Why go
The old center makes more sense when viewed as the seaward end of a route to Mascota and other mountain towns. Its nineteenth-century growth followed trade and mining near the Río Cuale, while its official founding date tells only part of the story.
The full story
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Mascota, San Sebastián del Oeste and other Sierra communities needed supplies and a route to the sea. The shore that became Puerto Vallarta offered a smaller, closer landing than San Blas for some shipments. Fishing and pearl diving also sustained people here, and residents of the upland towns began returning to the coast for breaks. Las Peñas is often said to have been founded by Guadalupe Sánchez Torres on December 12, 1851. Yet people were already living or working in the area, and a surviving property record associated with Sánchez is dated 1859. A single founding day therefore obscures a gradual settlement. In 1859, the Unión en Cuale company acquired extensive land to support mining operations in the mountains with shipping, fishing and agriculture. The mouth of the Río Cuale became especially important to that work. By the later nineteenth century, Las Peñas had grown into a village with its own lasting population. Walking the Cuale area today, the river’s former link between inland mines and the bay is the key to understanding that growth.