I woke up around 5:00 again, so I thought I would get two Journal entries posted while everyone else on the ship was asleep.
Back at the room, Linda was dressed and ready to go to breakfast. We had planned to meet in the main dining room (Versailles) at 8:00 am. Another wonderful early morning meal.
Then six of us made plans to go ashore in Puerto Vallarta on this overcast day. We anchored around 9:00. And we took the tenders or shuttle boats to shore around 10:00.
The first thing we noticed as we approached the pier was a Sam's Club. :) There seemed to be many more American stores and restaurants here.
It was a little tougher today to find a taxi to give us a little tour, but ultimately we found Jose' (also known as Nacho). He spoke pretty good English and offered to give us a three-hour tour for $25 per person. We piled into his van.
As we drove, he gave us a brief overview of the city. Then he stopped at a couple of ocean overlooks.
Next we stopped at a tequila plant where we got a brief tour and a sampling of four different tequilas.
These are the blue agave plants from which the tequila is made.
Actually, it is made from the hearts of the agave shown below.
Linda is looking especially happy as our tour guide pours everyone samples. :)
Linda had to have a bottle of the very smooth chocolate tequila and the other couples also ended up with a bottle or two. Nacho collected a commission on those sales. :)
We then proceeded further south of town to Chico's along the river. We hung out there and had a little lunch.
The entertainment was a Mexican serenade .....
and a daredevil young man who climbed up on a boulder in the river. He would then run and dive over other boulders into the pool at the bottom of a waterfall. See him stretched out in his dive right in the middle of the picture?
We were quite impressed with his courage (or lack of sense) after the first dive. Then he did it again with a flip.
And then one more time .... blindfolded.
He climbed back up to the restaurant for tips.
He was probably making more money than anyone else we saw today, but that was nuts! Guess you gotta do what ya gotta do.
There were also zip lines strung across the river above us. So we watched the tourists flying back and forth from one station to another.
That's what Linda wanted to do before she hurt her back. She's doing very well, but we still don't want to take any chances.
Nacho eventually took us back to the pier where we climbed on a tender and headed back to the ship. We got back about an hour and half before the last shuttle, so we were there in plenty of time.
We left Puerto Vallarta around 5:00. We have so little time in each port, I wouldn't care if we didn't stop at all. I'd be fine with just floating around the ocean for several days. There is plenty to do right on the ship.
Linda & I took naps and watched movies in our stateroom for a couple hours until it was time to get ready for dinner. Tonight we were meeting in the Aqua restaurant, the second of the main dining rooms.
Aqua doesn't have a cover charge and the service and food was better than Cagney's which had a $20 cover per person. Linda had a wonderful pork loin and I went with the roasted duck. Very nice. :)
After dinner, we went to the internet cafe to check emails. We don't have the time to return any, but at least we could see what was going on.
Then we met Dan & Sheila in the Stardust Theater at 9:30 for The Second City improvisational comedy show. There were some pretty funny moments, but not enough to get too excited. :)
After the show, we made an early evening of it and called it a night.
Tomorrow, we will arrive in Cabo San Lucas around 8:00 am. We hope to find a local boat tour and snorkel there. We'll see what we can come up with.
After Cabo, we will have another full day at sea before returning to Los Angeles at 7:00 am Sunday morning.
Well, I'm off to get something to eat. Hardly a challenge on a cruise. :)
Howard I really enjoyed seeing all the great pictures you took. Now that will satisfy my urge to take a cruise. I'm glad that you and Linda had such a good time. I hope she'll get better real soon. Keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming. Bob
Posted by: Bob2k | Saturday, October 13, 2007 at 10:14 AM