ARRIVING in Puerto Vallarta is coming to Mexico as well, a huge, passionate and contrast-packed country that will certainly make you take notice. This guidebook intends to be a means of information and aid about the daily going and a faithful companion during your stay in these unique and thrilling lands. Before touching down in Vallarta –the target of our trip- we’d like to give you a few tips of where we are and what this all means.

Puerto Vallarta belongs to the state of Jalisco, in central Mexico, overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the Bay of Flags (Bahia de Banderas), one of the world’s largest bays with 40 miles around and 20 miles deep. The fact that it’s perched on the Sierra Madre and its high eastern mountains provide wind protection and make its weather semitropical and humid, yet mild and out of the hurricane beltway. This explains why Spanish galleons used this port for heading northbound. On the northernmost tip stands Punta Mita, while Cabo Corrientes lies in the south. The Ameca River divides the states of Jalisco and Nayarit behind the bay, splitting the territory into two different time zones. The state of Jalisco’s north coastline stretches out for 174 miles.

It starts in Bay of Flags, running through Cabo Corrientes all the way to the southeast in Bay of Chamela, Tenacatita and Barra de Navidad. The state of Jalisco is home to the symbols that have put Mexico on the map: mariachi, charreria and tequila. We’ll let you in on a few details about the three of them for you to enjoy them and live your Mexican experience in full swing.

We arrive in Puerto Vallarta

YOUR first contact will be at the Diaz Ordaz Airport, recently refurbished and now featuring state-of-the-art facilities, stores and cafeterias. The air terminal is only a 15-minute drive from the downtown area and the marina where most hotels stand just five minutes from there. There you’ll find cabs and buses that will shuttle us to your hotel for just 5 pesos.

The first feeling you get upon arriving in Vallarta and walking on the streets is its balmy and humid weather, rainy from June through October. The highpeak season stretches from October to May, yet any month will be perfect to get to know this piece of the Mexican Pacific.

Puerto Vallarta and the bay are dotted with lodging facilities of all stripes and for all budgets, ranging from fancy resorts where you could rub elbows with the glamorous rich and famous, all the way to small downtown hotels outfitted with everything it takes to make you enjoy your stay there. In recent years, all-inclusive hotels and boutique establishment have been on the rise.

Useful words

In this chapter, we’ll teach you a few expressions that will certainly make your stay a whole lot easier:

Hello, good morning Good afternoon Good evening, good night Thanks Please Have a nice day Where can I take the bus? Where is ... street? Where is the ... hotel? Where can I get a cab? How much does it cost?, what’s the price? Can you bring me the menu ? Can you bring me the bill? A beer, please? Just coffee Some milk a little bit of ice An ice cream Cold Hot Where is ... ? What time is it? Right now Right on