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!).
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