The Rest of the Cruise (Days 4-7)

Day 4: Wednesday

This day started with our adventures in Mazatlan. This time we were able to walk directly off the ship and take a quick taxi to the city entrance area. We found a van driver for the whole day and off we went! He started taking us on the tours of the Mazatlan homes and talking to us about some of the famous islands, statues, etc. On our way to the "Golden Zone" for shopping, we stopped to watch the local cliff divers. I caught a video of one guy jumping into the waves. The water is really shallow and they jump in a pool where waves are crashing between large, jagged rocks. Our guide told us people have died before! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video:

Next, we asked to go shopping in the "Golden Zone" so our driver took us there (we think...we're not sure because he took us to one of his buddy's stores that was along a strip...we guess he takes us there because there's something in it for him). Regardless, it wasn't GREAT shopping, but I did find a cute floppy sun hat (see later pictures) and three pieces of green pottery vases to put in my living room for only $22! :) YAY!

After shopping, we asked to be taken to the beach. Our driver dropped us off at a random seafood/mexican restaurant by a beach. We're pretty sure he gets to eat and drink free here if he brings tourists. We thought it was funny that he just took us places and didn't ask us where we wanted to go in particular. It wasn't the prettiest beach or the best restaurant, but we had a little fun.

Dave and Trevor rented jet skis for a half hour to drive out on the ocean past the waves. I went out with Trevor for a few minutes. We had a very fast jet ski! It was fun but it's very different riding a jet ski on the ocean as compared to a lake--much more bouncy and you get salt water everywhere and nothing is dry to wipe your face on! It burns a little! But it was fun. After 5 minutes or so, Trevor drove me back toward the shore to let me off (so he could race Dave and play around--I was kind of a wimp haha). We got a little too close and all of a sudden we see Cole and Shawn yelling something like "WAVE!!!!". A little too late, I turned around to see a HUGE wave coming at us. The jet ski was parallel to the shore, so it tipped both of us off the side into the wave. I thought for SURE it was going to roll over and smack me in the head so I put my arms up as protection. Fortunately we were all okay. I found out later that they engineer jet skis to be VERY hard to roll over. So, I was safer than I thought after all because it just tipped us off and turned back upright. I laughed about it a few minutes later. Kind of an adventure! :) This pic os of Dave and Trev coming back to shore after their 30 minutes was up:

We took this as we were leaving the beach. But it's in front of the restaurant we ate at. They really did have fantastic shrimp. This pic is to kind of show off my new swimsuit I got made this year :)

After the beach we were all pretty tired and glad to return to the boat. I do have to say, though, that the driving in these Mexican cities was CRAZY!! I swear we were about to hit something or someone or a car or whatever at all times! Sometimes I had to close my eyes and just trust our driver! Haha

Day 5: Thursday

Thursday our boat docked in Puerto Vallarta. The day started pretty similarly. We found a guy with a van who would drive us around for cheap. His name was Ricardo and this guy took us wherever WE wanted to go. :) We requested a trip to the jungle first, but on the way he showed us some really cool Vallarta houses. They had hand-laid cobblestone roads and houses were built on cliffs, like this picture looking up the hill:
And this picture looking down the hill:
I just love all the green trees, blue water, and red and white houses! It's so gorgeous there... I'd almost consider retiring there :) Haha. Almost. Trevor and I took the opportunity to get a gorgeous scenery shot (me wearing my new sunhat!):
After a VERY long drive down city streets and then through a poor town with chickens and a long dirt road, we made it to the touristy jungle area where they filmed the movie "Predator". There was a natural pool with a rope swing and a small natural slide on the rocks. I totally would have played there, but we decided to sign up to do the zipline course! :) Heidi and Jana couldn't do it because they're pregnant, and Shawn decided to sit out, but the rest of us went. Here's Heidi, Trevor, and Dave sippin on their 47th or so pina coladas:
After a fantastic time on some 1600 foot ziplines and a short, wonderful Mexican thunderstorm, we finally headed out of the jungle and into the market area for a bit more shopping. There was a very fun little strip of shops under the trees that I had to take a picture of because it looked very National-Geographic:
We shopped for a bit longer, but feeling very hungry we asked Ricardo to find us some great Mexican food! He brought us to his favorite no-name taco stand off the side of the road. And I'm not kidding. This was the BEST (and cheapest) food we had in Mexico!! There's something about the fresh-made corn tortillas, crisp cabbage, glass bottled Coke, and meat cooked in front of you that makes it amazing. Not to mention it was raining--I was in heaven!! The cheese in the quesadillas was SO good I asked Ricardo what kind it was (hoping I could buy it in the U.S.) and it's called Chihuahua cheese! Since being back home, I discovered Chihuahua cheese is a mild, off-white Mexican melting cheese. There's places near Chicago that sell it...but that's about it! :( I'm so sad. So if you know of anywhere that sells Chihuahua cheese, PLEASE let me know!!
We were sad to end our last day in Mexico, but we knew we'd have fun on the boat on the way back. That night at dinner was fun as we got in cheer wars with our surrounding tables. We were all cheering for our waiters because we love them, of course! We yelled "PAUL PAUL PAUL PAUL PAUL!" and waved our napkins like the riotous Mexican family at the next table over! They were a hoot and kept cheering for their waiter Joaquim. One guy kept shouting "Joaquim for President!!" Hahaha!
Before dinner that night, we also barely caught the sunset and Meg took a pretty great picture for us! :) Thanks!Day 6 (Friday): I rested a lot by watching a movie in our stateroom then spending a lot of time on the deck reading and tanning! That night was our second formal night so we had a fun dressing up again and then playing Boggle and Pictionary with everyone later.

Day 7 (Saturday): was a lot of the same, with the guys playing ping pong and volleyball, and the girls relaxing by the pool or watching on. We made sure to take advantage of a lot on the boat this time! We used the gym, arcade, casino, mini-golf course, game room, ping pong table, sports court, pool area, bar service (for Pina Coladas), variety shows, cafe promenade, the karaoki lounge, and a fun diner called Johnny Rockets!

While we were at Johnny Rockets enjoying some fries and onion rings, all the servers got up and started dancing to one of those famous disco songs (can't remember the name! ahh!) and I had the itch to dance too so I got up and learned their little routine as I went! IT WAS SO FUN! :)I'm sorry for the HUGE post! I thought I had fewer pictures and less to say! But I'm glad you got to experience a bit of our Mexican vacation! It was so much fun but I have to say I was SO glad to get back on the bus and the plane on Sunday to come home! I don't think I could have gone one more day eating that much food!! Problem is, I eat everything in front of me and they just kept bringing it! Whew! So good, but I'm glad to be back to sandwiches and homemade meals!