Puerto Vallarta: Strolling the Malecon

One of the best things to do in Puerto Vallarta is stroll The Malecon, the boardwalk. And it's free! Which makes it even best-er. The boardwalk is dotted with sculptures, which get progressively weirder as you walk north into El Centro, the Old Town, from the Zona Romantica, which is the afforable hotel district. (The ulta-expensive all-inclusive resorts are north of town.) The walk starts with this. A stylized sea urchin, perhaps?

This little fellow looks all alone.

Vaguely religious statue. Staightforward, too, which is something that will be less descriptive as one strolls northward from the Zona Romantica up the Malecon.

View of the Cathedral, as seen from the Malecon:

Dolphin fountain, close to the Cathedral, on the Malecon:


A very nice Mermaid and Merman (possibly Neptune/Poseidon), reaching out to touch:

This is the signature statue on the malecon. The Boy on the Seahorse. This is the symbol of the City of Puerto Vallarta. You see pictures of this statue everywhere. Yet it is not the one that attracts the tourist hordes and their cameras.

Butt-side view:

Next up, the space alien ladder:




Getting a good picture of this alien ladder is impossible. This sculpture is of three space aliens, each with a pillow-shaped head, ascending a ladder to ... the mothership? Heaven? Ten feet off the ground to get away from snakes or something creepy-crawly? There are people crawling up the ladder -- to go home with the aliens? -- 24/7 it seems. Impossible to get a picture without a person in it. This is probably even more photographed than the Boy Astride The Seahorse.

Awwwwww. Isn't the wittle piwwow-headed alien so cuuuuute?

Also worth noting that in addition to the permanent statuary, there's quite a few artists doing more temporary sand-sculpting along the Malecon:

As you walk north from the Boy Astride The Seahorse, the statues get progressively more surreal. This is the second of the most "interactive" of the Malecon statues. Space aliens rendered into high-back chairs.


Everyone loves to sit in the alien laps. I mean, who wouldn't? Strolling the Malecon wears you out and who can pass the on the opportunity to sit in an alien lap?

I mean, come on. Who can resist a face like that? Isn't it inviting? Isn't he/she/it just saying, " Come. Take a load off your earth feet. Rest your weary earthly bones on my intergalactic lap"? That said: I don't understand the Puerto Vallarta Malecon / Space Alien connection.

Again, surrealism, as to this next one. What this is I haven't a clue.

This seahorse is a little more stylized than the signature statute:

And then there's this:

At the far northern end of the Malecon is this little bit of surrealism. This is the end of the statuary portion of the Malecon if one is walking north from the Zona Romantica, which is what I did when I was the one. So what is this? Souls ascending to heaven? People doing best to navigate the steep uphill climb back to their four-blocks-off-the-beach hotel?