El Ranchito

El Ranchito, listed by the census as El Ranchito (El Colesio), is a village in the rural north-east of the municipality of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, on the floor of the valley behind the bay, some 39 meters above sea level. It lies beyond the town of Ixtapa, near the Mascota River, which flows less than a kilometer south of the village on its way to the Ameca, and next to its twin settlement of La Desembocada, less than a kilometer to the north-east.

The 2020 census counted 1,360 people, 681 women and 679 men, in 374 occupied homes, which makes it the sixth-largest locality in the municipality; it has grown steadily from 950 people in 2005 and 1,255 in 2010. It is a residential farming-valley village rather than a tourist spot, with its own health centre, a kindergarten and primary schools, and a cluster of smaller settlements around it: Ojo de Agua and La Arboleda to the west, El Aguacate to the north and the settlement of Ecoterra Paraíso, now bigger than the village itself, a couple of kilometers to the north-west.

For visitors El Ranchito is mostly a glimpse of the agricultural hinterland of Puerto Vallarta that few tourists see: low houses, the river and the farmland of the valley floor, with a warm climate and an average temperature of about 24 °C. It is easy to reach, as the city-bus route named after the village runs out here from Ixtapa and Puerto Vallarta, and the same valley road continues north toward El Colorado and Las Palmas.