Day 4: Puerto Vallarta
This was our longest port day, from 8am to 10pm we were allowed to be on shore. From our window, we could see a Walmart across the street! That was so weird. Anyway, we had booked a canopy tour and needed to get to the tour office by 11am. So after a big breakfast, we got off the ship and headed out towards the main road. We had printed out maps of Puerto Vallarta before the trip so we were looking for road names and trying to pinpoint our current location. We only had half an hour before 11am so we decided to just hop into a cab. We showed the driver where we wanted to go. He took a look at it for a little bit and then we were off! MAN, good thing we took a cab because we did NOT know how far the office was. We assumed that the cruise would drop us off at the pier we saw on the map. But we were actually docked north of downtown and the tour office was south of downtown. So we got there in plenty of time! :) The only downside was that in my panic, I jumped into the cab without giving Steven time to negotiate a taxi rate. So we paid for that...$10 for that taxi ride. oops.
We took a bus to the canopy tour location. It was a drive of about 10 miles and took about half an hour. The good thing was that we got to go outside of Puerto Vallarta. The guys who run the canopy tour were awesome! They were definitely seasoned guides who all spoke English well. There was this one guy who was like a cross between Elvis and a military officer when he spoke English. Obviously, he learned some of his English from watching American action movies.
The tour was really fun! Some of the zip lines went over a river so the views were gorgeous, when you remembered to look down. There was a wind blowing when I crossed the river line such that it would push me to one side, thereby slowing me down. So at the end of that zip line, I had to get "rescued". On another line, I got to rescue myself by pulling myself to the end. I also got to "rescue" one of the guides because I got stuck on one of the lines again and he was coming in after me. Lots of rescuing going on! They had a really cool last zip line where you can race each other. I got to take off first so I was ahead at first, but Steven caught up very quickly and totally passed me to win the race. We hopped on the bus after returning our gear and headed back to the tour office.
Now we needed to go find an ATM to get some pesos for lunch. The ATM across the street from the tour office was out of order, as some nice locals pointed out to us. And one of the locals tried pointing us to the next ATM but we didn't really understand all of what he was saying, something about going to the plaza. So we started in the direction that he pointed. We walked north, following the map that we had printed. We asked a local woman where the ATM was and she pointed us further north. We crossed a bridge and found the ATM! There were some other people from our cruise there withdrawing money as well.
With money in hand, we searched for one of the taco stands we had mapped out. We found it quickly and sat down to order. It was a simple restaurant with a few tables and chairs, lots of condiments on each table, mom at the cash register, and a few of the guys hanging out and watching tv. We ordered smoked marlin tacos...very tasty and very filling! I only needed one to feel full - amazing, huh?
After lunch, we just walked around downtown and along the beach. We had finished the canopy tour earlier than expected so we had a lot of time to kill before dinner. At the main plaza, we found the ATM the local from before was telling us about and we saw a photo shoot for a cell phone! We stood along with the locals and watched the progress of the shoot. One of the older local women started conversing with us although we couldn't really make out what she was saying. haha! She was really nice and offered us her seat when she left so we could sit and watch the shoot.
We had a very early dinner, 5pm, so that we could catch the sunset. From internet recommendations, we ate dinner at Barcelona Tapas, located on a rooftop. It was American prices and later on, the restaurant was filled with American tourists. haha! But the food was delicious! Why tapas in Mexico? Well, the other recommended restaurants we found were a bit out of the way. The water there was purified so we took our chances and had ice in our drinks. Plus, I had a tuna carpacchio so I was really praying that it was a sanitary restaurant. We had no stomach problems - yeah!
After dinner, we headed back to the ship. We watched the Mexican dance/song show where the locals performed mariachi and danced flamenco for us. When 9:30pm hit, all cruise passengeres were supposed to be on board, and that's when we heard the announcement for a certain passenger. There were many repeat announcements for this one passenger...but he made it...after about half an hour. It would've sucked if we had to wait around for this one guy. But thankfully, the cruise was still on schedule. :)
This was our longest port day, from 8am to 10pm we were allowed to be on shore. From our window, we could see a Walmart across the street! That was so weird. Anyway, we had booked a canopy tour and needed to get to the tour office by 11am. So after a big breakfast, we got off the ship and headed out towards the main road. We had printed out maps of Puerto Vallarta before the trip so we were looking for road names and trying to pinpoint our current location. We only had half an hour before 11am so we decided to just hop into a cab. We showed the driver where we wanted to go. He took a look at it for a little bit and then we were off! MAN, good thing we took a cab because we did NOT know how far the office was. We assumed that the cruise would drop us off at the pier we saw on the map. But we were actually docked north of downtown and the tour office was south of downtown. So we got there in plenty of time! :) The only downside was that in my panic, I jumped into the cab without giving Steven time to negotiate a taxi rate. So we paid for that...$10 for that taxi ride. oops.
We took a bus to the canopy tour location. It was a drive of about 10 miles and took about half an hour. The good thing was that we got to go outside of Puerto Vallarta. The guys who run the canopy tour were awesome! They were definitely seasoned guides who all spoke English well. There was this one guy who was like a cross between Elvis and a military officer when he spoke English. Obviously, he learned some of his English from watching American action movies.
The tour was really fun! Some of the zip lines went over a river so the views were gorgeous, when you remembered to look down. There was a wind blowing when I crossed the river line such that it would push me to one side, thereby slowing me down. So at the end of that zip line, I had to get "rescued". On another line, I got to rescue myself by pulling myself to the end. I also got to "rescue" one of the guides because I got stuck on one of the lines again and he was coming in after me. Lots of rescuing going on! They had a really cool last zip line where you can race each other. I got to take off first so I was ahead at first, but Steven caught up very quickly and totally passed me to win the race. We hopped on the bus after returning our gear and headed back to the tour office.
Now we needed to go find an ATM to get some pesos for lunch. The ATM across the street from the tour office was out of order, as some nice locals pointed out to us. And one of the locals tried pointing us to the next ATM but we didn't really understand all of what he was saying, something about going to the plaza. So we started in the direction that he pointed. We walked north, following the map that we had printed. We asked a local woman where the ATM was and she pointed us further north. We crossed a bridge and found the ATM! There were some other people from our cruise there withdrawing money as well.
With money in hand, we searched for one of the taco stands we had mapped out. We found it quickly and sat down to order. It was a simple restaurant with a few tables and chairs, lots of condiments on each table, mom at the cash register, and a few of the guys hanging out and watching tv. We ordered smoked marlin tacos...very tasty and very filling! I only needed one to feel full - amazing, huh?
After lunch, we just walked around downtown and along the beach. We had finished the canopy tour earlier than expected so we had a lot of time to kill before dinner. At the main plaza, we found the ATM the local from before was telling us about and we saw a photo shoot for a cell phone! We stood along with the locals and watched the progress of the shoot. One of the older local women started conversing with us although we couldn't really make out what she was saying. haha! She was really nice and offered us her seat when she left so we could sit and watch the shoot.
We had a very early dinner, 5pm, so that we could catch the sunset. From internet recommendations, we ate dinner at Barcelona Tapas, located on a rooftop. It was American prices and later on, the restaurant was filled with American tourists. haha! But the food was delicious! Why tapas in Mexico? Well, the other recommended restaurants we found were a bit out of the way. The water there was purified so we took our chances and had ice in our drinks. Plus, I had a tuna carpacchio so I was really praying that it was a sanitary restaurant. We had no stomach problems - yeah!
After dinner, we headed back to the ship. We watched the Mexican dance/song show where the locals performed mariachi and danced flamenco for us. When 9:30pm hit, all cruise passengeres were supposed to be on board, and that's when we heard the announcement for a certain passenger. There were many repeat announcements for this one passenger...but he made it...after about half an hour. It would've sucked if we had to wait around for this one guy. But thankfully, the cruise was still on schedule. :)
posted by pc at
5:56 PM
<< Home