Get Me Outdoors: Mexico

Trip Dates: February 2008 & March 2009

We decided it was about time for another warm vacation, while the depths of winter were upon us in Canada. The last one I went on was in 2005 when we traveled to the Dominican Republic. This time we decided on Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Christine's whole family was going and so was my brother, Kyle. I was really looking forward to this trip, not only for the great weather, but getting the chance to see a different city in a country I'd never visited before. We enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we ended up going back to Puerto Vallarta again in 2009, but with ten people in total! Both of the trips were filled with tons of fun and good times. I guess it's not hard to enjoy yourself when you're travelling with great people. Mexico is such a big country though, so if I get the chance to go back I would really like to see the east coast and hopefully visit some of the Mayan ruins.

Mexico, officially known as the United Mexican States, is almost two million square-kilometres in size, making it the the fifth largest country in the Americas by size and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. The official language is Spanish and there are over 117 million people living there. The capital is Mexico City. Puerto Vallarta is a city located on the west coast of Mexico and is located within the state of Jalisco. The city has just over 255,000 people, making it the second largest city within the state.

Mexico

Our 2008 resort was the Meliá Puerto Vallarta

The resort as viewed from our room

The pool

The resort and Banderas Bay as viewed from our balcony

Great-Tailed Grackle

The Marigalante is a pirate ship tour boat that sails around Banderas Bay

Adam, Christine, Me, and Kyle

Old Town Puerto Vallarta complete with cobblestone streets

Primera Iglesia Bautista the Baptist Church at Parque Hidalgo

The Malecón is seawall/boardwalk that is close to 2km in length

Sculpture of the Millenniums is one of many along The Malecón

A small market in Old Town

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Sunset over Banderas Bay

Time for an off-the-resort excursion. Today we would get to do some snorkeling and see a couple of small towns that are only accessible by boat.

The Sarape would be our boat for the day

Boarding the boat and guess who gets to be the captain!

A massive yacht complete with their own personal helicopter!

Black-Headed Gull

Puerto Vallarta's coastline

A couple of Bottlenose Dolphins came racing over to the boat

Los Arcos is a series of five islands in Banderas Bay that are part of a National Marine Park

The Devil's Rock. This is where we snorkeled, but the water was so choppy we had to get back in the boat too soon

Quimixto is a small village that is only accessible by boat

An Iguana on the beach in Quimixto

A Sea Slug on the rocks

The main street through Quimixto

An Iguana in one hand and a dead fish in the other

Enjoying a cold Corona on Las Animas; another boat accessible beach

Our second adventure would be a zip-line canopy tour. Before leaving, a guide asked me to hold out my hand and to my complete surprise he dropped a live scorpion into it. He thought it was the funniest thing he'd seen in awhile!

La Vista Canopy Adventures was up in the mountains that surround Puerto Vallarta

Kyle, Chris, and Sarah

Christine about to slide down the cable

Sarah's turn

Kyle's turn. The tour was a series of long cables strung across valleys that we got to slide down!

Some of the cables were short and others were quite long

Capewell sisters sitting in a Blue Agave patch. They use these plants to make tequila.

Dixon brothers just prior to our tequila tasting. They make their own brand of flavored tequila here as well.

Carlos O'Brians is a popular tourist bar in Puerto Vallarta

Sisters

Sarah, Adam, Christine, and I

Our last tour would be on The Marigalante

Boarding the pirate ship

We got dinner, drinks, and a show while we were on board

This was the toilet in the bathroom

The urinals

The sink

We were also very lucky to see a pod of Humpback Whales playing in the bay. Every year the whales arrive in the Banderas Bay to reproduce and give birth. Even though this is a yearly occurrence, the show on the boat stopped and all of the performers watched as the whales played in the water! Although the whales are common in the bay, maybe seeing them playing like this isn't.

The setting sun

Chris and I on the pirate ship

Rosemary and Jerry

Family picture at the flea market

Café Roma. This was one of the neatest pubs I've ever been in. They've got a webcam and a free phone so you can call your friends/family back home and get them to visit the website while you're enjoying a cold Corona. You get to sign your name on their walls. They also have delicious pizza and some of the best tequila I've ever tasted!

The seven of us at Café Roma

Another beautiful sunset over Banderas Bay

Me and Kyle

Sarah and Chris

Me and Chris

Our Italian á la carte dinner

The girls with Antonio and Juan. These guys went above and beyond for us all week!

We spotted this dolphin jumping right off of our beach

Capewell siblings

Kyle and I doing a little kayaking

The snorkeling on our beach wasn't great, but we did see this Concentric Ray swimming along the bottom

The boys enjoying a cold one at the pool bar

The three amigos on our last day. Sarah and Kyle would pay dearly for this on the flight home. Jerry was lucky he had another week to enjoy Puerto Vallarta and didn't have to experience a hangover mid-flight!

The slightly inebriated travelers are all smiles now...not so much later on!

We had such a good time in Mexico in 2008 that we just had to go back in 2009. I guessed we talked about it enough to convince five of our friends to tag along. So with Jerry, Rosemary, Kyle, Christine, and myself, combined with Dan, Nath, Rob, Amy, and Mike, we had a great group of ten to kick off another week in the sunshine!