Puerto Vallarta (Banderas Bay) History
During the first part of the 19 th century, at the mouth of the Cuale River - then inhabited primarily by crocodiles - there were practically no human dwellers.
Between the rugged sierra, the ocean and the powerful Ameca river, this beautiful piece of Mexican geography remained isolated from the rest of the world.
The hubs of economic activity were up in the mountains, in the towns of Cuale, San Sebastián and Mascota, where silver mines abounded but where salt,
an essential element for processing the metal, was not to be found.
In 1851 Guadalupe Sánchez, a boatman from Cihuatlán who used to bring salt from San Blas or the Marías islands to Los Muertos beach,
became weary of waiting for the muleteers to come and pick up the load. Sometimes it would take them days to reach this solitary spot.
As he was still a young man of nineteen and had just gotten married, Guadalupe saw it fit to establish himself in this beautiful place he would call Las Peñas.
This, in a few words, could very well be the story of the founding of what we now know as Puerto Vallarta.
1914-1935
The discovery of a lesser kind of silver in the United States brought down the price of the metal and old prosperity became affliction.
The miners from the mountain townships left their recently acquired trade to go back to agriculture. But now they chose the fertile valley of the Ameca River,
so rich it produced three corn harvests per year. The area was not only self-sufficient, it yielded enough surpluses to be sold in other markets of the country.
As there were no roads out of Las Peñas, the produce was sent out on boats by way of Manzanillo and Mazatlan.
In 1918, through efforts of it's population, Las Peñas was granted the title of municipality as well as a new name: Puerto Vallarta.
It was in these days that the rush for the “green gold” (the unripe bananas grown and exported to the US by the Montgomery Fruit Company) brought economic well-being to the neighboring community of Ixtapa until 1935.
By then the enforcement of the land ownership laws promoted through the Revolution entailed the repossessing of 26,000 hectares of American citizen Joseph Montgomery's.
This would end the intensive agricultural phase of old Puerto Vallarta.
1935-1949
From the land, the Vallartans turned their eyes towards the ocean where they found a new source of wealth in sharks. From the waters of Banderas Bay,
the fish's fins ended up on the tables of Chinese restaurantes in New York. Also, during the Second World War shark liver oil was given as nutritional supplement to American solidiers.
A new horde of immigrants benefited from this trade-especially the fishing cooperative La Rosita-intil world peace was declared in the mid forties.
It was during this decade, precisely en 1942, when what could very well be the first formal promotion of Puerto Vallarta abroad appeared as an ad in Modern Mexico, a magazine published in New York.
The text in the sixth-of-a-page ad offered a fligth Guadalajara to a “primitive place” of airline service in the community.
1950-1959
On the one-hundredth anniversary of its founding. Puerto Vallarta celebrated in earnest. The marriage of Doña Margarita Mantecon, from a well-established Vallartan family,
to a counselor of Mexican president Miguel Aleman's ensured the splendor of the festivities. From who-knows-where, three ships arrived in the bay to salute the town whith 21 firings of the cannon. In addition.
Three planes landed in Los Muertos, packed with reportersand cameramen. Anybody who went to the movies during those days saw for the first time on the screen the landscape and the faces of Puerto Vallarta.
It is possible that, sitting among those moviegoers, Fernando Freddy Romero, charmed by what he saw, decided to come to paradise, arriving on the same year of the centennial.
Against the opinion of most well-to-do Vallartans, whose architectural taste leaned towards modern designs and construction materials, Freddy defended and finally imposed the “Puerto Vallarta style”.
With its white-washed adobe facades, pitched roofs covered in red tiles, decorative wrought -iron grids and stone walls, Freddy's houses semmed to look back towards the past to recapture the atmosphere of a typical Mexican Villege forsken by porgress.
Sitting at the Oceano Hotel bar-favorite hangout for locals and visitors alike - Freddy would draw his houses on paper napkins. On the bulding site, he would actually paint on the ground the perimeter of the different rooms and mark their fuction with big letters-a “k” for the kitchen,
a “b” for the bedroom, etc. Following this technique he built such homes as Caracol, Casa de la “O”, and Los Arcos, Las Campanas (the first bungalows in Puerto Vallarta) and John Huston's getaway in Caletas,
among other buldings still standing.
But, what was the attraction of this godforsaken town, where basic human comforts such as electrical power were lacking, that seduced intellectuals and artists from the United States and Mexico?
It was probably the same as today - its beauty and its people. On November 11, 1954, Mexicana de Aviacion airline inaugurated its flight Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta. Aeronaves de Mexico (Aeromexico) had enjoyed the monopoly of the route Acapulco But Mexicana found in Puerto Vallarta a destination to compete with the famous bay of Guerrero.
Visitors started coming in form other Mexican towns and from abroad. Among them, Guillermo Wulff - a Mexico-City engineer - and famous movie director John Huston who wrote:
"When I first came here, almost 30 years ago, Vallarta was a fishing village of some 2000 souls. There was only one road to the outside world - and it was impassable during the rainy season. I arrived in a small plane, and we had to buzz the cattle off outside town before setting down."
1960-1969
Reinforced by intense advertising campaigns, Mexicana Launched the Puerto Vallarta - Mazatlan - Los Angeles route en 1962. Because of its affiliation with Pan American Airlines,
Mexicana's promotion of Puerto Vallarta was seen in its offices world-round. In those days, though, in addition to their cameras and bathing suits, vacationers brought with them the spirit of adventure and an excellent sense of humor.
Not only did cows continue trespassing on airport grounds (then located where the private ariport stands, next to the international air terminal Guatavo Diaz Ordaz); but, lacking a paved access to town, during the rainy season they were forced to cross the Pitillal river in a canoe. In order to prevent it from capsizing,
the boat was slid along a cable. In addition, as there were used to carry the luggage. Three years later, in 1965, Aeronaves de Mexico opened its office in Puerto Vallarta.
Guillermo Wulff's arrival-coincidentally as a guest in Mexicana's first flight to Puerto Vallarta - marks the beginning of the second phase in the material construction of the town.
It was he who introduced the cupula as an architectural element in several homes he built between Gringo Gulch and Mismaloya, where he obtained a very timely 90 - year lease.
In los Angeles I met a Puerto Vallarta architect and entrepreneur named Guillermo Wulff (...) I was thinking about location for Iguana, and Guillermo urged me to go to Mismaloya (...) and although Mismaloya was Indian, Wulff said he had a lease on it and could build anything he wanted there.
With its wide beach and the tropical forest as background for the only set expressly built for the movie (the old Hotel) the site was perfect, and a few months later it was ready the first call for “action!”. Filming was not exactly a picnic, though. Gabriel Figueroa,
The great Mexican Photographer, had a specially hard time getting and installing equipment and power plants in the jungle with the ocean as only access. Is was the year the year 1963.
For the first time, Puerto Vallarta received simultaneously big Hollywood stars, national celebrities and American intellectuals. Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon and Richard Burton led the cast that also incuded Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez. Tennessee Williams, author of The Nigth of the Iguana,
visited the set frequently and always in the company of Gigi, his beloved poodle, who. According to John Huston, often suffered form sunstroke. On the other hand, Liz Taylor, sometimes accompanied by her two children, spent most of the time with Burton whom she was deeply in love with.
Charmed by Vallarta´s magic. Richard and Elizabeth purchased a house, Casa Kimberley, and became the conter of a fairly sized group that, according to those close to them, certainly enjoyed themselves. John Huston Built his house in the small cove of Caletas where he lived until his death.
This extraordinary gathering of celebrites, captive in an out-of-the-way sport, was too tampting for the international press that soon began arriving in hordes. In addition to the gossip about the famous stars, the media showed the primeval beauty of the place.
From that moment on, Puerto Vallarta ceased to be “a secret hide-away waiting to be discovered”.
In face the growing demands of tourism, the need for an adequate response from authorities and investors became urgent, and the governor of Jalisco From 1965-1971, Francisco Medina Ascencio, was there to promote the change, Through his efforts Puerto Vallarta was outfitted with the infrastructure required of an urban development and a modern tourist destination.
He (his father) used to tell us about the wonders of the area of Las Peñas, and the road to get to such an extraordinary place was deeply engraved in my memory. This encoureged me to make the necessary efforts to outfit this splendid site, which I thougth of as “Jalisco's strongbox”...
Vonvinced of his vision, Medina Ascencio was able to infuse his confidence in the future of Puerto Vallarta in the then president of Mexico, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, who decided to take the gamble with the governor.
If the governor of jalisco and I fail in our plants to make of Vallarta a model destination and an example of perseverance and vision. I will be reminded of my dear mother and he of his own. But we will start tomorrow, hear me well, tomorrow! (...)
Thus, Puerto Vallarta ascended to the category of city on May 31, 1968 and was granted the financial resources to build the bridge over the Ameca River, the coastal highway from Barra de Navidad to Puerto Vallarta, the Compostela-Las Varas-Puerto Vallarta road and the international airport named after president Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.
During Medina Ascencio's government the Camino Real Hotel and the Banco Nacional de México (Banamex) branch were built. Thanks to his influence, the city soon enjoyed electric power and telephone service.
1970-1979
In November of 1970, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz signed a decree whereby the “residential and tourist development on the land surrounding Banderas Bay in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco as well as in the existing communities” was declared of public convenience.
Towards this goal, the president expropiated 1,026 hectares, which, in 1973, would finally be regulated through the founding of the Puerto Vallarta Trust by President Luis Echeverria Alvarez.
According to don Carlos Munguia Fregoso, the city chronicler, these two steps were instrumental in the bulding of Puerto Vallarta, as they paved the way for new and significant investment. “Although there were some more modest accommodations, like jack Cawood's Playa de Oro and the Playa Las Glorias Hotels, up to 1970 there were only two luxury hotels in the city, the Posada Vallarta that opened in 1964, and the Camino Real of 1970.”
It was only after 1973 that the construction of large hotels began. At the same time, according to don Carlos, due to the immigration of contrucion workers and their families, irregular settlements started spreading like a cancer to become one of Puerto Vallarta's worst liabilities.
1980-1989
Two years after the opening of the Sheraton Buganvilias hotel in 1980, at the end of President Jose Lopez Portillo's term, the Mexican peso was devalued. Yet one man's trash is another man's gold, the proverb; and while the rest of the country suffered, Puerto Vallarta enjoyed a period of prosperity, some say as yet unsurpadded “The year 1983 was specially good,” says don Carlos.
With their budget suddenly doubled, foreign visitors filled the restaurants and stood in long lines in front of the shops that could hardly keep up with their client's demands. The key to this blissful boom was keeping prices in pesos.
Between 1980 and 1990 Puerto Vallarta's population nearly doubled from 57,000 to 112,000 citizens. By 1985 the flux of tourism and immigrants demanded, on one hand, the building of new hotels and, on the other, the development of residential options for its employees and executives.
Downtown Puerto Vallarta wasn't large enough to house this construction and nobody wanted to see tall buildings obstructing the view of the bay and destroying the city's typical Mexican-village atmosphere. With great timing, the Martinez Guitron brothers from Guadalajara started building Marina Vallarta. Impecably planned, the development would eventually include a school, condominius, residential sities, a shopping mall and large hotel properties.
Work on the marina proper, with its 450 boat slips, started in 1986 and by 1990 the marina was in full swing. The project was basically finished by 1993, ahead of schedule.
1990-1999
The First years of the ninetines were hard for Puerto Vallarta. Even though national tourism grew, international travelers dropped off. In 1993 the destination was fifth in Mexican vacationer's list of favorite beach resorts, after Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan and Veracruz.
It was crucial to put an end to this decline.
On May 31, 1996, the Puerto Vallarta tourism Fund was created. This institution has since been in charge of handling the funds raised through a two-percent tax on hotel room ocupation. Fortunately, Puerto Vallarta decided to use 100 percent of these funds in promoting the destination at national and international levels.
The efforts of the trust, of individual hotels and restaurants, free agents, gallery owners, tour operators and guardiands of the environment created the miracle needed and Puerto Vallarta began the process of earning a position among world-class beach destinations.
Present Puerto Vallarta
In contrast with Cancun, Ixtapa, or Huatulco - government planned resort destinations - Puerto Vallarta is somewhat of an accidental resort town.
Nobody set out put Puerto Vallarta on the tourist map, at least not in the early years. But today, the primitive charms of have been substituted with million-dollar investments and fierce competition.
The globe is shrinking and traveling to places almost inaccesible in the past because of distance is now common practice. Not too long ago places like Mazatlan, Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta´s competition: today we are measured up agains Bali, New Zeland or Ibiza.
However, compared with many, Puerto Vallarta bolds its own. But what exactly are its assets, and what could possibly encourage its future success?
We could start PuertoVallarta's assessment by saying that there are no pyramids and finish the statement by saying that it doesn't matter, that, at least up to now, it hasn't mattered. For with the state of Nayarit we share the natural beauty of Bahia de Banderas Bay,
with its deep waters (either warm or cool depending on the season), immensely rich in bio-diversity, and whose potential as an eco-tourist destination has barely been explored. In lagoons and waterlands bridgs can be watched year roud, while right in the bay whales and dolphins frolic and play.
There's fish to be made into ceviche or grilled on a stick; billfish worthy of international tournaments and colorful fish to be admired diving below the bay's surface. In the foothills, the tropical forest welcomes hikers, horseseback riders and mountain bikers.
Crossing its streams and cooling down in the pools formed by their waterfalls, explorers learn to tell fig trees from parotas and amapas. On the beaches at night, marine turtles lay therir eggs during the summer months, Banderas Bay definitely a marvel and worthy enough to compete against pryramids!
