There are approximately 250,000 full time residents.  This is likely a higher number, there are many indigenous people living in the surrounding areas. The foreign population is considerable, many that are year round inhabitants and even more that just enjoy our glorious winters. 

Puerto Vallarta is on the same latitude and the Hawaiian Islands.  The winter months, October through June are warm and dry with an average daytime temperature of 26° C.  The summer months are considerably warmer, not so much in temperature but in humidity.  There are dramatic rains that never last for long but weathering one will explain why our sidewalks are so high above the street. 

Puerto Vallarta is located within the Bay of Banderas.  This bay measures 26 miles from east to west and 20 miles from  north to south.  It is one of the largest and deepest in the Pacific Ocean. 

Did you know that in a recent survey by Conde Nast Traveler, Puerto Vallarta was selected as the 8th most ideal location world wide as a vacation destination, but she was named the 'Friendliest' town to American tourists.  Isn't this  kind of like losing a beauty pageant but being named Miss Congeniality?

For Chinese people, according to their calendar, 1963, was the year of the rabbit and those born under that sign will have good luck, wisdom, and wealth. For Puerto Vallarta that was the year of the Iguana.

The quiet town was suddenly flooded, in broad daylight with trucks, electric lights and stars. Technicians, workers, residents of the American colony hired as extras and bystanders moved like ants among cameras, reflectors and a web of cables that covered the silent cobblestones. On the street, further down near the park, the electric generators puffed and roared to produce probably more electricity than that that was needed to illuminate the whole town.

The commotion was due to the making of a movie, The Night of the Iguana, an event in the history of Vallarta that brought in 1963, la creme de la creme of the movie people into town. There were directors like John Huston, Emilio (El Indio) Fernandez and Gabriel Figueroa, an actor like Richard Burton, and actresses like Debora Kerr, Ava Gardner and the young Sue Lyon that attracted, like nectar to bees, a swarm of reporters from all over the world.

The movie, based on a drama written by Tennessee Williams and directed by John Huston, presents the conflicts of a group of refined losers; the alcoholic renegade cleric (Burton), the anguished old maid (Kerr), the sensual owner of the hotel (Gardner) and a fiery young girl (Lyon), all together on an excursion to old Mexico. The film was shot at Mismaloya except for a few scenes that were taken at the Hotel Paraiso and in one of the streets in town.

Most of the personnel working for the movie were living on the site. Only the main characters had rented elegant villas in town and every morning they met at Los Muertos Beach where speed boats waited to take them to the set since there was not a road to Mismaloya at that time.

John Huston says in his book "An Open Book" that while he was looking for sites for the movie he met Mexican civil engineer Guillermo Wulff in Los Angeles, Ca. and he was the one who suggested that the movie be filmed in Mismaloya since he (Wulff) had a concession from the community to build in that area. Huston, who had already been twice in Puerto Vallarta, decided to make the movie in Mismaloya after visiting the site.

The company invested 18 million pesos to build the set on top of a hill overlooking the bay. The set was designed by Steve Grimes and was made to look like an old hacienda. Bungalows were built to house the crew, a restaurant-bar, a small floating dock, and paths connecting all the areas. They also installed a generator, water tanks and pumps thereby providing the set with electricity and running water.

The set and the buildings around it were beautiful but even more so were the surrounding views: the mountains, the sea, the deserted beaches, and the sunrises and sunsets, all framed by the jungle still untouched by axes and bulldozers. The original specifications for the buildings were changed to make them more comfortable and attractive. Wulff's idea was to turn the site into an exclusive resort once the movie was finished and so it was during a short period of time until problems began to arise among the parties involved and as the years went by only ruins and memories were left.