Gay Puerto Vallarta

By Travel Writer Ed Walsh.

Puerto Vallarta has been called the San Francisco of Mexico. You may get some argument over that but it would be difficult to overstate the close ties between the two cities.

I arrived in Vallarta, as locals call it, late last Monday afternoon. After checking into the Hotel Mercurio, I headed for the famous Blue Chairs gay beach, just a short walk away. I plopped myself down on an empty chair near the surf and asked a man sitting nearby if he would keep an eye on my stuff while I went in the water. He turned out to be a San Franciscan, Ben Schatz, who was in town performing with the Kinsey Sicks at the Palm nightclub. Ben is also a part-time Vallarta resident.

After a refreshing swim, I went to the rooftop patio/bar at the adjacent Blue Chairs Resort Hotel to take a picture of the sunset. A group of men from one of the hotel’s balconies gestured me to come over for a better picture. “Hey, you fell for that,” they laughed as I ventured over to take them up on the offer. It turns out the group was from the Russian River. I knew one of them and got a great picture of myself in my shockingly pale skin in the Mexican sunset.

The next night, I arrived back at the hotel to find the desk clerk, Alex Lopez, reading the Bay Area Reporter. He explained that a regular hotel guest brings him copies. During my four night stay, I met four other people from the Bay Area who happened to be staying in the same hotel. At a Kinsey Sicks performance, I met two more San Franciscans, including Jeff Green, one of the owners of the Twin Peaks bar.

Vallarta boasts 17 gay bars and nightclubs and at least 14 gay friendly hotels and bed and breakfasts. In the late 80s, there were only two gay bars, Club Paco Paco and Balcones. Paco’s owner, Paco Ruiz, helped pave the way for other gay business owners by defiantly staging a one-man rebellion. He stood up to police and refused to give them bribes. He took his fight to City Hall and eventually gained public sympathy and support through local and national media coverage.

The gay center of Puerto Vallarta is the southern part of the city in a neighborhood commonly known as the Zona Romantica. Its cobblestone streets are jammed well into the night with tourists and locals enjoying the countless shops, restaurants, and nightclubs.

Gay Condo Rentals in Puerto Vallarta