The sceninc beauty that Vallarta offers has a lot of to do with its natural bauty.
Puerto Vallarta lies on a narrow coastal plain at the foot of the Sierras Cuale and San Sebastián, parts of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The plain widens to the north, reaching its widest point along the Ameca river. Three rivers flow from the Sierra through the area. From south to north they are the Cuale, the Pitillal, and the Ameca. A number of arroyos also run from the Sierra to the coastal plain. Many of the valleys of these rivers and arroyos are inhabited. Also development has to some extent spread up the hillsides from the coastal plain.
The city proper comprises four main areas: the hotel zone along the shore to the north, Olas Altas – Col Zapata to the south of the Cuale river (recently named Zona Romantica in some tourist brochures), the Centro along the shore between these two areas, and a number of residential areas to the east of the hotel zone. The oldest section of the town is the area of Col. Centro near the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, especially Hidalgo street.
Seismic history
Puerto Vallarta, like much of the west coast of North America, is prone to earthquakes, though Puerto Vallarta tends to experience only peripheral effects of earthquakes centered further south. In 1995, an earthquake located off the Colima coast shook the crown from the top of the Roman Catholic Church.
Economy
Nearly 50% of the workforce is employed in tourist related industries: hotels, restaurants, personal services, and transportation. The municipality does however continue to have strong agricultural, industrial and commercial sectors.
Tourism trends
Puerto Vallarta was once named as La ciudad más amigable del mundo (The Friendliest City in the World), as the sign reads when entering from Nayarit. Today, the presence of numerous sidewalk touts selling time-shares and tequila render the city’s atmosphere more akin to tourist-heavy resorts like Cancun and Acapulco, but overall the city’s reputation remains relatively undiminished.
Tourism in Puerto Vallarta has increased steadily over the years and makes up for 50% of the city’s economic activity. The high season for international tourism in Puerto Vallarta extends from late November through March (or later depending on the timing of the college Spring Break period in the USA.) The city is especially popular with US residents from the western U.S. because of the sheer number of direct flights between Puerto Vallarta and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, and Chicago.[16] The city is also popular with tourists from western Canada with a number of direct scheduled and charter flights from western Canadian cities.
Puerto Vallarta is also a highly popular vacation spot for domestic tourists. It is a popular weekend destination for residents of Guadalajara (tapatíos), and a popular national destination for vacations such as Semana Santa (the week preceding Easter) and Christmas. Also in recent years Acapulco has experienced a rise in drug related violence[17] and consequently Puerto Vallarta has absorbed a lot of the Mexico City resort vacation business (Acapulco has long been a common destination for tourists from Mexico City).
Puerto Vallarta has become a popular retirement destination for US and Canadian retirees. This trend has spawned a condominium development boom in the city.
Rapid growth in tourist volume in Puerto Vallarta has given rise to rapid growth in hotel and rental apartment construction. This growth has spilled over from the city limits into Nuevo Vallarta in the neighboring state of Nayarit. The area is one of the fastest growing regions in the Americas.
LGBT tourism
See also: LGBT tourism
The LGBT portion of the Playa de Los Muertos (Beach of The Dead)
Guadalajara and Acapulco were common vacation destinations for gay men and lesbians from Mexico City and, especially, the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. However, since that time, Puerto Vallarta has developed into Mexico’s premier resort town as a sort of satellite gay space for its big sister Guadalajara, much as Fire Island is to New York City and Palm Springs is to Los Angeles.[18] It is now considered the most welcoming and gay-friendly destination in the country, dubbed the “San Francisco of Mexico.”[19] Previously quite conservative, the municipal government has become increasingly supportive in recognising and accepting the LGBT tourism segment and in supporting LGBT events such as Vallarta gay pride celebrations which launched in 2013 and is now held annually to coincide with US Memorial Day weekend.[20] It boasts a gay scene, centered in the city’s south-side Zona Romántica, of hotels and resorts as well as many bars, nightclubs and a gay beach on the main shore.[19] Puerto Vallarta has been cited as the number one gay beach destination in Latin America,[21] with city officials claiming a 5% tourism increase in 2013.[22]
Population and growth rate for Puerto Vallarta
The major suburb is Bahia de Banderas in Nayarit across state lines, in which Nuevo Vallarta and Sayulita are localities. Ixtapa is a locality in PV, not to be confused with the municipality of Ixtapa in Guerrero state.
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014est/2015
Locality Population (city) 93,503 121,844 151,432 177,830 203,342 221,200
Municipality 10,801 15,462 35,911 57,028 111,457 184,728 255,725 275,640
sources: (locality & 2015 municipal) [23] (municipal to 2010) sources: Cuaderno Estadistico Municipal[24] Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda 2010[25]
Growth-related problems
Water pollution
Visibility in the water off Puerto Vallarta, close to the mouths of the rivers is poor in the summer, but away from these locations visibility in the summer is greater than in the dry season. In Puerto Vallarta, the sewage is treated by a British/Dutch company with a “State of the Art” facility. Outside of the City there may be no connection to this and in the rainy season some pollution can happen around the river mouths, but it quickly dissipates in the bay, which is a huge body of water.
I hope this was intersting to you, and i will awit cmments below.
Saludos,
Gustavo