by David Snyder

Puerto Val­larta, Mex­ico has become a bea­con for eco­tourism. Sur­rounded by lush trop­i­cal jun­gles, filled with amaz­ing blue water­falls, and home to thou­sands of species of flora and fauna, Puerto Val­larta is nat­u­rally suited for tourists look­ing to expe­ri­ence all that nature has to offer on a vacation.

Among the amaz­ing expe­ri­ences that tourists can par­take in on their eco­tourism adven­ture in Puerto Val­larta are kayak­ing, whale watch­ing, bird watch­ing, Sierra Madre Jun­gle tours, and a host of other excit­ing excur­sions. Each of these things to do in Puerto Val­larta brings a spe­cific aspect of the nat­ural won­der of Puerto Val­larta to the fore­front of an eco­tourists vacation.

Bird Watch­ing

Puerto Vallarta’s Bay of Ban­deras is home to a mul­ti­tude of habi­tats and unique ecosys­tems. A tourist can expe­ri­ence moun­tains, rivers and creeks, marshy lagoons, trop­i­cal forests, man­groves and shorelines.

These unique habi­tats are one of the rea­sons why Puerto Vallarta’s bird pop­u­la­tion is so rich. The region boasts up to 355 dif­fer­ent bird species. The num­ber and diver­sity of the bird pop­u­la­tion make for amaz­ing bird­ing tours.

The bird­ing tours in Puerto Val­larta are guided, and often pick you up directly from your hotel. Most tours last 6 hours, so it may be a bit too much for the lit­tle ones.

Whale Watch­ing

Puerto Val­larta offers var­i­ous wildlife excur­sions, includ­ing var­i­ous expe­ri­ences with Dol­phins in their nat­ural habi­tat. Noth­ing, how­ever, is as excit­ing as an encounter with one of the majes­tic hump­backs that make the Bay of Ban­deras their home.

Among these whale watch­ing excur­sions you can choose to take a photo expe­di­tion, you can snorkel amongst the dol­phin and whale in the bay, and you can even enjoy a day of sail­ing amongst the whales in the bay.

Via a Jun­gle Safari All Ter­rain Vehi­cle you travel through the Sierra Madre Moun­tain into the trop­i­cal jun­gle. You will travel off road into the moun­tains, thru plan­ta­tions and across rivers and streams.

You will stop at a typ­i­cal Mex­i­can vil­lage and learn about the daily life in a typ­i­cal Mex­i­can town. You will go through an actual home to expe­ri­ence how the typ­i­cal Mex­i­can fam­ily lives. Then, you travel deep into the jun­gle where you will take a 45 min­utes hike with expe­ri­enced nat­u­ral­ist who will tell you all about the flora and fauna.

Quaint towns, neat beaches just a short drive from Puerto Vallarta

Published: Tuesday, Novem­ber 27

A win­ter vaca­tion in Mex­ico often revolves around the beaches and nightlife in one of the resort towns like Puerto Val­larta. With plenty of shop­ping avail­able, large sun-soaked beaches and an abun­dance of restau­rants, it’s easy to relax and for­get about explor­ing the sur­round­ing regions.

But if you’re pre­pared to ven­ture fur­ther there’s a great deal to see. Some of it’s easy to get to and other areas will take more effort. Just a one-hour drive north of bustling Puerto Val­larta, where the 1963 Oscar win­ning movie The Night of the Iguana was filmed, is the sleepy lit­tle vil­lage of Sayulita.

Well-known for the excel­lent surf­ing there the place has a won­der­ful laid-back feel­ing that is casual even by Mex­i­can stan­dards. With plenty of local crafts for sale, small wind­ing streets and a spec­tac­u­lar beach it is well worth the visit. Con­tin­u­ing on High­way 200 the route changes from the twist­ing coastal road and con­nects with the well-maintained free­way south of Tepic.

The wide road­way is com­pa­ra­ble to any North Amer­i­can free­way and will reduce your travel time dra­mat­i­cally from the much slower sec­ondary roads.

This comes at a cost, how­ever, as there are fre­quent stops along the way to pay tolls, which can vary from 40 pesos to 200 pesos. On a longer trip you can end up pay­ing more in tolls than what you spend on gas.

If time is not a con­sid­er­a­tion you can get to all the same loca­tions on the free (libre) roads, but be pre­pared to go through every small town and vil­lage along the way and for the other unique Mex­i­can traf­fic con­trol device, the speed bump. Speed bumps in Mex­ico are every­where. Some of them make sense, like the ones at inter­sec­tions where the Alto traf­fic sign indi­cates that vehi­cles will alter­nately enter the intersection.

In other loca­tions they just seem to appear, some of them like asphalt mon­sters blend­ing into the road sur­face lying there wait­ing for the chance to destroy your exhaust sys­tem and ruin your sus­pen­sion. Some speed bumps are so high that as you slowly approach them the moment your front tires make con­tact it will actu­ally stop your car.

Leav­ing High­way 15 at Tequila there is the oppor­tu­nity to enter the cen­tre of the local liquor dis­till­ing area.

The sur­round­ing fields are blue with the agave plants grow­ing in rows. Their spiked leaves are chopped off at har­vest time when the plant is in its 12th year, leav­ing a huge rounded “heart” that is taken to the fac­tory to be heated in order to extract its sap which is key to the mak­ing of tequila.

This plant has been used since the 16th cen­tury to pro­duce tequila spirit and for over 2,000 years for mak­ing fer­mented drinks and cloth. The mineral-rich vol­canic soil of the region makes it an ideal place to grow the blue agave plant. You can visit the Jose Cuervo dis­tillery and tour the plant. The orig­i­nal dis­tillery was built in 1795. Near the cen­tral plaza of the town is a tequila museum, which shows the his­tory of cul­ti­va­tion and the dis­til­la­tion overview.

There are also an enor­mous selec­tion of bot­tles and label designs from over the years on dis­play. In the town itself tequila is for sale every­where. It can be pur­chased in small sam­ple size bot­tles all the way up to three-litre plas­tic jugs. Less than an hour drive east­bound will take you to the out­skirts of Guadala­jara, a city of over four mil­lion and home to sev­eral universities.