Puerto Vallarta is loved for the beaches, margaritas and tacos but there’s so much more.
I spent the morning with Luna Tours & Hiking. Moises, the guide, explains that the city carried three different names through its life. The final one, Vallarta, honors Ignacio Vallarta, who once served as a Supreme Court judge and the governor of Jalisco. He helped shape modern Mexico by pushing for separation of church and state and free education for children. Those are the official big-picture facts anyone can find
Zona Romántica’s Real Story
Moises also shares the kind of stories you won’t find in guidebooks. Zona Romántica is packed with bars and restaurants today. Many visitors think it’s “romantic” because of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s famous affair. Moises says the real origin goes further back. Long before Hollywood showed up, the area was full of sailors, cantinas, and sex workers. People went there for “romance,” and the name stuck, even if the history gets smoothed over today.
La Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
The community church, built slowly between 1903 and 1969 with local labor and donated materials. The front façade mixes stone styles and shows traces of Mexican Baroque, Neoclassical, and even Gothic or Renaissance touches. The main stairs are steep, but a side ramp offers easier access. The narrator notes how different Puerto Vallarta’s architecture feels when compared to older colonial cities because it grew in two major bursts—first in the 1940s and then in the 1960s after Night of the Iguana brought global attention.
Moises explains that vegetarian and vegan food isn’t as hard to find in Mexico as people assume. Traditional Mexican food started out plant-based before the Spanish introduced pork. He recommends Planeta Vegetariano, a buffet that serves classic dishes like pozole but replaces the meat with mushrooms and other plant-based ingredients.
Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Birth of Modern Tourism
The tour heads to the homes linked to Burton and Taylor. Burton filmed Night of the Iguana here in the 1960s. Taylor wasn’t in the movie but came anyway, using a flimsy excuse that Ava Gardner didn’t want to be alone. Their affair eventually became public, and the attention boosted Puerto Vallarta’s fame. Their homes still stand today, linked by a bridge that supposedly hid them from paparazzi. One of the homes now operates as Casa Kimberly, a very expensive restaurant with the city’s only formal dress code.
Isla Cuale is a lush green pocket in the middle of the city that feels different from the rest of Puerto Vallarta. Locals love it because it has a cultural center and a lively weekend artisan market. Moises points out small coconuts from local palm trees that were once used for coconut oil in cosmetics. The narrator plans to return soon.
Mercado Emiliano Zapata
The tour ends at this local market named after the Mexican revolutionary known for fighting for land and community rights. Inside, locals shop for fruit, meat, fish, tortillas, coffee, and more. The narrator cools off with tuba, a fresh fermented coconut sap drink that originally came from the Philippines during colonization. It’s sold along the malecón and often topped with nuts and apples.
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00:00 Puerto Vallarta
00:35 Ignacio Vallarta’s Legacy
01:12 How Zona Romantica Was Named
01:53 La Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
04:55 Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor
07:44 Isla Cuale
08:48 Mercado Emiliano Zapata
#puertovallarta #jalisco #mexico
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