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Puerto Vallarta is located on Banderas Bay, which both
the France-based organization, the Most Beautiful Bays
in the World Club and UNESCO consider to be one of the
most beautiful bays in the world. It finds itself in
select company, along with San Francisco in California,
Quebec City in Canada and Santander Bay in Spain. It
is also one of the world’s largest bays, measuring
42 km from east to west and 32 km from north to south.
At one time, Puerto Vallarta was known as Las Peñitas.
It was founded in the Independence era, on December
12th, 1851, and received its present name in 1918, in
honor of Ignacio L. Vallarta, a distinguished Jalisco
lawyer and judge.
Years later, with the arrival of
the first airplanes in the 1930s, there was a trickle
of visitors who admired the gorgeous, uninhabited scenery.
With the American movie, “The Night of the Iguana”,
filmed on one of the beaches of the bay, Vallarta’s
natural beauty was showcased for the entire world. This
movie was really what initiated its popularity as a
beach resort that presently welcomes more than 3,000,000
visitors every year. The majority of tourists arrive
on board immense cruise ships. Others come through the
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport and
by highway from Guadalajara and the surrounding area.
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