The first cruise ship in more than 18 months arrived in Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday.

Anyone 18 years old and over residing in Puerto Vallarta may obtain an anti-Covid vaccination as of July 23, Jalisco health authorities announced Wednesday.

Puerto Vallarta has been one of the quickest areas to see a recovery from the Covid-19 shutdown that decimated much of Jalisco’s economy last year.

Just over two years ago, alarm bells rang when all of a sudden, residents on and near Los Horcones River, south of Puerto Vallarta, saw a dozen or so workers and earth-moving equipment, and then heard dynamite blasts.

It is literally an oasis in the middle of the busy city of Puerto Vallarta, the sparkling gem of a tourist town hugging the Bay of Banderas, from the Marina district marking the northern border, curving and stretching south to Conchas Chinas and beyond to the road to Mismaloya.

Within three months, tourists could soon be setting foot on the Islas Marías (or Marietas), the group of four islands located 60 miles off the coast of Nayarit, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on a visit to the archipelago this week.