1800s (part 2)

The overland route from San Blas, the main port serving Jalisco, to the Sierra was very inconvenient. So for smaller shipments Puerto Vallarta was a more attractive alternative port, also for smuggling operations which evaded the tax collectors at San Blas.

The early settlers in Puerto Vallarta were mostly families who had left the Sierra towns for one reason or another. Puerto Vallarta also became a vacation destination for residents of the sierra towns. By the mid 1800s, the town already had its regularly returning population of vacationers.

An important turning point for the small village, then named El Carrizal or Las Penas, came in 1859 when the Union en Cuale mining company acquired land extending from Los Arcos to the Pitillal River and extending back up into the Sierra for miles. The purpose of the government's sale of the land to the company was to provide development (shipping, fishing and agricultural) to support for the mining operations which were rapidly growing in the Sierra. Puerto Vallarta Tourist Guide