Describing Puerto Vallarta in a few lines is both hard and risky. This is a place with some energy of its own, or as residents here put it, that either adopts you or tells you to leave It's the master and the lord, the one that chooses who comes along. No wonder it's called the world's friendliest place. And that's how it is for every visitor: charming and mesmerizing.

Each day brings a different surprise, and the rest of your life begins with each day because you never know what's going to happen next. Yet, everything winds up fitting in live dovetails and going like clockwork, something that only happens in this country called Mexico.

Puerto Vallarta is on the western side of the state of Jalisco, in central Mexico, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Bahia de Banderas (Bay of Flags). This is Mexico's biggest and deepest gully and the second-largest bay in all North America with a 40-mile-long coastline. Its waters are sheltered from weather impairment and abut the Sierra Madre to the east. These high mountains protect the bay from gusting winds and help take this semitropical, humid climate down a notch or two. Punta Mita is on the northernmost tip, while Cabo Corrientes is the south limit.

Puerto Vallarta has become one of Mexico's most soughtafter travel destinations, with 2.2 million tourists and a population of 350,000 inhabitants. Its special characteristics as a state-of-the-art tourist seaport -yet preserving the traditions and customs of the Mexican people- give this neck of the woods an ethnically wider population of Mexicans and foreigners, chiefly Americans who spend part of the year in Puerto Vallarta or in the nearby locations of Bucerias and Nuevo Vallarta.

The blend of local and foreign visitors from elsewhere give it a very special atmosphere. It feels like everybody makes good friends and respects each other. This is a town with cultural motivations, brimming with art galleries, events and lots of happenings that take place all year round. Music and movies are two of its main elements, with plenty of permanent concerts, and even a film library.

In a word, Puerto Vallarta offers a breathtakingly beauty nature with endless beach and mountainous scenery to wallow in. This is a sophisticated town, but natural and genuine in the same breath, packed with peerless nights and blessed with a lovely and friendly population that makes you feel very much at home.

Each morning when you walk down the streets,you look up at the mountains, the breeze or the rain,and you think the gods must have picked this place.When the night comes and you see the "dangling" moon,you say to yourself this is really a one-and-only place.