Maria O’Connor – Part III Single • Chicago, Illinois • Attorney, Tropicasa Real Estate
Maria has always lived near the Cuale River and in rental places. “I love it downtown; it feels like Mexico and is the real soul of Vallarta, I think. I now live on the hill above downtown, about a block north of the Cuale. It’s the neighborhood that borders ‘gringo gulch.’ I live in a casita right behind the main cathedral. It is a part of the house that the American film director John Huston rented when he was here in the 1960s to film The Night of the Iguana. The street I live on is primarily stairs, which is very funny when people ask where they should park when they visit me. I always tell them, ‘That would be quite a trick considering there are stairs and no real street. It’s either eighty-five steps up or twenty-five stairs down to my place; you make the choice.’ It’s the oldest section of Vallarta, the first settled when the town was founded.”
Like many who live in PV, she has met other expats through charity work, special events, and other local activities, of which there are many. “I have found that a great way to meet people is to take classes or join specific-focus clubs, like the club for writers, the duplicate bridge club, and others. You can find out about painting classes, Spanish language classes, dance lessons, and other activities through the clubs and charities, local English language newspapers and magazines, or some of the local online sites. There is something for everyone here, especially during high season from November through April.” In fact, there are so many things to do in high season, Maria finds it’s hard to keep track of them all. “On Wednesday nights, the local art galleries participate in the Art Walk, where you can visit a number of galleries, view their offerings, and sample a little cheese and wine. Also, each November, Vallarta’s toprung restaurants hold their ten-day Gourmet Festival. Participating restaurants offer special menus created by visiting chefs from around the world. The Vallarta Film Festival follows in December with a four-day event for film buffs. Wine and jazz lovers can also look forward to their own events later in the season.”
Vallarta is also a good jumping-off point for a lot of interesting places within several hours of the city, Maria notes. In the mountains east of PV, the old silver and gold mining towns of San Sebastian del Oeste and Mascota are less than a two-hour drive. “It’s beautiful in the mountains and quiet. There also are many lovely beaches and neat little towns on the north shore all the way up to San Blas in the state of Nayarit, which is also about a two-hour drive,” she says.
And, getting there needn’t be a hassle or expensive, according to Maria. “Bus travel within Mexico is absolutely amazing. I’m not talking about the city buses, but the ETN inter-city buses. They’re like riding in the first class section of an airplane. Buses are on time, they run often, they’re not expensive, they give you movies, they feed you, they provide air conditioning and a nice bathroom, and the legroom they provide is exceptional. When I was working at the law firm and had to go to Guadalajara on business often, I would catch the bus at midnight, get in to Guadalajara at around five in the morning, go have breakfast, do my business, do a little shopping, and then hop on the six o’clock bus to return to PV, which got me in around 11:00 p.m. I could sleep on the bus, so it worked out very well and cost me under a hundred dollars for a round trip ticket. If I had driven, it would have been around a four-anda- half-hour drive with over thirty dollars in tolls each way, and I would have been exhausted and probably would have had to stay overnight. Flying would have cost well over three hundred dollars and included all of the usual airport hassles, including taxis to and from each airport.”
As a long-time resident of Vallarta, planning and the environment are of deep interest to Maria. She likes to be involved with her adopted city and often attends local planning meetings to keep an eye on officials to ensure that they are responsibly planning for the future. The city recently brought in a planning firm from Spain that compared that country’s Andalucia province to the state of Jalisco, where PV is located. The Spanish planning team said Puerto Vallarta is going through what Andalucia went through ten years ago, especially their coastal cities like Marbella. They were brought in to help with the planning for the development south of Puerto Vallarta, between the Bay of Banderas and Barra de Navidad in the state of Jalisco. Key to the recommended plan was the building of a Highway 200 bypass route around Puerto Vallarta to alleviate city traffic congestion. The Spanish planning team also recommended a new business district close to the airport—more toward Las Juntas and Ixtapa—that would house government offices, banks, and other businesses. That would leave the downtown area primarily for retail shops and restaurants and significantly improve the parking situation, especially during high season.
Since Maria moved to PV nearly twenty years ago, she thinks the city has actually gotten cleaner. There is certainly more environmental awareness and concern for the ecology, which the new city administration is stressing. New recycling laws have been passed which require separation of trash. She also likes the emphasis the city has placed on restoring the historical district, which they’ve determined extends from the sports stadium on the north side of town across from the Sheraton hotel to the Conchas Chinas neighborhood on the south side of town. “I like to call it the ‘Carmelization of Vallarta,’” she says. “I don’t consider that a pejorative. Carmel, California, has done a great job in maintaining that special ‘look and feel’ that you associate with Carmel, a very classy place. We’re doing the same here, and I love it.”Email to a friend.
Will continue next month…
• Please click here to read Chapter 2 – Part I
• Please click here to read Chapter 2 – Part II
• Please click here to read Chapter 4 – Part I
• Please click here to read Chapter 4 – Part II
• Please click here to read Chapter 4 – Part III
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Maria has always lived near the Cuale River and in rental places. “I love it downtown; it feels like Mexico and is the real soul of Vallarta, I think. I now live on the hill above downtown, about a block north of the Cuale. It’s the neighborhood that borders ‘gringo gulch.’ I live in a casita right behind the main cathedral. It is a part of the house that the American film director John Huston rented when he was here in the 1960s to film The Night of the Iguana. The street I live on is primarily stairs, which is very funny when people ask where they should park when they visit me. I always tell them, ‘That would be quite a trick considering there are stairs and no real street. It’s either eighty-five steps up or twenty-five stairs down to my place; you make the choice.’ It’s the oldest section of Vallarta, the first settled when the town was founded.”
Vallarta is also a good jumping-off point for a lot of interesting places within several hours of the city, Maria notes. In the mountains east of PV, the old silver and gold mining towns of San Sebastian del Oeste and Mascota are less than a two-hour drive. “It’s beautiful in the mountains and quiet. There also are many lovely beaches and neat little towns on the north shore all the way up to San Blas in the state of Nayarit, which is also about a two-hour drive,” she says. 
As a long-time resident of Vallarta, planning and the environment are of deep interest to Maria. She likes to be involved with her adopted city and often attends local planning meetings to keep an eye on officials to ensure that they are responsibly planning for the future. The city recently brought in a planning firm from Spain that compared that country’s Andalucia province to the state of Jalisco, where PV is located. The Spanish planning team said 