What is the history of Puerto Vallarta?

Puerto Vallarta was just a small little fishing village with a very small community here in Jalisco on the ocean with a beautiful bay when, in 1964, John Houston came down here to film the movie Night of the Iguana, which put Puerto Vallarta on the map. Then Elizabeth Taylor bought a house here and Richard Burton bought a house across the street from Elizabeth Taylor and movie stars started coming down here. This really drew the attention of foreigners, who started coming down here to...

Puerto Vallarta was just a small little fishing village with a very small community here in Jalisco on the ocean with a beautiful bay when, in 1964, John Houston came down here to film the movie Night of the Iguana, which put Puerto Vallarta on the map. Then Elizabeth Taylor bought a house here and Richard Burton bought a house across the street from Elizabeth Taylor and movie stars started coming down here. This really drew the attention of foreigners, who started coming down here to vacation.  

 

So Puerto Vallarta grew from a small village to where it is now, with a population of several hundred thousand people.  We’ve got an old sign that’s falling over on the south side of town that says “Welcome to Puerto Vallarta. Population 250,000 people.”

 

Perhaps my personal story will help to illustrate the growth of Puerto Vallarta.  I have some wonderful friends from Los Angeles who purchased a big house here in 1976 when it wasn’t that easy for Americans to purchase property, and the whole concept of foreigners purchasing here was fairly new for Puerto Vallarta.  I started to come down about 4 or 5 times a year to visit my friends.  On one of my trips I was asked by some people who own a property management company if I would like to move down here and help them set up a real estate sales division.  In 1999, I accepted.

 

When I first moved here we didn’t have all of the services here that make life a little bit easier, like Costco, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, and Wal-Mart. Back in those days there were a couple of Mexican grocery stores that we could go to. There was one grocery store in the middle of town that would import some of the stuff that US and Canadian consumers are used to purchasing, but it was just a very small grocery store with not much available. Since then we have grown so much that everything is available. We’ve got Megaplex movie theaters all over the place now. We’ve have two Sam Stores. We have a number of Wal-Marts, Costcos, Home Depots, and I understand there’s going to be a new Lowes that’s going to be coming into town. So there’s a lot of growth.  A lot of things that were a little bit more difficult to get when I first moved down here that we had to bring down from the States are now fairly readily available.

 

This is all a good thing because Puerto Vallarta has kept its character, its personality and its soul.  It’s not like the invasion of McDonald’s so that you may feel “Oh, there goes the culture.” Puerto Vallarta still very much has its culture and the hospitality of the Mexican people here.  Given all that, it’s just nice to be able to go get some of those things that make our life easier.  

 

(Richard Burton and Ava Gardner in the movie, Night of the Iguana, shot in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)

Historically, Puerto Vallarta was a fishing village. The beach area is one of the largest bays on the continent. Whales come in every winter because it's a birthing area for them. The Bay of Banderas is the eighth largest bay in the world. Fishing villages were around this bay and there were probably five or six villages that merged to form what is now Puerto Vallarta. This area went from being a fishing village to a resort-type, simple village where a few Americans came. ...

Historically, Puerto Vallarta was a fishing village. The beach area is one of the largest bays on the continent. Whales come in every winter because it's a birthing area for them. The Bay of Banderas is the eighth largest bay in the world. Fishing villages were around this bay and there were probably five or six villages that merged to form what is now Puerto Vallarta. This area went from being a fishing village to a resort-type, simple village where a few Americans came. 

 

The movie "The Night of the Iguana" was filmed in Puerto Vallarta with actors Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and director John Huston. There were a number of films done in this area. This changed the demographics of people coming to visit Puerto Vallarta to more celebrities and more Americans. Many of these tourists eventually built homes in Puerto Vallarta as did Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. John Huston had a couple of homes here. His descendants have had properties here.

 

 

 

Over the last 40 to 50 years, the movie industry catapulted Puerto Vallarta to its current popularity as a tourist and retiree destination because people understood more about it.

 

In the '60s, we could fly from Dallas to Puerto Vallarta needing only a driver's license to get in the country. It wasn't uncommon for us to fly from Dallas to Puerto Vallarta to stay here for three to four days. 

 

I came to Puerto Vallarta in 1969 and paid US $14 for a hotel room at The Rosita, which is a small hotel. There was also the Oceana Hotel, which is in the corner right off the malecon that had $12 to $13 rooms. There was one phone in the lobby. There were always a lot of writers and celebrities in the street-level bars at that time. The rooms were above the bars. In those times, there were no drinking age restrictions and all of us were under age. 

 

I moved to Puerto Vallarta in 1999 and purchased a condo after I retired. In 2003, I started working again in the real estate business, and then opened my offices shortly thereafter. I have an office in Bucerías, which is 45 minutes north and also an office here in Old Town, Puerto Vallarta.

 

Puerto Vallarta has changed a lot since I moved here. The population is obviously bigger. There are more medical facilities. At one time, Puerto Vallarta didn't have Costco and The Home Depot, but it always had grocery stores. Back then, you would go to the markets to buy fruit, vegetables, meats, and whatever you needed. 

 

It was difficult then because there were no real large hardware stores and you would bring back items from The Home Depot in the States like male bolts to hang paintings because you could never find these in Puerto Vallarta. Currently, you still see a lot of mom-and-pop-type businesses in Puerto Vallarta, but now there are Costco, The Home Depot, and large appliance stores. There are beautiful shopping centers that have every brand imaginable. Puerto Vallarta is much more metropolitan now than it was in the late '60s.  

 

(Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)