Day 49 - 16 Feb - Puerta Vallarta

Ahoy matey....thar's whales out there! Yep, we saw whales, although no 'breaching' or peaking up out of the water at us. It's funny because as soon as you seen two or more boats all sitting around one another, you know that's where the whales are. Wayne and I were on either side of the boat and one came up right beside our boat, scared the b'jezzez out of everyone by exhaling. Of course, Lynne with the big camera and all the equipment was on the opposite side of the boat so missed it but it sure sounded impressive! We saw the mother & baby and a couple of other big boys...one was hovering between two boats...checking out the bikinis I guess. On the way home, a large group of dolphins passed us going back out to sea, jumping out of the water and looking like they were just plain having fun.

What a great day! We left the marina about 10 am and had a continental breakfast and then headed for Los Arcos to snorkle. Los Arcos is a couple of big 'bump's' in the water that have broken off the mainland at some point and the surf has created holes or tunnels through them. A coral reef of sorts has been established and it's a prime diving/snorkling location in this area. We decided that since the boat was only stopping for a half hour or so, we wouldn't bother getting wet and the few who did go in said there weren't many fish to be seen. Besides, the rum punch was being served!

We headed on to Quixtemprlqua (I don't know) and a large palapa where half the group headed for a waterfall and the rest of us lazy bums sat on the beach or investigated the rest of the beach while lunch was being prepared. Further up the beach was an area where fresh water flowed down from the hills and created little pools of very nice warm water and the birds gathered to drink. I took pictures and thought about going for a nice dip and then remembered all those National Geographic specials I'd watch and wondered what snake/alligator/man-eating fish might be lurking and just paddled so I could make a quick getaway! It was beautiful though and reminded me of a deserted island with palm trees lining the beach and god-only-knows in the forest behind.

There were only about 40 of us on this large catameran and about half those were a group of media people from the local television station who were doing a special on the bay, whales, etc. I don't know how much footage they got but they sure knew how to party!! One of them took a few photos of me wandering the beach and the two of us in the sunset and is going to e-mail them to me later. Anyway, we had a wonderful lunch, slept and poked around and got back on the boat about 5 pm. The Captain took a very leisurely trip home so we could enjoy the sunset..much to the misery of the woman who was seasick...and we got back about 6:30 pm. This entire day was $45 each, including breakfast/lunch and all the rum punch you could hold. I don't know anywhere you can rent a boat for a day for that price...except maybe from Bob Scott Marina at Long Lake.

We grabbed a pizza at Pizza Hut across the street from our hotel, woofed it down and were probably asleep by 9:30. We've decided to hit the road vice staying another week..although the weather report for the mid-west might change our minds quickly. Did we pick the right winter to be away or what? Honestly...it would have done me in and the only thing worse that going away on a 2-week holiday would be having to go back to it...sorry G2.

Tonight (Sun) we are going downtown early to finish a bit of souvenir shopping and hopefully get a good seat for the ethnic dances that are held down on the Malacon amphitheatre. Tomorrow will be packing up the van and getting it ready for the next leg of the roadtrip into Arizona and the Grand Canyon area and then on to Las Vegas....who knows?

Until next time, our love to you all. I'm starting to have dreams about Ty...latest was that he's 15 hrs old and won't go to school...must have been the extra cheese on the pizza!