Puerto Vallarta, Mexico is Having a Big Birthday Party
The past week experienced a big birthday party in Puerto Vallarta-party of this beautiful city on its centennial, 50 years a municipality and 50 years as a city. With the cultural, sports and artistic activities, the party started.
The local government officials in Las Penas, Mexico on May 31, 1918 made the announcement of giving the status of municipality to the town with the name of Puerto Vallarta. And, now after a century it has been the Mexico’s well-known destination for the tourists. Even, 4 million visitors are witnessed each year.
The town was remain a small village of fishing, before the plantations of bananas and other fruits and vegetables, and that made this city a big exporter of these things in the years of 1920. And, then the doors opened for the tourists to come and discover the tropical and striking beauty of Puerto Vallarta, by the 1930s.
Beside, possessing the natural beauty, the town had a good reputation of having its people friendly and so, the tourists from all over the Mexico are warm welcomed by them.
Then, after the inauguration of Guadalajara of Mexican airlines to the route of Puerto Vallarta in 1950s, the pathways become more easy and glamorous to the pacific coast of Mexico.
The fifties experienced the arrivals of many expats, among them; Jack Cowad was the prominent one. He actually lived in California, when he used to read a fishing village on the coast of Mexico and that caught his attention.
He, then depicted his experience of the tour of Puerto Vallarta, “I had always wanted to live in a small fishing village more than any other place in the world,” he further added, “We flew to Guadalajara and then took a small plane to Puerto Vallarta. There were few roads and few cars at that time so I got a horse.”
Then by 1950s, the town had become popularly known by thousands of people. Even, the Mexican and American writers and artists started come there for discovering the tranquil beauty and landscapes of the Bay of Banderas.
Cawood also shared his experience of his transfer into the Puerto Vallarta, about no hotels at the time when he moved to Puerto Vallarta with his family. So, he built a seven room hotel, which afterwards became a Playa del Oro and then a condominium of fifteen rooms.
Sharing the wonderful experience of fishing, he said, “The Americans were the first to come and fish,”, And, “Fishing was great so I bought a boat, one of many to come. We had lobster, shrimp, oysters, red snapper and a wide variety of other fish. The bay was good to us then.”
He was also happy by seeing his children playing in the River of Pitillal, which flow into the bay and is now known as the Hotel Zone, north of EI Centro.
Over the years, Puerto Vallarta became famous internationally after the making of John Huston “The Night of the Iguana” in the year of 1963”. The paparazzi on the beautiful Puerto Vallarta, plus the delicious gossip by The Elizabeth and Richard Burton made it recognized worldwide.”Our kids would come home with buckets of baby crocodiles to play with,” he said. “It never occurred to us that the crocodile kids would have parents nearby that would like to play with their children.”
“Everyone hung out at the Oceano Hotel’s bar back then,” Cawood said. “Liz and Dick were cordial to everyone. They lived in a couple of villas on the hill above the Cuale River, which was known as Gringo Gulch because of all the expats living up there.”
The ill reputation of the film became the key point in the growth of Puerto Vallarta’s tourism. Seeing this increasing tourism industry, the state of Jalisco put its money on building new bridges and roads and on the Gustavo Diaz Ordaz Airport, for fulfilling the purpose of direct flights accommodation from the international cities.
So, Mexico’s president approved the funds for fulfilling the purpose of this growing industry, in 1970. The year also experienced to have the first luxury hotel in the Puerto Vallarta, named as, The Camino Real, and then the series of Puerto Vallarta luxury houses and hotels started.
The city became crowded in the era of 80s and 90s, because of the sky rocketed tourism. Another expat Jeri Grant come here in 1980, but become stuck in the beauty of this attractive city.
“It was beautiful and green and the air was so fresh,” Grant said. “When I first saw it from the yacht, the whole town was a maze of white with red-tile roofs. It seemed magical.”
“Back then I think we had just one stop light and stop signs were treated as just a suggestion,” she said. “I really liked the way it felt living in Puerto Vallarta. Everybody was friendly and said hello and good morning. It was just an easy place to live and everyone was happy.”
Because of the warmth welcoming of people of this country, now Puerto Vallarta is in the top three tourist destinations in the country.
Along With, there also came the problems of traffic, high rise condominium construction, large crowd at the EI Centro and La Romantica-all the problems that a big city has to face.
The continuous development is being seen by the city, including building new garages for parking, extension of Malecon that turns towards the shoreline and the making of pedestrian-only streets.
One can say that an old girl has applied a new coat of lipstick, but still looks beautiful. She has a big heart for welcoming the tourists and expats. Youngsters come here for doing adventures, while the Baby Boomers choose this place for spending the time after their retirement.
Jack Cawood and Jeri Grant still lives there; in fact they can never leave this place.
“It’s hard to explain because it’s one of those things where the town just bites you and you’re done,” she said. “I feel very blessed to have spent half of my life here.”
Old girl! Happy Birthday to you. You are a treasure and your millions of fans still love you.
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