Puerto Vallarta’s Gringo Gulch is a lovely picturesque residential enclave in the historical part of Downtown Puerto Vallarta located on the north bank of the Cuale River on the El Cerro hillside. It is located slightly east of Centro. It was named after the fair-skinned Americans known as “gringos” who lived there in the 1950s and 1960s.

Gringo Gulch seen from Cuale River Island, downtown Puerto Vallarta

Without a doubt, it was the paparazzi photographs and reports of the greatest 20th-century love affair that helped promote Puerto Vallarta as one of the most romantic places in the world, and this all started in the area of the city (a town at that time) called Gringo Gulch.

As the first American enclave in Vallarta, this area evokes memories of a romantic bygone era of classic Hollywood. It was here that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s epic affair grew into a two-marriage obsession. Other noteworthy Americans who have lived in Gringo Gulch include Peter O’Toole.

Casa Kimberley 1978Casa Kimberley 2018

After the celebrations marking the 100th Anniversary of the town, in 1951, many visitors and tourists started hearing about this paradise town by the sea, US citizens arrived along with other Mexican visitors too.

One of the first important newcomers to arrive in Puerto Vallarta, that would direct the development in the area, was Fernando “Freddy” Romero.

Freddy Romero y Liz Ruby de Texas, le construye Casa Caracol calle Cuauhtémoc

The villas and houses in the neighborhood are colonial in design, mainly white with tiled roofs and covered in buganvilia. Mexico City engineer Guillermo Wulff also had a significant impact on the area’s design.

Throughout the decade of the 1950s, the area on the hill of the downtown area north of the River Cuale developed as an expatriate neighborhood.

Architectural Projects by Fernando "Freddy" Romero Escalante in Puerto Vallarta

Architectural Projects by Fernando “Freddy” Romero Escalante in Puerto Vallarta

Unlike the rich local’s architectural tastes, which included more modern construction designs and materials, Romero wanted a more typical Mexican pueblo style and atmosphere, something that later would become known as the “Vallarta Style” (in 1953).

This architectural style comprised whitewashed adobe facades, pitched roofs with red clay tiles, stone walls, and ornate wrought-iron. They also introduced the cupola (a dome-shaped structure that crowns the roof) to the architecture of the area.

La Iguana Bridge, Cuale River Island

Many of the houses they built are still standing. Casa Caracol (four houses away from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s famed house, Casa Kimberley), Casa Catalina, Las Campanas (now part of Hacienda San Angel), Villa Bursus (also now part of Hacienda San Angel, previously bought by Richard Burton for his then wife Susan Hunt in 1977), Casa Tabachín (one of the first homes in Gringo Gulch, built in 1957, which John Huston rented while filming in 1963) and Casa Maria.

He built many of the houses – a time where most of the materials were transported on a donkey – in the Gringo Gulch and later on built the hideaway in Las Caletas for John Huston too.

Cuale River and Gringo Gulch 1963

Casa Kimberley, the most well-known mansion in Gringo Gulch, is located at Calle Zaragoza 446. When Richard Burton was in Puerto Vallarta in 1963 the star in John Huston’s film “The Night of the Iguana”, he was having an affair with Elizabeth Taylor, who had come along to take care of him. Liz Taylor received Casa Kimberley as a present from Dick Burton on her 32nd birthday. The couple also purchased the house across the street after they married. They renovated their houses and added a swimming pool.

Guillermo Wulff built them a bridge over the street to connect the two residences. The pink bridge is now known as the “love bridge.” After a fight, Taylor is said to have used this bridge to send Burton packing to his own home across the way, and it is also where they would meet to reconcile, hence another of the bridge’s nicknames: “the bridge of reconciliation.”

Gringo Gulch and the Cuale River

Some of his houses and designs include Casa Caracol, Casa Catalina, Villa Bursus (the house Burton bought in 1977 for his second wife, Susan Hunt), Casa Puesta del Sol and Casa Tabachín, built in 1957 and which John Huston rented after leaving Casa Kimberley to house Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

Those were the days of wine and flowers, when a passionate love affair between one of the world’s most beautiful women and a dynamic Welshman ignited the town. They lived, loved, fought, drank, and caroused with Peter O’Toole, Roddy McDowell, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and John Huston. The paparazzi attention and antics of these larger-than-life personalities were important in putting Puerto Vallarta on the map.

Casa Kimberley, Puerto Vallarta

Another important personality linked to this neighborhood includes Guillermo Wulff, who left a profound mark in Puerto Vallarta and the Marina Vallarta, it was he who introduced the cupola as an architectural element in most of the homes he built.

He participated in building many of the houses in the Gringo Gulch, among these the houses of both Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, who enjoyed and relished in their Vallarta Love Story, during the peak of their film careers.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fell in love at the set of Cleopatra in Rome, after that, they traveled to Puerto Vallarta in 1963 where Burton was to star in the 25th movie directed by John Huston, “The Night of the Iguana” to be shot mostly on location in the jungle at Mismaloya.

Puerto Vallarta was not well supplied at the time with adequate hotels for cast and crew and most were quite primitive, to say the least. Hotel Océano was a local favorite on the malecón beside one of the lighthouses and was the production’s headquarters.

Hotel Oceano / Ambos Mundos, Night of the Iguana 1963

When Liz Taylor arrived with Burton to both a dirt floor and flying cockroaches in what was to be their suite, Richard immediately called Huston and told him: “My friend, if we don’t find suitable accommodations for Elizabeth, I’m afraid I won’t be able to star in your film”.

John Huston immediately had the couple transferred to his own rented villa on the hill in Gringo Gulch, Casa Kimberley, and the rest is, as you may know, is history.

Burton Taylor bridge

Not only did John Huston fall in love with the place, so did Liz Taylor and Dick, so much that Richard Burton ended up buying Casa Kimberley, a nine-bedroom villa for $57,000 and gave it to Elizabeth as a birthday gift for her 32nd birthday, February 1964, a few months after finishing the Iguana movie and a month before they officially married.

Casa Kimberley & bridge

So take a trip down memory lane, enjoy the cobblestone streets, the relaxed and laid-back atmosphere, enjoy the views and traditional Mexican town architecture and you’ll really get an idea of what really made Puerto Vallarta such a tourist attraction.

Last Updated on 19/03/2023 by Puerto Vallarta Net