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 |
|
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!
|
The Canto Del Sol was this year's resort |
|
The resort as viewed from the beach |
|
The pool area |
|
Rob and Amy |
|
A couple of Crabs crawling on the rocks |
|
Me and Kyle |
|
All of us but Amy |
|
Me and Mike doing some boogie boarding |
|
Dan trying his luck at skim boarding |
|
My turn |
|
I bought a Coco Loco, which is a mixed drink inside a coconut! |
|
Stone arches along The Malecón |
|
Angel statue |
|
The Vallarta Dancers sculpture |
|
This Pelican was dive bombing into the surf and coming up with fish |
|
We had to come back to Café Roma again! |
|
Another tour, but this year it was with Vallarta Adventures |
|
We came by Los Arcos again, but we didn't snorkel here this year |
|
Las Caletas |
|
Another beautiful beach that's only accessible by boat |
|
We all got to hold Macaws |
|
We also got to hold a Monkey. Unfortunately Kyle got peed on! |
|
We did get to do some snorkeling at this beach |
|
Round Ray |
|
Guineafowl Puffer Fish |
|
King Angelfish |
|
Jagged rocks at the end of the beach |
|
Rosemary and Jerry on the boat ride back |
|
Christine and I on the boat |
|
The eight of us decided to do some deep sea fishing |
|
We all caught multiple fish. In fact I think we caught about 20 in total. This one was a Snook. |
|
The majority of the fish we caught were young Barracudas |
|
A close-up of a Barracuda. Check out those teeth! |
|
One of the fish we caught was an unknown species, even to the guides |
|
We were also lucky enough to see some Humpback Whales playing in the distance |
|
A great day spent out on the water with an awesome group of friends |
|
Christine Bar. Of course we had to go! |
|
Nath and Dan |
|
Mike, Dan, Me, Christine, Rob, Amy, and Kyle |
|
Nath and Chris |
|
One of the many Geckos around the resort |
|
Rosemary and Jerry having a final drink at Café Roma |
|
Soaking up the sun in the pool |
|
Dan and Nath |
|
The sun setting over Banderas Bay |
|
Another amazing trip! Can't wait to come back at some point. |
Awesome! I can't wait to read them all had to stop at this one first of course :) Great idea. We should definitely do another trip like this again!
ReplyDelete