Puerto Vallarta

So the last post showed Sunday and Monday at sea. Monday was Valentines Day so we had a formal dinner that night. And because we live in freezing cold temperatures this time of year, those two days of laying in the sun all day confused our skin bad...We weren't burnt but we did have a special reddish color:) And I wore about the exact same color dress...looks a little silly, but oh well!




On Tuesday Morning I woke up at about 5:30...I was so excited that I couldn't sleep at all! I've never been out of the United States and was ecstatic to be in another country. I got dressed really fast and ran upstairs to check out Mexico. When I looked over the ship I saw the sun coming up right over the Walmart and Sams Club in Puerto Vallarta. I couldn't believe that far south they had American Stores. (I honestly didn't know what to expect but that really surprised me!) It was so tropical and beautiful to see all the palm tree's and green hills everywhere!


At this port we decided to go ride a zip line throughout the forest. So when we got off the ship we caught a taxi that took us to the top of this very green/jungly/rain foresty type of mountain. The tropical flowers and trees were just incredible! There really are no words for how beautiful and green it was there.


Once we were all suited up we started hiking. They had us hike up and ride down, then hike up another part, then ride down...it took about 2 hours and was a little more work than we expected, but it was nice to get a little workout:)


They didn't let us take cameras up with us so I took a pictures of some random person so the kid would understand what we did. This was one of the lower zip lines. There were a few that we rode over deep canyons-or valleys (not sure what they were called). But it was an amazing way to view the most beautiful part of Puerto Vallarta!


After the zip line while we were waiting for our taxi Kevin and Tj decided to go for a swim in this river that ran down the mountain. FREEZING cold...like icicles just melted FREEZING cold! So Rachel and I decided to take pictures:) The had a rope swing and a sliding rock that the guys had a good ole' time with.




Once we got back to town we stopped and ate at one of the restaurants in town that was on the beach, I think it was called "The Blue Shrimp". They had the yummiest coconut shrimp and nachos!! After we ate we walked along the beach and shopped for some souvenirs.
Ohhh and while we were eating we saw whales right by the shore. We heard that this is whale mating season and that there were quite a few of them and I managed to get their backs on video tape but that was it! I really really wanted a "Free Willy" moment but no worries, I'll get it next time:)!! Wayyy cool that we were that close!
(real "mexican" nachos)




It was interesting to see some of the ways they improvised things...for example - Boxes and trash were used in construction zones instead of orange traffic cones.


Puerto Vallarta was beautiful but just wait til you see pictures from Mazatlan and Cabo...