Puerto Vallarta was discovered in 1541 by Don Pedro de Alvarado, but remained largely undiscovered by the rest of the world for over 350 more years. In 1918, the area was designated a municipality and named Puerto Vallarta after Don Ignacio Vallarta, the representative of the State of Jalisco. Even then, Puerto Vallarta remained a small fishing village. During the 1930’s a few adventurous tourists ventured into the area and word began to spread about Puerto Vallarta’s tranquility and natural beauty.
International attention was drawn to Puerto Vallarta in 1963 when American director John Houston came to town to film “Night of the Iguana,” starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr and Sue Lyons. When Elizabeth Taylor followed Burton to Puerto Vallarta to keep an eye on him during the filming, reporters swarmed to the scene and put PV on the tourism map.
Today, Puerto Vallarta has a population over 250,000 including about 6,000 permanent Canadian, American and Australian residents. No matter how long you stay, you won’t run out of entertaining and educational things to do in the warm and playful paradise of Puerto Vallarta.
