Puerto Vallarta Aerial Video

These images were taken last winter while in Puerto Vallarta, and I recently brought them all together to create a short video, accompanied by a wonderful song (Samba de Puerto Vallarta) about Puerto Vallarta by Alberto Perez of La Palapa Restaurant. Puerto Vallarta is situated inside the Bay of Banderas in Mexico and this video takes you from its southern shores to its most northerly point, covering all the most popular places in between.

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Drone Photography of Puerto Vallarta

In years past I would hire an airplane so I could take aerial images of the Puerto Vallarta region for our print and online publications. When the market was hot I’d have to go up each year as so much would’ve changed because of real estate development. That said, I hadn’t been up since 2010 as the market in Vallarta really leveled off. But it is in full swing again, so it was time to update our aerial image bank. Even though I no longer have the print business, we did keep our MLS service and we make good use of the aerial images there.

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Paddling and Crocs

When in Puerto Vallarta I like to start the day with a paddle, and the closest place to do so is in the development we live in, Marina Vallarta, which runs along the shoreline of Banderas Bay. It is a short drive for me to the beach where I can easily launch and go east in front of Marina Vallarta and the hotels and condos, or west in front of the airport and over to the Ameca River. Where I launch my board, the road parallels a golf course, which has a lot of water hazards populated with crocodiles, especially the holes close to the beach. But I’ve always been told they don’t like salt water and stay around the golf course.

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Puerto Vallarta

The weather in Puerto Vallarta has been spectacular this year, one of the best that I can remember. Back when the real estate market was booming (2002-2010), I would have to take aerial images of the coastline of the region once a year, because there were so many changes with new project being built. Because of the slowdown, I haven’t had to do aerials in about five years, but probably will need to next year.

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Reminiscing in Shangrila

About 20 years ago a very good friend of ours (Sylvie) obtained a concession for some land just south of Puerto Vallarta, near Las Animas. It was right on the beach, with a primary home that was more like a tree house, and a few other thatched roof homes that were used when friends visited. Power lines ran close by so there was electricity, water was obtained by running a hose up a nearby creek, and the home itself was completely open to the elements; no doors (except for the bathroom) and no windows. You could only get there by boat, or walk in for about an hour along a coastal path from Boca de Tomatlán.

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Sunday on Isla Cuale, Puerto Vallarta

One of my favorite places to visit when in Puerto Vallarta is Isla Cuale, an island in the middle of the Rio Cuale, a river/creek (depending on the time of year you visit) that runs through Vallarta, meeting up with the sea. Although it is in the middle of the town, there is actually very little traffic on the island, it is an oasis in a city of noise and traffic, a getaway from the hustle and bustle of what has been a town in a constant state of growth for a number of years.

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Whale watching in Magdalena Bay, Baja California

A few years back I flew from Puerto Vallarta to Magdalenay Bay in a small private plane with a group of friends to see the gray whales at “Mag Bay”, as it is sometimes referred to as.  It was not a long flight, a couple of hours, landing close to where we could rent a panga and driver and within a few minutes we were out in the bay with mother whales and their babies.

The calves behaved like puppies. They would come up along side the boat, roll over and look at you, then it would roll over on its back so you could rub its belly, just like a dog would do. As you rubbed harder the whale would start to pant, opening its mouth, and it also enjoyed having the inside of its mouth massaged as well. It’s not as easy to pat a whale as it is a dog, and both get a little tiring after awhile. But when you neglected to rub as hard as the calf would like, or stopped, it would roll back over on its stomach and swim over to another boat looking for someone else to rub its belly.

All during this time the mother whale circled our boat, keeping an eye on all the activity. Quite something! We enjoyed the whales for an hour or so, and a few hours later we were back in Vallarta.