Lably
Skip to content

Puerto Vallarta

City in Jalisco, Mexico

  • 21 min read
  • 11 chapters
Puerto Vallarta
Microstar · CC BY-SA 4.0

Related on Lably

Through Urban area, Cyclone and Western Hemisphere

Lab · Class 6–11How India Is GovernedLab · Class 5–8Cyclones & Extreme WeatherLab · Class 7–8Wind, Storms & CyclonesLabWinds, Storms and Cyclones

Puerto Vallarta is named after Ignacio Vallarta, a former governor of Jalisco. In Spanish, Puerto Vallarta is frequently shortened to "Vallarta", while English speakers call the city P.V. for short. In Internet shorthand, the city is often referred to as PVR, after the International Air Transport Association airport code for its Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport.

History

Bahía de Banderas (Bay of Flags)

Pirates were known to sack villages and attack ships along the Pacific Coast of Mexico early in the 16th century. As early as 1510, rogue conquistadores and their slaves turned to piracy shortly after establishing the village of Santa María la Antigua del Darién, now in Panama. Just 50 miles west, they discovered the Pacific Ocean. To escape growing Spanish control in Darién, a contingent relocated to Acla. In 1518, they used the Pacific's Panama Bay as a base for pirating operations. Native tribes later attacked Darién and briefly retook control in 1524. Just two years earlier, a new group of rogue conquistadors established pirating operations on Terarequi Island in the Gulf of Panama and later Santo Domingo, Nicaragua.

In 1524, the nephew of Mexico's most famous Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, led the first official Spanish exploration into the Tintoque region (now Valle de Banderas) on foot with a troop of soldiers. Upon entering the village, Francisco Cortés of San Buenaventura and his soldiers were surrounded by an angry mob of indigenous warriors carrying weapons. According to local legend, pirates had already been anchoring in this bay, pillaging local villagers, and burying treasure in the hills. These attacks instilled a fear of outsiders by local villagers. A Catholic friar accompanying the Spanish troops began praying to the Lord for help. The warriors immediately lowered their weapons, allowing the explorers to pass peacefully. According to reports, the warriors were mesmerized by the flags (banderas) the soldiers carried. The encounter with villagers is believed to be how the bay was named. In the following years, Bahía de Banderas became a major port and safe harbor for ships traveling the Manila galleon.

Playa de Los Muertos (Beach of the Dead)

In 1531, conquistador Hernán Cortés set out to explore the Pacific coast of Mexico and establish a safe harbor for cargo ships sailing the planned Manila Galleon Trade Route. He used the earlier established port of Acapulco to resupply his ships. While anchored in Acapulco, Cortés sent two of his ships North to explore the coastline without him. Just several hundred miles North, his ships located the large bay his nephew had discovered earlier. One of his ships wrecked in what is now known as Bahía de Banderas, and all but three men were reportedly killed. It is believed that the corpses of the lost sailors washed ashore. Native villagers encountered numerous corpses on the beach for days after the wreck. The encounters with the dead crew are believed to be how the beach was named.

Pre-Hispanic times to the 19th century

Few details are known about the history of the area prior to the 19th century. There is archaeological evidence to suggest continuous human habitation from 580 BC, and similar evidence (from sites near Ixtapa and in Col. Lázaro Cárdenas) that the area belonged to the Aztlán culture which dominated Jalisco, Nayarit and Michoacán from c. 900–1200. The limited evidence in occidental Mexican archeology have limited the current knowledge about pre-historic life in the area.

El Carrizal and Las Peñas – 19th century

The official founding story of Las Peñas and thus of Puerto Vallarta is that it was founded by Guadalupe Sánchez Torres, his wife Ambrosia Carrillo and some friends such as Cenobio Joya, Apolonio de Robles, Cleofas Peña and Martín Andrade, among others, on December 12, 1851, and was given the name of Las Peñas de Santa María de Guadalupe since it was the day dedicated to the virgin of Guadalupe. Although the purchase record of the property by Guadalupe Sanchez is dated 1859, his family lived there prior to the purchase year.

There is however no doubt the development of Las Peñas into a self-sustaining village of any significant size happened in the 1860s as the mouth of the Cuale area was exploited to support the operations of the newly enfranchised Union en Cuale company. As such 1859 marks the beginning of Puerto Vallarta as a village. Twenty years later, by 1885, the village comprised about 250 homes and about 800 residents.

The modern resort – 20th century to present

The Mexican government invested significantly in transportation improvements, making Puerto Vallarta an easy travel destination. To make Puerto Vallarta accessible by jet aircraft the government developed the city's international airport. Ground transportation significantly improved. Government invested heavily in the development of highway and utility infrastructure. Another vital improvement for the city was the El Salado wharf (where the current cruise terminal is), inaugurated on June 1, 1970, making Puerto Vallarta Jalisco's first harbor town.

During the mid-1980s, Puerto Vallarta experienced a rapid expansion of impromptu communities poorly served by even basic public services. This very low standard of living leveled out Puerto Vallarta's resort boom. In the late 1980s Puerto Vallarta's government worked to alleviate the situation by developing housing and infrastructure. But the legacy of the 1980s boom remains, as the outlying areas of Puerto Vallarta suffer from poor provision of basic services (i.e. water, sewage, roads).

In February 2026, it was reported that Puerto Vallarta was most affected by retaliatory attacks which resulted from the death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho".

Sign in to keep reading

10 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Cities

Washington, D.C.Capital city of the United StatesBerlinCapital and largest city of GermanyChicagoMost populous city in Illinois, USViennaCapital and largest city of AustriaPhiladelphiaMost populous city in Pennsylvania, USBostonCapital and largest city in Massachusetts, United States