Robin Nowacki reports from Puerto Vallarta, the resort made famous by a famous film star romance
Puerto Vallarta first became to the attention of the world’s tourist in 1964 when Hollywood came to town in the shape of some of the top film stars of the day – Ava Gardner and Richard Burton, who under the direction of John Huston filmed the classic ‘The Night of the Iguana’.
Elizabeth Taylor who had recently received an Oscar arrived there too – not to act in the movie, but to be with Burton at the very start of their long, stormy, and much published romance.
While there, Burton and Taylor did far more than just buy the Puerto Vallarta tee-shirt of its day, they fell so much in love with this unspoilt Mexican fishing port – situated between the Sierra Madre mountains and Banderas Bay – one of the Pacific Ocean’s largest and most spectacular – that they bought a house in the old town where they lived for a short while.
Today the former Taylor and Burton residence is a small hotel much in demand with American romantics, film buffs and others looking to experience the same pleasures the film stars found there. Outside its doors is the real Mexico – always hot, sometimes dusty, always full of bright, contrasting colours, and sometimes noisy from the sounds of children playing in the narrow streets or from busses and taxis chugging by.
There are smells too, nice smells from the open doors of grocers shops and street stalls selling exotic foods like cactus, red and green peppers, avocados, mangos, and other fresh local produce. There are enticing smells too, from restaurants where those cactus and peppers are being cooked with meats or the fresh sea food from the bay – crabs, shrimps, octopuses, squids, and devilled fish so large they leave room on the plate only for slices of lime or a spoon of sauce home-made from chillies.
In Puerto Vallarta the Mexican people, going about their daily business or being tourists like the Americans and Europeans, are in the majority. Here one can taste Mexico as it is, in the busy streets of red-tiled, white buildings, where countless clothes and craft shops, and galleries are to be found, where small hotels offer good basic accommodation at prices to suit budget travellers and those choosing or seeking to live a few days in “real” Mexico.
Often the rooms of these small hotels open their doors on to galleries over open courtyard gardens with small fountains, and their windows open out on to the streets from where comes those smells from the restaurants serving traditional Mexican food – tasting far better than anything to be experienced here in the UK, and at a fraction of the cost. In the evening when the sun sets slowly over Banderas Bay, many of the people of Puerto Vallarta will be found promenading along the Malecon – which stretches along the palm fringed beach front. It is also at this time of day when the numerous bars and discos there start to come alive, and as the tropical heat diminishes the air becomes filled with the sounds of Latin rhythms and the guitars and trumpets of the serenading mariachi bands.
The Roman Catholic religion, brought to Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors five hundred years ago, remains a force with most Mexicans today, both with the vast majority who are of mixed race and with the pure Indian minority. Typically in Puerto Vallarta on Sundays the congregations attending the evening Mass at the main church off the Plaza de Armas square in the town centre, spill out of the open doors and on to the pavement, and the sound of the prayers are carried down the street.
The resort of Puerto Vallarta has grown far beyond the original town. Luxury hotels and resort hotels now line the fine beaches of Banderas Bay for miles to the north, where there is now also a marina. Many of these are grand all-inclusive hotels are like in Cancun where people can spend a fortnight chilling out and not needing to venture out to explore or spend one Peso in Mexico.
The difference is that if they decide to do so, then within one hour lies Puerto Vallarta and many other traditional towns and villages. Take a day out and then one can visit Indian villages in the mountains accessible only by four-wheel drive vehicles. Take two days out and then it is possible to trek between these villages on horseback – camping out on the savannahs under the stars at night. For those prepared to take two or more days away from the beach, then the heart of traditional Mexico is within reach.
Fabulous and fascinating colonial cities like Guadalajara – close to the town of Tequila, Guanajuato – where the house of Diego Rivera is now a museum, and Queretaro – where the unfortunate Emperor Maximillian was executed by firing squad.
Travel slightly further east and the spectacular and majestic Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon are to found towering over the ancient ruins left by an early Mexican civilisation at Teotiihuacan. Just 40 miles to the south of here is Mexico City, the worlds most populated metropolis.
