Wednesday, February 4, 2009 – Mazatlan

Where to start with Mazatlan. We booked a private excursion for whale watching on a sailboat with Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick. The tour was with MiCasa Viajes, some company Ally found. This is their website http://sailmicasa.com/index.html

We had made arrangements to meet Kym, the tour organizer at 9:00 am in the bar of the cruise ship entry point. The 6 of us gathered together on the ship and disembarked together. While we were waiting in the building I decided to take some pictures with Senor Frog.

Here I am with the frog.

Karen and I Another one. Well we should known how the day was going to go when Kym showed up late, in the wrong location, not wearing what she said she would be, called Ally by the wrong name and said we booked a tour with a naturalist, which we did not. We all just kind of looked at each other thinking what did we get into.

We piled into a mini van and started on our way. One of the things that Kym had insisted on while Ally was booking the tour was this was a private tour, just us, so there had to be 6 people going. Well while we were driving Kym pulled over to pick up another 3 people who were joining us – this was the first we had heard about others joining our “private” tour. We continued on our way to the marina. Once we parked Kym starting handing stuff to people to carry as we walked to the boat. When we got to the boat Kym told us they were not ready yet, that they needed another 15 minutes or so. At this point all I could think was how unprofessional, what kind of business where these people running and I would never run anything like this. Yeah, I could never live in this type of culture.

Here we are waiting to get on the sail boat. Once we finally got going, it was a nice relaxing ride.

Here are some pictures of the city from the boat. Karen and I on the boat.Here are Nancy and Rick on the boat.Nancy

Nancy and Ally

AllyKaren Rick

This is Captain Eduardo

Eduardo and Kym

This is me sitting in the shade. I was pretty concerned about getting sunburned so I made sure I had plenty of SPF 85 on, and sat in the shade. This is Bird Island…. While I know this is one of these you had to be here stories, but I have to tell you about it. Rick and Eduardo, the captain were talking and Rick asked what the name of the island was. Eduardo responded “birth island” Rick said do you mean bird island? Eduardo said no, birth island. So Rick said birth island? While simulating giving birth (we were all dying of laughter at this time) Eduardo said no, no birth island and Rick then acted like a bird and Eduardo said yes. It was so funny!! We laughed about it for the rest of the week. More pictures from the boat. At one point we dropped anchor and had the opportunity to go over to this island

Rich, Ally and Karen took the kayak and Nancy, Rick and I swam. Here I am coming out of the water. I normally would not put a picture of me in my suit online, but it shows the boat in the background.

While I was swimming over I kicked into some coral and cut my toe. At first I did not think it was that big of a deal, but it bled pretty badly.

Here are some pictures on the island. Ally and Rich on the beach.After we spent some time on the island we swam back to the boat. Once I hit the sea water my toe killed. Every time I swim in the ocean I am reminded how great Lake Michigan is, it has everything an ocean has minus the salt water.

After we got back to the boat we started headed back. On our way back there were some whale way out. Kym made some comment about that being where they often see whales and if we had more time we would had headed out that way. Hmm… I thought we had paid for a whale watching trip, shouldn’t we have gone out there earlier in the day.

This is the sailboat.

Kym then asked if we wanted to drive through town, we said no, we just wanted to go back to the ship. But Kym decided to drive us through town any way. The glances in the back of the van were hilarious, none of us were happy at all. Once we got out of the van we all just starting going off on the crazy day and how none of us would recommend this excursion.

Tuesday Night

After returning from Puerto Vallarta we wondered around the ship and took some pictures.

Here is the city at night. I am not sure what I am looking at or thinking about, but obviously not paying attention to getting my picture taken. The green space from earlier in the day at night. The Holland American ship all lit up. The outdoor pool of the ship at night.

After taken pictures we got ready for the evening. My friend Sarah had given me this cute skirt, and it was perfect for the Island themed night. After we ate dinner we went to the Mexican Fiesta deck party.

It was dark, so the pictures are not the best, but here is Odysea playing on the stage.
Another one of the band. Again we were recruited by the Cruise Staff to take part in the activity – they needed people to dance. Since Karen had participated in the drink making challenge it was my turn to participate.

Here I am dancing with Jesse. Jesse and I waiting for the next song to start. Here is Jesse posing with Rachael in the background. Here is Karen, Jorge and I. After the dance party on the party on the deck, we moved up to Skywalkers for a while and then to bed to get ready for our day in Mazatlan.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 – Puerto Vallarta

Karen and I were both very excited to get to Puerto Vallarta, friends of ours from the bike tour, Walter and Geri spend their winters about 20 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. We had contacted them before we left and made arrangements to spend the day with them. The ship was scheduled to dock around 10:00 am, but got in earlier. Karen wondered out and took some pictures of Puerto Vallarta from the ship.

Here are some other boats as we are pulling into the city. Here is the Holland American ship we saw all week. Different view of the city Here are some partially built high rises. This area was booming until the recession hit and now there are many building that sit half built. If you are looking for some real estate in Mexico, not is the time to buy. This is a pirate ship - I think you can do that as an excursion. The beach – with a boarder of foam type block. Here is a close up of the blocks. This looks more tropical. For the crew the highlight of this port is the nice, close Walmart. Rex our room steward told me he gets off the ship once a week to go to Walmart here. We got off the ship and quickly found Walter and Geri. It was so nice to see them. Karen had spent 9 weeks with them over the summer, but it was September when that time was over.

We let them be our guides for the day. First they took us to walk down the touristy section.

Here is the beach. Another view. Here are some very cool sand castles. It is amazing to see all the details that go into them!!
This is the touristy walk. Here are Karen and I on a little bench. In the back is street in town. A view up the street. This is me with Walter and Geri walking. Here is a building on a corner. Each Mexican city, village, town has a square in the middle that is the hub of the communities social interaction. In Puerto Vallarta, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church sits on the square. Karen and I walked up to get some pictures.

Here is another picture of town as we were moving from the touristy section to where the local’s go. Walter and Geri brought us to one of their favorite places to eat, a lovely outdoor place. They had great Margaritas. Here is Geri showing off all our drinks. After lunch we headed up to Walter and Geri’s. Here is some of the traffic. During the bike tour, Walter and Geri took their motor home across North America and during the day Walter would park it along the route and it served as a rest stop for the cyclists. Early on the tour Walter had watermelon for the cyclists one day. It was such a big hit, he started having it every day and it earned the nickname “Waltermelon” Everyone on the tour stopped to visit Walter at the motor home (I even did when I drove the route.) Well after the tour Walter and Geri turned in that motor home for a new one. It is gorgeous!

Here is their sign outside. Walter, Geri and I inside. Yes those are marble counter tops!! We found this on their counter – so true for them!! This is their seating area outside. Their set up is so great – I could totally live there. After visiting at their place for a while we walked down to the beach and then into their town’s square. We wondered around the market and visited the stall where the school children sold things. I bought a bag for my niece and a little case that is perfect for my ipod.

They showed us the local school and told us how the kids only went to school half the day, some the morning and the rest in the afternoon because they didn’t have the resources for all the kids to go to school all day. They also told us how they and their neighbors were raising money to build an orphanage. It is amazing what they have been able to do. We drove over to where they are building the orphanage and we could see the progress they were making. The stories of the children and how they were just abandoned by their parents broke my heart. In fact the whole day really touched me. I know I am very fortunate to live in the United States and that is one thing this trip really helped me realize – both by seeing the real Mexico, not just the touristy spots and in talking to Karen about life in Canada. I kept going back to that great American spirit and drive. That you can do anything, if you work hard and make good decisions you have the opportunity to be successful. I can’t even imagine what those kids who only have the opportunity to go to school half a day can hope and dream to aspire to. What their standard of a better life is compared to mine. It made me really sad for them and so very thankful for the opportunities I have been blessed with.

After seeing their home, Walter and Geri took us back to the ship. Here they are with the tracker that also crossed North America over the summer. We had a great day and got back on the ship for another fun night.