The Adventures of Juan and Terrrrrrra (Part Cuatro)

Zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta

We decided to sign-up for zip-lining before we ever left home. We looked at all the excursion packages of things to do during our time in Mexico and decided to try Zip-lining. Jon and I read and talked about all the excursions together and when we got the this one he said, "Well, you probably won't do that."

You see, I am terribly afraid of heights. My sweet Jonny knows this as does anyone who is close to me. Heights freak me out. I read the description of the activity and declared,

"Wait a minute, I can do that."

Jon snickered just a little bit before he realized that I was serious. We signed up and as it grew closer, I was really quite excited.

It was first thing in the morning when we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. So we boarded a boat that took us to a little business and waited at least 30 minutes for a truck to pick us all up.

Pic taken of Jon while we were waiting for truck- I was really taking a pic of the little brick structure to the side of him-hee hee)

Then on a rather bumpy dirt road, we drove for close to an hour with about 13 other people in the back of a covered truck. I felt a little bit like a member of the Mexican Military.-(lol) The more we drove, the greener it got until we were in the depths of a jungle. Then, we geared up for the big event described HERE.

Sorry, we couldn't take any pics during our Tarzan- like, jungle moves, cuz cameras weren't allowed, but we did buy 1 pics of each of us from the photographer there that "sweetly" charged us $15 a picture. The guides helping all of us on the adventure were so fun and had a great sense of humor, but were so serious and cautious when they needed to be. It was one of the guides that asked Jon if he could call him Juan. (Wait, why didn't I think of that???)

It was the neatest experience and I was fine. The first couple of times I went I was more concerned about when I should start breaking and the speed that I was going, that the height (even though I was surprised at how far up we were) was never really an issue for me. It was also a lot of work. The zip-lining was the easy part. The rope ladder and rope bridges were a little more physical- but I enjoyed every minute of it. (Except the bugs that bit me like 30 times on both legs where my capris didn't cover. I didn't enjoy them-Note to self: next time doing anything in the jungles of Mexico, bring bug spray!) It was a wet and rainy day. We only felt a few drops in the bottom of the jungle when it really started to rain. We had so much tree and plant cover that we really didn't feel much wetness. But after lunch, back on the ship, we went out to explore the city and it was raining quite hard for awhile. It was so humid that I was actually glad for the cool(er) rain.

Unfortunately, I got to take one picture during our shopping trip before my camera battery died.
This concludes the adventures of Juan and Terrrrra. Tune in next year to see where where this crazy couple goes next!
Adios Amigos!

The Adventures of Juan and Terrrrrrra (Part Tres)

Mazatlan

I loved it here, but there is a story as to why we had a relaxing time with a beach mostly to ourselves. When we got off the ship, we had to take a taxi to the beach. There was a beach that us cruise ship passengers could use that was privately owned by a hotel. We had every intention of going to that beach. After we got off the ship, we were approached by all kinds of people that were trying to sell us rides to wherever we wanted to go.We stopped at one man that said he would take us where we wanted for $10. But he worked for a hotel on the complete opposite end of where we were and told us that he was pushing tours to this hotel. They wanted people to see it and take a tour. Jon decided that we could do that. We had to sign papers saying we were going to take the tour. I wasn't getting it. I thought, "well maybe this is how they do things here." ""Maybe to take a cab ride, we have to sign up." Right after we signed the papers, the guy explained it better. We were to attend a time share presentation at this hotel in exchange for lunch and access to the hotel pools and private beach.

I was pretty dang mad. I sure didn't want to waste my time with a 90 minute time share presentation when we only had like 8 hours to explore Mazatlan and there were so many options of things to do.

Making a long story short. We took the tour of the whole place and the man that gave it was a retired American who didn't usually give the presentations. He couldn't have been nicer, even tho I bit his head off a few times (yeah- still mad I had to listen to the whole presentation). We told him we weren't interested in it after he gave us the whole price spiel. And he was so nice to us even then.

We now had access to enjoy the beach. We also had free drinks to enjoy. (Yeah- not drinkers- but we had all the virgin pina colodas that we wanted- even tho we had to explain what virgin meant in a drink because it is pretty unheard of that anyone would come to Mexico and not drink the hard stuff.-lol)

We hung out and swam in the ocean which was so beautiful and we couldn't believe that the water was the same temp as the air. Super nice and warm. I got tons and tons of sand up my swimsuit and could remember the last time I did that. I felt like I was a kid again. Then we relaxed together, sipping on our pina coloda. Aaaahhhh!

Then we had a free lunch too. And the resort had 7 pools to swim in depending on your mood. We decided if we wanted to go to the shopping district we didn't have time for the pools, but I still dipped myself in one right before we left. If I ever went back, I would certainly spend my time there. But I don't even remember the name of the resort, so I would have to do research-lol.

We go a crazy cab ride in this crazed golf cart on steroids thing to the shopping district and spent some time there buying souvenirs before returning to the ship. I took this picture as we were speeding through town, close to the ocean. The view was lovely.

This was our view of Mazatlan form the ship. That little boat help push the ship out of the cove we were in.

Once we got back on, we were talking to a few people there and asked them how they like the city. The groups of different people that we talked to said that they hated it. That the beach they went to was super crowded and vendors hounded you to buy things. Wow! That was not out experience. We really liked it. And we owe it all to the hotel that we can't remember the name of!-lol

Coming up: Part 4

Puerto Vallarta

The Adventures of Juan and Terrrrrrrrra (Roll your r's)

Cabo San Lucus

or as I like to call it...............Cabo Wabo

(like the sign in this picture below. I think it was a restaurant)

Wanna hear a joke?:

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Why are pirates so mean?

I don't know why, they just Aaarrrghh!

(Said with one eye closed while making a deep Arrrrr"- pirate sound)

Except for the gold ones. This (real) guy was really quite nice.

We stopped for lunch and I talked Jonny into ordering this stone bowl of Cactus strips and shrimp. It looked crazy but it was actually pretty dang good. You eat it like fajitas, putting it in tortillas.
I loved these outside markets that sold dried puffer fish (look at the size of that thing) and dried shark mouths.

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Okay! Here is my Crazy -Cabo story: There was this lady walking around with this Iguana. She kept putting it on us and telling us to take a picture (in her broken English) I couldn't figure out the gimmick. People loved to try to sell things to tourists (we weren't hard to spot) and would hound us to buy anything. Jon posed with it but I wasn't sure I wanted it on me.

She finally just plopped it on my shoulder. And when I went to walk away, plopped it on my head and told us to take another picture.

At the same time a man came up to me on my left and tried to sell me a silver bracelet. I didn't say 'no' right away cuz there was a giant lizard on me and I was more concerned about that.

My lack of 'no's' told him that I might want that bracelet so before I knew what was going on, he slapped it on my wrist. I felt like I was bombarded and by this time wanted to catch up to my Jonny who had sprinted off to help move us along. I had to tell them both, "off, please"

I started walking away to catch up to Jon when the Iguana lady approached me and said something I wasn't getting about pictures and $2. I kept telling her no thank-you and when I almost caught up to my husband it hit me. (Slap hand to forehead.) Aaahh! The gimmick. She wanted $2 to pose with the iguana) Did I just rip her off? Was I obligated? This city was getting confusing. The Day of the Dead was a big thing there. There were skeletons everywhere. We found our way to an inside mall ( awww! air conditioning) and saw this unique lady that I just had to pose with.

This was our first port. It was dry like the dessert and the beaches were hard to get to. (Had to rent a boat) We didn't get a chance to go to one.

Out of all 3 ports, Cabo Wabo was my least favorite. I think that if we had got out of the tourist-y part of town, it woulda been a better experience. But having little time to explore the city was the trade-off for traveling on a cruise ship. (where you can eat 24 hrs a day btw)-lol

Coming up next: Part 3

Mazatlan

The Royal Caribbean Experience

Our ship was called Mariner of the Seas.
Note: I did not take these pics of the ship...I got them online!

We flew to L.A. and then got on from there. Jon and I boarded the ship on a Sunday and didn't have our luggage yet ( it was being taken to our room) so we walked around looking at everything. The next day we woke up and ate the first of many of our buffet breakfasts. It was quite cold the first day and a half. We didn't go swimming until later in the afternoon when it warmed up.Every Night there was a new show to watch. This was one of our favs. A group that looked and sounded like ABBA.

One night we got an introduction of Captain Johnny (with the mike) and all his crew for the bridge. (It wasn't THE bridge it was just a bridge in the middle of one of the floors) I thought his joke was funny.

We also attended a discussion where you got to ask the Capt'n and crew anything. It was informative!

Jonny and I were surprised that we saw so much sea life from the sides of the ship. We spent hours on the last couple of days just looking at the water. Every few minutes we would see something. Some things we saw included, dolphins, flying fish, turtles, (which is what I think is in this picture) manna rays, whales and whale sharks (which were right next to the ship and where really cool and huge). Of course I didn't get a good picture of any of them- but it was still fun to watch. Here is the solarium where we would relax and watch some sea life or just read. (or nap)

Every night when we came in from dinner and our shows, the maids would make towel- animals and put them on our bed.

I guess they thought it was funny to put our sunglasses on them. (We thought it was)

Here is our cabin

I tried to take many pics of our little bathroom cuz it was so small- but because of the smallness- I couldn't get pics from all angles.

I thought our tiny shower was funny. There was barely enough room for one person.

Our bed. (bigger than a queen but not quite a king and the end was rounded slightly)

Jon hanging out on the balcony

We got to dress up in formal wear for dinner two times on that trip.

The dinners were exquisite.

This was looking over the balcony in our dining room.

Since the price of food was included in the cruise package- you could have more than one of any of the courses. Jon and I always tried 3 or four desserts between the 2 of us.

I mean, come on, how could you pass those up?

Yeah- are you surprised we gained like 5 lbs each?

Next to come: Part 2

The Mexican Ports!

The Pre- Post

(Click pic to enlarge)

In Mazatlan, I stopped at an outside market (most market places are outside) selling jewelery. I thought I would treat my hand to a little ring. It has been a long time since I have committed myself to wear another ring (daily) besides my wedding ring.

I came across this little silver ring with a "T" on it.

It called to me.

It spoke to me.

"Buy me Terra, we soooo belong together." I rescued it from a bunch of other rings. None of them were initial rings. This was the only one and it just happened to be my size and I payed only $8 for this pure silver little guy. I think I am in love!

More Mexico cruise pics to come when I leave the laundry long enough to load pics.