The rain began four days ago (Friday, July 23). This is to be expected during the summer months in a tropical area like Puerto Vallarta. So often, it is not the potential of a direct hurricane strike that causes the greatest damage, property loss or even victims. Several consecutive days of rain can have a devastating effect when the soil becomes saturated and the rivers begin to rise.
By Monday, July 26, the Rio Ameca had overflown it’s banks and even the Rio Cuale, in downtown Puerto Vallarta, had invaded the island. Sixty inches of rain a year is a lot of water. When much of it comes in just a few days, as so often happens in the tropics, it can prove to be quite damaging.
By last Friday, we knew it was coming. Up river along the Rio Ameca, the water began to rise from the heavy and constant rains in the mountains. Eventually, San Juan de Abajo, Colomo and Aguamilpa would remain isolated as a result of the high water. The arroyo in Lo de Marcos would deposit up to a meter of water in the center of town, the church and an adjacent school.
Along the Rio Ameca in Colomo, three sheep and a cow were lost to the swift moving current and various head of cattle are still reported missing. Some squash and corn crops have been lost. The water almost reached the level of the bridge connecting Jalisco with Nayarit just north of the airport. But, it was further down river that the most noticeable damage was to be found.
For the past several months, the Mayan Palace Hotel just to the north of the mouth of the Rio Ameca, has been building a breakwater and dumping fill into their side, the Nayarit side, of the river. The rising flow of these past days washed out the opposing side, the south side of the river. The shacks of the fishermen, 4 pangas with motors and fishing equipment and much of the mangrove which had grown along the river bank was washed out to sea. The 16 members of the fishing cooperative Boca Negra place direct blame for the loss of their pangas and equipment, valued at 150,000 to 180,000 pesos, on the construction of the breakwater by the Mayan Palace. Approximately, one hectare of mangrove was lost to the erosion at the mouth of the river. Remnants of these remains could still be seen out in the ocean once the rains subsided. 
Boca de Tomates, the mouth of the Rio Ameca, was completely altered by the floodwaters expanding from 30 meters before the storm to 80 meters wide.
Authorities from CONAGUA and SEMARNAT visited Boca de Tomates on July 28 and it will be interesting to receive their findings whenever they will become available. The Boca Negra fishing cooperative is insistent that the breakwater constructed by Mayan Palace was the primary cause of the loss of their pangas, equipment, structures and of the mangrove, vegetation the authorities are required by law to protect. The local authorities in Nayarit are just as insistent that the Mayan Palace has all their permits in order, although they have not as yet been made available to the public.
But it was not only in neighboring Nayarit where the rains were so abundant. The island in the Rio Cuale was eroded by the force of the water from upstream with the rains recorded at 160 mm (6 ¼ inches). The water reached the buildings of the Cultural Center. Logs, rocks and debris were deposited along it’s shores. The water level destroyed the swinging bridge between the island and the south side. You can measure the depth of the water it would need to reach the bridge the next time you are in Vallarta from this bridge.
What happens in the summer in Puerto Vallarta? It can rain. And while Monterrey and Hurricane Alex may have captured the majority of the news coverage for storm damage in Mexico recently, and the destruction and impact of that recent storm is indeed impressive, Puerto Vallarta can also receive some pretty spectacular rains. Those same rains that keep the mountains lush and green can also cause considerable destruction and hardship for those living in low-lying areas or close to rivers and arroyos in the tropics. Those majestic summer rains in Vallarta can be both beautiful…and dangerous
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