Brief History

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'.

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.

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