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Puerto VallartaBy Carole Kotkin
Puerto Vallarta was an undeveloped, but stunning local for John Huston’s version of Tennessee William’s “Night of the Iguana” in 1964, starting Richard Burton and Ava Gardner. Elizabeth Taylor’s appearance on the set and ensuing affair with Burton was a scandal that resulted in headlines around the world and Puerto Vallarta gained instant fame. There was no turning back for the sleepy village which now has a modern public water system, 16,000 hotel rooms, excellent restaurants, world-class golf courses, art galleries, and fashion boutiques. Huston’s stay was memorialized with a statue in a park beyond an outdoor bazaar. Before Huston’s visit there was not even scheduled air service to Puerto Vallarta. Taylor bought a house in the historic center of town. Across the narrow cobblestone street is the studio of watercolor painter Richard Baker, and a few blocks away is the home and studio of sculptor Ramix Barquet. Barquet’s bronze Nostalgia sculpture is one of many landmark works that adorn Puerto Vallarta’s expansive boardwalk (or Malecon). Puerto Vallarta has a languid feel of a Mediterranean city. Buildings are whitewashed and topped with red tile roofs. Cobblestone streets angle up into the hills. The crown-topped Our Lady of Guadalupe Church dominates the downtown skyline. As in many Mexican cities, much of Purerto Vallarta grinds to a halt between 1 and 4 p.m. for a siesta, but the bars and restaurants along the Malecon stay lively into the night. Boredom is simply not an option here. While lying on one of Puerto Vallarta’s fantastic beaches is a great way to spend a week, many visitors choose to soak up a bit of culture or sporting pursuits. Puerto Vallarta boasts three 18-hole championship golf courses, some fantastic scuba diving and snorkeling. The Jack Nicklaus designed Vista Vallarta golf course was selected by the PGA as the site for the 2002 Wold Golf Championships. It’s a center for regional artists. Galleries are open as late as 8p.m. displaying sculpture, elaborate lacquered gourds, pottery and other artifacts made in communities all over Mexico. Despite the presence of culture, Puerto Vallarta’s charm lies more in its lack of polish. It is the dusty cobblestone streets, the half-finished buildings, the customized school buses that serve a cheap public transportation and the old men selling paper mache figures that give the city its delightful grit. On a mountainside overlooking downtown, the effusive Jorge Rubio has created a magical setting for The Terra Noble Art & Healing Center. Here visitors can sign up for clay sculpture and painting workshops or for massages and body treatments. Although he won’t name names, Rubio says the spa is a popular retreat for stars, and he has hosted several celebrity weddings.
The jungle, the setting for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role in Predator, is available for relatively safe exploration. You can sail through the tree tops of the tropical rainforest canopy with Canopy Tours de los Veranos (canopytours-vallarta.com). Visitors traverse from tree to tree and platform to platform using pulleys on horizontal cables. Below are trails and waterfalls and a bird’s-eye view of indigenous plants and other jungle life.
Tourism, which was once nonexistent, now draws in more than half a million visitors a year, turning this once tiny fishing village into a sought-after vacation. Puerta Vallarta was rated best foreign city in the world by Conde Nast Traveler readers in 2001. Getting there: Mexicana and other major airlines fly to Mexico City for transfer to Peurto Vallarta.
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Puerto Vallarta is a city of 350,000 about halfway down
the Pacific coast of Mexico, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Madre
mountains, along the edge of Banderas Bay, one of the largest and deepest
bays in the world. It attracts more than 3 million visitors a year—and for
a good reason. The city features a variety of activities to appeal to a
diverse crowd, from teens and twenty-somethings to seniors. Relax and lounge
on the beach or party until dawn, either way, Puerto Vallarta has something
for everyone. The average temperature is 80 degrees year-round with an
average of 345 days of sunshine. Unlike some other cities in Mexico, Puerto
Vallarta was not created for tourism. It is probably the only destination in
Mexico to combine an authentic Mexican town with the amenities of a
world-class resort. The Cuale river divides the old town of Puerto Vallarta
into the more purely Mexican southern side, with its economically priced
cafes and restaurants, and the modernized north where there are more upscale
shopping sites centered along the Malecon, an 11-block seaside promendade,
dotted with eye-catching modern sculptures. From there you can see the whole
Bay with a breathtaking view of the mountains as they fall into the sea. 
Apart from the art, one of the main reasons to visit
Puerto Vallarta is the beaches, which are spectacular. Playa del Sol is the
main beach, although Playa de los Muertos is Puerto Vallarta’s most popular
beach. The beach is the place to doze, swim, look at palm tree-covered
mountains towering over the city, order pina coladas or margaritas or play
volleyball. It’s also the place to arrange parasailing. Puerto Vallarta’s
water is clear and deep blue. It is a haven not only to fish, but to
dolphins, sea turtles and migrating whales. The clarity of the water and
unusual rock formations south of the city—especially at Los Arcos—make for
idea diving and snorkeling. 
In the last few years internationally trained chefs
have been reinterpreting traditional, and sometimes historic recipes with
modern flair. In so doing, they are gaining an appreciative audience.
Mexican food is really different in Mexico. Even familiar dishes are richer
and more vibrant, and there’s a variety that extends beyond the enchiladas
and tacos we all know here. Besides the chilies, tomatoes, beans, corn and
chocolate, other ingredients prized by the Aztec and other pre-Colombian
cultures—like squash blossoms, posle, hoja santa leaves and the truffle-like
corn fungus called huitlacoche—are becoming more common. At Los Xitomates
(the Aztec name for tomatoes) traditional Mexican dishes are being
interpreted in a more sophisticated way with elements brought to the New
World during the Colonial period along with recent Mediterranean, Caribbean
and Asian influences. Some of the highlights of the menu are stuffed
mushrooms with huitlacoche; tortilla soup with chili pasilla, avocado and
crème fraiche; and grilled salmon in poblano chili sauce with squash
blossoms and corn. At another restaurant, Trio, German chef Bernhard Guth
and Swedish chef Ulf Henriksson, attracts a chic Mexican and international
crowd with their interpretation of Mediterranean food with Mexican spices.
Patrons enjoy well-prepared, nicely presented dishes like Chile roasted red
snapper filet over ratatouille with lime-cilantro sauce; and crabmeat from
Baja with smoked chile chipolte salsa and green asparagus. At Daiquiri
Dick’s on Los Muertos Beach (the Beach of the Dead) evening meals are
accompanied by an orange and pink display of the setting sun over the
Pacific. Award-winning Chef Rafael Nazario who is also a jazz musician,
sommelier, actor, poet, and stand-up comic, presides over a bright,
contemporary dining room. And while combinations like lobster taco may sound
trendy, the ingredients for most of the dishes are all the Mexican basics,
and so are the techniques. “The essence of Mexican cooking is grilling,
steaming, roasting, and wrapping in leaves,” Nazario explains. Chilaquiles—chopped
tortillas in red sauce and cheese, served at the Marriott CasaMagna Resort
make a delicious breakfast. 
Where to Stay: Marriott CasaMagna Resort, 5 minutes
from the airport, nestled between the Sierra Madre mountains and Banderas
Bay. 1-800-228-9290.