1/9–Puerto Vallarta

We awake to the hottest day yet – it’s already high 70’s and we’re still sailing.  Late arrival today – not getting in until around 10:30 – and we aren’t changing time either.  We’re staying on ship’s time, and PV is Central time.  Confusing!

We’ve chosen not to go into town today, but to take a whale watching tour from the Marina where we dock.  It’s whale season and we figured we’d rather do that than just wander aimlessly downtown, with nothing to do or for which to shop. 

The tour, which is on a sailboat, leaves from the furthest marina, and we used that for our morning exercise. Before we disembark, we have breakfast so I can make sure I have something on my stomach (along with my seasickness pills).  Then, off the ship we go for a 45 minute walk into the marina – which once there is very nice – and we find the dock easily with almost an hour to spare.  Since we have time, we stop at a little café next to the dock for a morning beverage – Pacifico for me (yeah, I’m now drinking beer all the time on shore! Shocking, I know!) and Negro Modelo for Ed.  Plus chips and salsa, which I figure is better for me – more on my stomach!

We head to the pier at 1:15, pay our marina fee, and we are ready to go!  Wow – the ticket said 1:30.  Well, ok.  And there are only 5 of us aboard.  Private tour?  Maybe not! We’re greeted by Ricardo (Ricki), a marine biologist, who is the narrator and comedic portion of the staff.  He is hysterical, playing Beastie Boys, joking around, while Danny plies us with more beer, while Captain Lee sails us over to Nueva Vallarta to pick up the rest of the tour (darn – not so private!). We end up with about 25 total – we’d already captured our seats under the tarp for shade, and we weren’t giving them up – so we ended up being fine and out of the sun most of the day.

Off we ventured out into the Bay of Banderas.  Past our big ship….there’s our balcony – the one all the way at the back…and the condos way off on the shoreline!

Ricki was totally interesting, giving us tons of fantastic information.  He just prattled along the whole day.  His study thesis is noise pollution under water, so he has recordings of whales singing and then the motor boats that drown out the songs, really fascinating.  He tries to drop his microphone at one point, and he gets a few seconds of singing (which he later lets me listen to on his earphones),  then we have to go because we’ve spotted some blows up ahead.

For the entire 3 hours of the trip, we see tons of tail slaps (it’s the males competing for the female’s attention to mate) and a couple of great breaches (one of which I actually sort of captured!) – and all really, really close to the boat.

In addition, the beer and margaritas and pina coladas just keep flowing.  Our beer cups are rarely empty (except for the one I put in Ed’s shoe which was a perfect cup holder until it flew out, spilling all over and soaking Ed’s shorts in a most inopportune place! Oh well – that nasty towel we’ve been carrying around for the water came in handy!). And then we get lunch!  Really?  Half a ham sandwich with chips, salsa and guacamole.  Perfect – could not have been any better!

Fantastic day all around (and I still can’t believe how much beer I drank – wow!). We head back to Nueva Vallarta to let the bulk of the passengers off – and, since we are on the ship departing soon, Ricki tells us that they are putting us on a faster boat to take us back to the other marina. He says we won’t make it if we take the sailboat back.  Nice! 

First we get off at the NV dock  - and a guy comes up with this skiff – there is some heated Spanish conversation, and off he goes (bailing out the skiff as he heads away – hmmmmm – that couldn’t have been our ride, could it?).  Then we are herded back on the sailboat, and we sail over to a little dock outside some house, where the crew proceeds to tie up, clean the ship, offload the sodas and extras, etc.  We’re hanging out thinking….hmmmmm….will will make it.  We’ve got a little over an hour and you know Mexican time….

Soon, here comes the same guy as before, but with a different skiff.  Ok, then – this is it!  In for a penny, in for a pound!  We don our life jackets and the 5 of us (us 2 and a Mexican family – probably grandma, 6-7 year old grandson and 10 year old grand daughter) all get off loaded into this skiff where they are pouring gasoline into the engine tank.  Fortunately Captain Lee is doing the driving, so we’re not too concerned. 

The trip starts out very benignly – slowly cruising through canals, looking at the great sunset through trees, and looking at the sunken boat…what? Oh dear!

Then the ride really begins, and what a ride it is! One we are out in the bay, Lee lets loose and we are flying – pounding up and down into the troughs of the waves, holding on for dear life, Ed still with a cup of beer he can’t get to his mouth!  Lee’s watching this and suddenly slows down and yells “drink it!”  Ok – down it goes – and off we go again, getting thoroughly drenched in the sprays and knocked around, laughing our heads off (trying to make sure the kids don’t freak – because the little boy isn’t all too happy right now!).  Captain Lee safely navigates us back to our dock – where he immediately tells us to “run”!  There are yellow taxis on the street – run so you don’t miss your ship!  Too cute.

And we do hustle up the road, hop a taxi and make it back with plenty of time to walk the market outside the ship’s pier, then stand in line to re-board, hit the cabin, shower, dress and make it to dinner by 6:45!  It’s a record! 

Great last day in Mexico – now 3 days at sea – but at least with football to keep us occupied so we don’t have to go to the dumb lectures and listen to the  naturalist who we certainly don’t trust after the first lecture where she couldn’t even pronounce the names of the towns correctly or give the right exchange rate for the peso (120 pesos to the dollar – yeah, right – it’s 15 to the dollar at the bank, and more like 12 or 13 in the stores – hopefully not too many people listened to her or they were in for a huge surprise!).

1/8–La Paz

Last day on the Baja coast! We’re only in port from 7a to 2p – so it’s a really short day, and it’s a big city, we’re sort of bummed we don’t have more time here.  We’re up an’ at ’em at our normal 5:45. Gym, shower, pack the bag, get the coffee and we’re in line to disembark by 7:00. We’re docked at the commercial port, about 10 miles outside  of town, but there is a free shuttle to take us to the beach and town, which is very nice.

We’re off and on the first shuttle (with only a little bit of agg, since we aren’t allowed to take our coffee off the ship. Huh?  Come on! Sigh…I’ll be a cranky girl now!).  The shuttle takes about half an hour to get into town, we pass through a bunch of marinas and developments with condos, hotels and single family homes on golf courses.  We have a “tour guide” aboard who is a marine biologist studying whale sharks, the largest fish in the world.  It’s whale shark season (as it is regular whale season too), so there are opportunities to go out and see them, but we are going out whale watching tomorrow in Puerto Vallarta, so we’ll pass today.

We finally arrive in town, driving down the Malecon and being let off at the bus station.  The Malecon is 3 miles long, and dotted with all sorts of sculptures which makes for a very pleasant walk along the water.  We wander down the Malecon for a bit, taking photos of the statues, until we find a small little café where we can have coffee.  Yay!  Even if we have to pay for it (and it was quite reasonable, really), at least we can have our caffeine fix. We sit outside at a little high top table to reconnoiter and get our bearings as the caffeine takes effect.

Continuing on down the Malecon, we snap more sculpture pictures, walk out onto a long dock that is a little rickety for my tastes, but allows a great glimpse into the clean clear waters that surround La Paz.  It’s almost Caribbean-ish- so clear and blue and sparkling.

Next we head back into town toward the Mission and town hall buildings.  We find (quite by accident because the tourist map they handed us a the dock was way wrong!!) this little alleyway with lots of cafes and restaurants setting up for the day. We get hucked by one of the guys standing outside, selling beer and margarita specials as well as fresh fish tacos.  It’s only 9am, so we tell him “mas tarde” and head on into the centro historica.  It’s a good walk, past the retail shops, up the zapateria calle (shoe store after shoe store, and, no, I’ve decided NO boots – I’m done – they’ve jumped the shark and I’m happy with what I have!) – then into the little park across from the Mission (with the weird sculpture looking thing in the drained fountain).

The Mission is more ornate than most we’ve seen – but still much more simplistic than the typical European cathedral.  Inside there is a wonderful creche still decorated for Christmas (when do they take down the decorations?  Everywhere we’ve been, all the Xmas decorations are still up – so must be something cultural that they don’t come down right away in January like in the states).  We spend a few moments exploring the Mission, then head back out to walk more in town.

Back to the Malecon we head back toward the edge of town, trying to find a restaurant that the guide on the bus mentioned.  We walk past a sign for Bismarkcita – a café which began as a food truck we had read about – but all we found was an empty lot and a very expensive restaurant next to it – with no discernable name.  Oh well, not for us.  We head back the way we came and decide, what the heck, it’s time for at least a beer. So, we went back to the first place that “hucked” us and settled in for drinks and food. 

Ended up being a great choice (even though they didn’t have free wifi – go figure!).  Catrina’s – so ok – it’s perfect – and Martin (pronounced Mar-tine), the one who hucked us, and Carlos, the waiter hang out and chat with us until other people start arriving – so we had their undivided attention for a while! We chatted about living in La Paz (Carlos is Mexican, but had been living in the states since he was 6.  Until, that is, he was, as he put it, “a bad boy” and was sent back to Mexico.  He’s able to go back to the US in a year and is looking forward to it.  A very sweet guy, who we talk to about La Paz, and what it’s like to live there.).  We nurse our beers for a bit, order more, then hit the food:  Queso Fundido – excellent. Then Fresh Yellow Tail Tacos and shrimp tacos – but fantastic.  Martin brings us a margarita on the house (they made one too many) and I discover I really like it – but only because it is with good tequila – as Carlos says, not Cuervo!

We hang out for a long while there, enjoying the company, the sunshine and the food. Then finally drag ourselves up and out and back to the bus for the ship.  We really liked what we saw of La Paz – may be a good place to come back to for a few weeks or months in the winter.  We’ll see.

Back aboard, we hang in the sun on the balcony, then head to the Wheelhouse for our BOGO supply stock.  More balcony hanging and a beautiful sailaway and sunset……

…..Later onto dinner, where once again we have to wait. Only 5 minutes this time – wow – that’s a shock! The menu is the same darn menu from the previous day! What?  We think they goofed yesterday and posted the wrong one – so we have no idea what we missed while we were at the Crab Shack. Oh well.  It’s really a boring menu, although they did have a calamari appetizer Ed really enjoyed.  For a main though, yawn.  Ed get’s the available anytime filet medallions, which are good, and I end up settling for the Pork rib – OMG – it’s half a pig.  Kid you not – could have been a pound of meat. It was crazy! Really well done though, but  Ed of course had to finish it off for me.  You can complain about the offerings, or just the boredom of some of the menus, but you sure can’t  complain about the food portions, that is for certain!

Off the the production show in our basement- then to bed.  Another good day in port and at sea.