|  The
Spanish conquistador Francisco Cortés de San Buenaventura
and his army were assigned to conquer the central regions of Mexico.
In 1525 as they were traversing the mountainous areas along the
coastline of the Pacific stumbled upon the vast expanse of the
present day Puerto Vallarta. As Captain Cortes and his men prepared
to attack the natives, a banner of the Holy Cross was illuminated
by a brilliant ray of light which formed a halo pointing to the
Holy Virgin. Assuming this to be a divine interference, both parties
withdrew from battle. The region was then named 'Bahia de Banderas'.
Please
note that additional info (prices, activities, etc) are found
to the right of this pages. 
The area was later visited by Don Pedro de Alvarado
in 1541. The harbor was used by Spanish sailors returning from
the orient en route to the Californias. Here, ships could make
necessary repairs and obtain water, food, and firewood for their
journey. Although cruising sailors had discovered many of the
attractions of Puerto Vallarta the region remained undeveloped
for 3 centuries without any settlements in Banderas Bay.
Later in 1850, a salt merchant from Jalisco called Sanches Torres,
moved into the small village with his family and named it 'Las
Penas'. In the 20th century, Las Penas was growing rapidly and
in 1918, it became a municipality and was named "Puerto Vallarta"
after Ignacio Vallarta, the former Governor of the State of Jalisco.
Puerto Vallarta was still a small fishing village till the late
1900's. Then with success of the movie 'Night of the Iguana' in
1963 bought the small little town into the world's perspective.
With stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton building houses
in town reporters wrote articles and spread the word around. Thousands
of visitors came to see the places the stars had been, and the
sights that appeared in the movie. Hotels, restaurants and resorts
began to spring up everywhere to cater to the growing number of
tourists. The small fishing village on the beach has now become
a world-class resort city. |
