Main Plaza and City Hall - The Heart of Old Vallarta
Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on Puerto Vallarta: Malecon and Old Town, a free self-guided tour.
Cross from the arches into the main plaza, the shady square that has been the center of town life for generations. Shoeshine stands, balloon sellers, benches and families waiting for the evening music all share the space under the trees.
On the north side stands the city hall, the Presidencia Municipal. If the doors are open, step inside and look up the stairway for a large mural called Puerto Vallarta by Manuel Lepe Macedo. Lepe, born here in 1936, was a self-taught painter whose bright, childlike scenes of the bay, the hills and little winged angels made him the town's best-known artist before his death in 1984. The mural was carefully cleaned in 2020.
From the plaza you can see how compact the old town is: the sea on one side, the church tower straight ahead and the green hills close behind. Pause here before the short walk to the crown.
Getting here: Walk inland across the street from Los Arcos into the plaza. The city hall is on the plaza's north side.
Did you know?: The Manuel Lepe mural covers about 64 square meters of wall.
Photo op: From the inland side of the plaza, frame the church tower and its crown rising above the trees.
More on Wikipedia: Presidencia Municipal de Puerto Vallarta · Manuel Lepe Macedo
Stops on this tour
- North End of the Malecon - Where Time Begins
- Nostalgia - The Sculpture the Town Paid For
- Rotunda of the Sea - Thrones You Can Sit On
- The Boy on the Seahorse - Vallarta's Emblem
- Los Arcos - Arches From a Hacienda
- Main Plaza and City Hall - The Heart of Old Vallarta
- Our Lady of Guadalupe - The Church With a Crown
- Gringo Gulch - Where Hollywood Came to Stay
- Isla Cuale - An Island in the River
- Zona Romantica - Old Town South of the River
- Los Muertos Beach and Pier - The Sail at Sunset