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During the first part of the 19th century, at the mouth of the Cuale River- at that moment in time, inhabited mostly 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 Sebastian and Mascota, where silver mines abounded but where salt, an essential element for the metal processing, wasn't found.
 Banderas Bay measures 42 kilometers from North to South. The Northermost limit of the bay is at Punta Mita which is the end of the Sierra de Vallejo Mountains and, to the South, the bay ends in Cabo Corrientes, part of the foothills of the Sierra del Cuale range.
The bay has been known since the XVI Century when Spanish soldiers, during the expeditions to Lower California (or ilsland of pearls, they called it) landed on the bay's beaches in order to supply their ships with water, firewood and fresh food.
During the XVI Century, safe harbors all along the Pacific Coast were a vital necessity so that ships returning from the Phillippines would have a place to find refuge in case of attack by pirates. These harbors were also necessary during the long journeys, to and from the Orient so that ships could be repaired if necessary and crews could take on provisions. One of the first to propose a settlement on Banderas Bay was Captain Pedro de Unamuno after the trip he made in 1587 from the Phillippines. Famous navigators like Sebastian Vizcaino, Lopez de Vicuna and Gonzalo de Francia more than once landed on these beaches and also proposed the establishment of a colony, but their petitions never received any attention.
Is is known that a shipyard was built on the bay in 1644 (probably where Mismaloya is located today) and two ships were built for Bernardo Bernal de Pinadero that would be used in the colonization of Lower California. In documents and in ships logs dating from the XVII Centuries, constant references are madethe whaling ships and fishing boats that harbored in the bay. At the time, Banderas Bay was also known as Humpback Bay (Bahia de los Jorobados) because of the number of humpback whales that were seen in the bay.
In the XIX Century, the site that is today Puerto Vallarta was used for the loading and unloading of supplies and materials for the mining companies that worked the mines in Cuale and San Sebastian. At that time the site was know as Las Penas.
 In 1851, Don Guadalupe Sanchez Torres, originally from Cihuatlan, Jalisco began to make regular deliveries of salt from San Blas or the Marias Islands in his small boat since the mines required large quantities for refining the silver. Don Guadalupse and his men built a small lean-to-from tree trunks and palm leaves so that they would have a place to rest that was out of the sun while the sale was being loaded onto donkeys for transport to the mines. Toward the end of 1851, Don Guadalupe decided to bring his family to Las Penas de Santa Maria de Guadalupe because he arrived early in the morning hours of December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With the arrival of new families, the village grew bit by bit and its economy began to change. While some families brought in salt, others began to devote themselves to agriculture or cattle raising.
In 1880, Las Penas had a population of 1,500 inhabitants. New families from Cuale and San Sebastian came to settle in the port. Five years later, on July 14, 1885, the port was opened to national maritime traffic and officially given the name of Las Penas. On the 23rd of July, a Maritime Customs Office was established. The following year on October 31, 1886 the town was given official political and judicial standing when decree No. 210 was passed by the State Congress. During the last decade of the XIX Century and the first of XX Century, Las Penas gradually progressed thanks to the combined efforts of the people and the enthusiasm of Don Guadalupe.
The discovery of silver in the United States of America brough down the price of the metal and old prosperity became affliction. The miners left their recently acquired trade to go back to agriculture. In March 1914, the first post office was opened and in September of the same year a telegraph was installed.
On May 31, 1918, by Congressional decree No. 1889, Las Penas was granted the title of municipality as well as a new name: Puerto Vallarta, in memory of the illustrious lawyer and Governor of Jalisco, Don Ignacio L. Vallarta.
 In 1925 when the Montgomery Fruit Company purchased about 70,000 acres in near-by Ixtapa. Vallarta began to boom duue to the surplus of jobs available on the newly-opened banana plantations. They also built a railway to transport the banans so they could be loaded onto ships to carry them to the United States. This operation ended in 1935 when the Montgomery Fruit Company had to leave Mexico because of the new agrarian law that had just come into effect.
In about 1930 a few national and foreign tourists began to come to Puerto Vallarta, returning year after year, to spend their vacation enjoying the tranquility and great natural beauty of the port. Slowly word began to spread and each year more tourists came.
On November 11, 1954, Mexicana de Aviacion airline inaugurated its flight Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta. Aeromexico had enjoyed a monopoly on the route to Acapulco, but Mexicana found in Puerto Vallarta a destination to compete with the famous bay in Guerrero. Visitors started coming in from other Mexican towns and from abroad. Among them Guillermo Wulff, a Mexico City engineer- and famous movie director John Huston.
Guillermo Wulff's arrival- coincidentially 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 cupola as an architectural element in several homes he built between Gringo Gulch and Mismaloya, where he obtained a very timely 90 year lease.
John Huston met a Puerto Vallarta architect and entrepreneur named Guillermo Wulff. Huston was thinking about locations for Iguana, and Guillermo urged him to go to Mismaloya. and although Mismaloya was Indian land, Wulff said he had a lease on it and could build anything he wanted there.
With its wide beach and tropical forest as background for the only set (the old hotel) expressly built for the movie, the site was perfect, and a few months later it was ready for the first call for "action" It was the year 1963.
 For the first time, Puerto Vallarta received simultaneously big Hollywood stars, national celebrities and USA intellectuals. Liz Taylor spent most of the time with Richard Burton, whom she was deeply in love with. Charmed by Puerto Vallarta's magic, Richard and Elizabeth purchase a house, Casa Kimberly, and became the center of a fairly large 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.
Through the efforts of governor Francisco Medina Ascencio the infrastructure required of an urban development and a modern tourist destination was outfitted. His efforts and needs reached the Mexican President and thus, Puerto Vallarta ascended to the categoy of city on May 31, 1968, and was granted funds to build a bridge over the Ameca River, the coastal highway from Barra Navidad to Puerto Vallarta, Compostela- Las Varas- Puerto Vallarta road and the international airport named afer the president: Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. During Medina Ascencio's government the Camino Real Hotel and the Banco National de Mexico (Banamex) branch were built. Thanks to his influence, the city soon enjoyed electric power and telephone service. In addition, the first harbor in Jalisco was built at El Salado.
In 1970, the President signed a decree "residential and tourist development on the lands surrounding Bandera's Bay in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco as well as exisiting communities of public convenience. Motivated by this, the president expropriated 1026 hectares, which in 1973 would finally be regulated through the founding of the Puerto Vallarta Trust. The city Chronicler considered these two steps as instrumental in the building of Puerto Vallarta, paving the way for new and significant investments. It was only after 1973 that the construction of big hotels began.
Between 1980 and 1990 Puerto Vallarta's population nearly doubled from 57,000 to 112,000 citizens.
Tall and elegant, palm trees never bend too much in Puerto Vallarta. Although winds may blow, they never reach the fury of hurricane force. The geographical situation of the bay protects it from the storms that cause such devastation in other tropical destinations. All in all, the climate has to be among the best in the world, especially during the winter, when the days are sunny and the nights cool.
When you visit Puerto Vallarta today, it's hard to imagine how it looked just a short time ago.
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