El Colorado

El Colorado is a farming village in the inland north of the municipality of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, on the floor of the Ameca valley about 40 meters above sea level and roughly 19 kilometers in a straight line from the city center. It lies on State Highway 544, the road that runs up the valley from Ixtapa toward Las Palmas, Mascota and San Sebastián del Oeste, and it borders Las Palmas de Arriba, the largest town of this part of the municipality, which begins just to the north.

The 2020 census counted 1,150 people, 595 women and 555 men, in 312 occupied homes, up from 750 in 2005 and 1,023 in 2010. The village has a kindergarten and several primary schools, and around it lie a string of smaller settlements such as El Zancudo, Campestre Los Ángeles, Joyas del Colorado and Colinas del Valle. It has also given its name to one of Puerto Vallarta's planning districts: the municipality's urban plans treat the area as the Distrito Urbano El Colorado, which borders the Las Palmas district to the north.

There are no sights as such, but El Colorado is part of the drive through the quiet agricultural back country of Vallarta on the way to the mountains. Cerro Quelitán, a 558-meter hill, rises about 7.5 kilometers to the south-east, and the Las Palmas city bus from Puerto Vallarta runs along the highway past the village, so it is easy to reach without a car.