Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, October 19, 2026 – Cuale Island’s rehabilitation has yet to begin, nearly a year after officials announced the roughly 40-million-peso investment.
Merchant representative Evangelina Sánchez Dueñas says the island now has 67 commercial spaces, including 32 original shops and about 35 additional stalls.
For residents who use the island and businesses that depend on it, the central question is straightforward: what is keeping the promised repairs from starting?
The published sources reviewed for this article do not explain the reported lack of construction or establish how much of the announced funding has been released. They do, however, document the proposed work, its intended financing and a commitment to discuss the project with neighbors.
The plan Vallarta Daily covered last October included improved walkways, reinforced slopes and areas for observing the river’s wildlife. Those are practical improvements for a place where people come to walk, shop and spend time beside the river.
The budget also needs some unpacking. The October 2025 project assigned 29.9 million pesos to rehabilitation of the island and another 8 million to the related Parque de las Luminarias del Cuale project. Together, those proposed budgets total 37.9 million pesos, broadly matching the mayor’s rounded figure.
The island proposal combined repairs with additional cultural and commercial activity. It included work on roofs, storefronts, paths and basic infrastructure, erosion mitigation, workshops and a gastronomic market. That makes space allocation central to the project: the design would have to accommodate those activities while maintaining public access.
The work was part of a wider program scheduled for 2026. An October 27 municipal announcement identified tourism-trust resources to be applied from this year to projects including Cuale Island, the Mirador de la Cruz and other public spaces.
That financing arrangement remained part of the city’s explanation in January. During council deliberations, Councilman Víctor Manuel Bernal Vargas said the island’s rehabilitation was being removed from a proposed municipal loan package because arrangements involved the state government and the tourism trust.
The removal therefore reflected an intended alternative funding source. It did not establish that construction had been contracted or that the promised investment had reached the site.
Public consultation was another commitment. In comments last October, Mayor Luis Ernesto Munguía González promised to present the project to neighbors.
“What we want most is to preserve the character of the place,” he said, speaking in Spanish. His description included benches, bathrooms, lighting, and surveillance.
Tribuna’s latest reporting says the promised consultation has not taken place. It describes constricted walkways and lost public space at the island’s western end in Centro.
Sánchez Dueñas, herself a restaurant concession holder, said the island’s merchants’ association wrote to City Hall and its regulations department about two recently installed stalls.
“To date, we have heard nothing,” she told Tribuna, speaking in Spanish.
The association is seeking an explanation for two stalls already welded into place near the Insurgentes–Libertad bridge, including who authorized their installation.
