| Most of Lake
Chapala, Mexico's largest freshwater lake, lies within the boundaries of
Jalisco.
Jalisco is known for being
the birthplace of Mariachi music, Tequila, Vicente Fernandez, and Carlos
Santana.
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Puerto
Vallarta Information
Puerto Vallarta (which would
translate into English as "Port Vallarta") is a city in the Mexican state
of Jalisco. Some English language speakers call the city P.V. for short,
due to the difficulty some have in pronouncing the double "L" in "Vallarta".
The city fronts the Bahía
de Banderas on the Pacific Ocean. The city is important primarily as a
tourist destination. Shipping traffic consists of cruise ships which arrive
almost daily, and occasional visits by U.S. Navy frigates. The Mexican
Navy maintains a base at the port, as well as a well-known naval hospital
in the city center. In 2003 Puerto Vallarta reported an estimated population
of 165,800 and about 5 million overnight stays by tourists. It is also
a popular spring break hotspot.
 History
Unlike Cancún (another
leading Mexican tourist destination), Puerto Vallarta was a traditional
village before gaining worldwide recognition as a travel destination.
The village was originally
founded on December 12, 1851, by Don Guadalupe Sánchez Torres, who
named it "Las Peñas de Santa María de Guadalupe" ("the rocks
of Saint Mary of Guadalupe"). The name was eventually truncated to "Puerto
Las Peñas" ("Port Las Peñas") which literally translates
as "Port the Rocks." The original reason for the port was to enable the
transshipment of silver from nearby mines.
In 1918, the village was
elevated to municipality status and renamed after former state governor
Ignacio L. Vallarta. In 1963, it became famous worldwide after director
John Huston decided to make a movie version of Tennessee Williams's play
The Night of the Iguana in what was then a quiet fishing village.
During the filming, the paparazzi
had a field day covering Elizabeth Taylor's scandalous affair with Richard
Burton, as well as the constant tension between Huston and the film's four
stars. The subsequent publicity helped to attract foreign investors in
the 1970s, which resulted in the massive expansion of Puerto Vallarta to
its current size.
Today, there is a statue
of Huston in the park on La Isla Rio Cuale in the center of the city. A
nearby plaque dedicated on the 25th anniversary of the film's release honors
Huston's contribution to the city's fame.
Puerto Vallarta's outer jungle
areas, is also the location where the movie Predator (starring California
governor and former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger) was filmed.
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