Puerto Vallarta {part four}

Our next port was Puerto Vallarta.  The ship was able to pull right up to the pier here and we could just walk off.  This port was my favorite of the two, because it was so pretty and green. 

We traveled through a couple of time zones on our trip, and in this port, our ship stayed on Mountain time, while the city was on Central time.  Talk about confusing!  Thinking in two time zones at the same time is hard!

As we exited the pier, we were met by a man for our shore excursion.  He set us up with a taxi driver, but there was one other couple, so we had to wait for them first.  We waited and Jason took some pictures.

We waited for over an hour, and then our taxi driver took off with someone else.  The first man we met came back, and we walked with him to try to find the other people.  When we couldn’t find them, he put us in a taxi with two others and we finally got to our destination.  That taxi ride was SUPER scary!   The intersections there were CrAzY!! 

You can kind of see in this picture, that the street is divided into four sections, and there are kind of on-ramp, off-ramp type things for whether you are making a left or right.  Let’s just say, I was glad we didn’t have to drive ourselves anywhere!  Also, we were dropped off across the street from the office we needed to be at and we basically had to play “Frogger” to cross the street.

This is the office we went to.  It was going to be another hour before the shuttle would come to take us up the mountain, so we decided to explore.

We weren’t sure when we would get to eat again, and we pretty much needed food in us at all times!  Just down the street there was this little hut type thing with a counter all around it, where you sat to eat.

Jason with another coke while we waited for our food to be ready.

These are the ladies who ran the little stand and made our food.  It was cool getting to sit right there and watch them cook and clean.

This food was the most authentic food we ate on our trip.  It doesn’t really look like a ton, but it was.  It was also SO yummy!  The tortillas reminded me of my brother-in-law Luis’ mothers’ tortillas that I got to try when she stayed with my parents before Ash & Lu were married.  I would love to eat this every single day!

After our little meal, we went back across the street and wandered down the other side.  The office people had told us that we were only a block and a half from the beach.  We walked down this little walkway….

and there was the ocean!

Such a pretty beach!  We enjoyed the pretty view for about the length of time it took for us to take these pictures, before we started to be hounded by all of the beach peddlers. 

Jason was awesome at bartering with them.  We got a necklace for me and he wanted a money clip.  This guy, I snuck a picture of.  He was hilarious bartering with Jase.  When Jason would say a price he thought was too low, the guy would tell him to “stop being such a Mexican”.  

Finally, we went back to the office and were able to board the “bus”—(that term being used very loosely)  There were no windows on board and just the metal rods you can see in this picture.  The streets are all very narrow, and so the cars are super close to each other.  It was another scary ride for me, especially since I was on the outside edge. 

We drove up up up into the mountain and drove around a little part of the town.  I should have taken more pictures, but I seemed to be on the wrong side of the bus.  I did take a picture of this hotel that I really liked.  I also got to see it several times because our driver didn’t really know where he was going and we went around in circles for quite a while and then backtracked down the mountain a ways. 

Our adventure was to ATV.  This is our guide showing us what to do. 

I was kind of nervous, since I am not the greatest on these things, but these were nice and small, and we just stayed on the dirt roads, so not difficult terrain. 

We went right through the river a couple of times.  It looks fun, but the water was actually scorching hot because it went through the engine first.   They told us to go fast through the water, and I felt like I was, but looking at the pictures makes me look so slow!

We finally stopped and got to get off and then go to this waterfall.  There were also some pools blocked off and we could chill out and swim for a while. 

Our guide showed Jason where the best place to jump in was.  It was actually REALLY narrow, and there was a tiny little area right in the center of the river that was black.   That was where the water was deep enough. 

And he jumped!!

I however, did not!  I walked down the slippery side and got in.  The water was so COLD!  We didn’t last long playing, and Jason didn’t want to attempt another jump, so we headed back up.

We relaxed in the little bar and had a drink.

Then they took us back to the ranch.  They switched guides, and our new guide took us way up to the top of the mountain.  We had a phenomenal view!

It was tiring, but a really awesome adventure.  We were the only two in our group, so it was great that everything could just go at our pace—or my pace, at least.  Jason loves riding dirt bikes with his family, and he said as far as riding the ATV’s was concerned, it was kind of slow. 

We were super dirty when we got back, so we cleaned off as well as we could, and then we had the choice of touring the Tequila factory, or getting something to eat.  We chose food again, of course!

I loved the grass-roof hut and the tables were made of old trees!

Yum yum yum!!!  Seeing all of this food again, is really making me crave it!

After we ate, we relaxed in these hammocks they have hanging all over.  There are signs on all of the posts telling you to straddle them and then sit for your safety.  As we were laying and relaxing, one of the other guests sat down on one without reading the instructions, and completely flipped over on himself!  Hilarious!  (We are those mean people who totally laugh at others!!)

We enjoyed the ride back, and decided we were both so dirty and tired, so we would go ahead and board the ship again so we could take a shower and get some rest before the evenings activities. 

We then went to spend some time in the hot tub and that’s where we were as we pulled away from this port.  Perfect end to a fabulous day!