A bronze installation by Mexican sculptor Alejandro Colunga, occupying a small terrace on the Malecón directly opposite the Hotel Rosita. The piece consists of twelve oversized chairs and thrones, each grotesquely embellished with skeletal arms, animal heads, fish tails, and writhing tentacles. Children love them, adults find them slightly unsettling, and they are the most photographed sculptures on the boardwalk.
Colunga, born in Guadalajara, was given several commissions along the Malecón during its 2002 redesign and his pieces have become Vallarta landmarks. La Rotonda del Mar is meant as a meeting place — a "rotunda of the sea" — and on busy evenings people do indeed gather around the bronze thrones to wait for friends or watch the sunset.