took the local bus into town (fare $7 — that’s pesos, or about 56¢ U.S. — by the way, the $ sign originated with Spain, not the U.S.).

Below are a few iPhone street views and two photos of the La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, the Puerto Vallarta Cathedral. It’s relatively new as the churches of Mexico go, built in the 20th century and not completed until 1952. The crown was added to the steeple in 1963 and has been rebuilt twice as a result of erosion and a 1995 earthquake. The crown is said to replicate that of Empress Carlota, wife of Maximiliano, the French-imposed Emperor of Mexico 1864-1867.

Later we heard a good singer and terrific guitar player at The River Cafe and had an excellent dinner at La Palapa on the beach.