Seattle Gay News
Issue 25, Volume 45, June 23, 2017
Photo courtesy of passportmedical.com
by Ed Walsh SGN Contributing Writer While Seattle celebrates Pride this weekend, Mexico’s most popular gay beach destination, Puerto Vallarta, took to the streets just before the Memorial Day Weekend. Memorial Day is not a holiday in Mexico but the days around the holiday were selected with an eye to bringing more people to the tourist-dependent town during a traditionally slow time of year. Organizers estimate that over 7,000 people came out to cheer on Vallarta Pride’s 60 floats on Wednesday, May 24. For the first time in Vallarta Pride’s fiveyear history, the parade was attended by the city’s mayor and his wife and was celebrated with a block party. Vallarta Pride was celebrated for a week with various events through the Memorial Day Weekend.
Aside from Pride, one of the city’s most popular gay events is the White Party Puerto Vallarta (formerly Latin Fever), a circuit party geared toward gay men that is held every Thanksgiving weekend hosted in various venues throughout the city. Another gay-popular event is Carnival PV. It was started by the gay community years before the first Pride parade and is held on the traditional Mardi Gras day, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. For the uninitiated, Puerto Vallarta has a gay beach, gay neighborhood, gay hotels, a bounty of gay bars and nightclubs, and three gay-focused cruises. The city’s LGBT evolution first began in the early 1990s and is showing no signs of slowing down. Puerto Vallarta is in the center of Banderas Bay, on Mexico’s west coast, a little over six hours on connecting flights from SeaTac and about a 4.5-hour drive to Gua-
The pier on Los Muertos Beach in Zona – Photo by Ed Walsh
dalajara, Mexico’s second largest city. By the way, that drive time will be shortened to about 2.5 hours with the opening of a new highway between the two cities that is expected to open next year. Gay icon Elizabeth Taylor probably had more to do with Puerto Vallarta’s progression from a sleepy fishing village to tourist destination than any other person. She engaged in a scandalous affair with Richard Burton during the filming of Night of the Iguana in 1963. The international press flocked to Puerto Vallarta to capture every second of the couple’s romance while each was married to other people. Taylor wasn’t in the movie but stayed with Burton in Puerto Vallarta while the movie was filmed in nearby Mismaloya. Burton carried on with Taylor in a couple of homes on the hill overlooking the city’s landmark crown-topped church in the
center of downtown Puerto Vallarta. A socalled love bridge still joins the two homes, which allowed the couple to go back and forth without having to walk across the street. The gayest part of Puerto Vallarta barely existed in the early ’60s. It is Zona Romantica or the Romantic Zone, an area just south of downtown, just over the Cuale River. Some people also call it the South Side or Old Town, the latter being a misnomer since downtown is much older. Where to stay The luxurious LGBT resort, Casa Cupula, is one of the finest boutique hotels in Mexico. It includes the wonderful Taste Restaurant, a well-appointed gym, a pool and two hot tubs. The rooms are perfectly see PUERTO VALLARTA page 12
Los Muertos Beach in Zona – Photo by Ed Walsh