Our next stop and our last port of the cruise was Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This was such a fun day and one I think we will remember always.
Here we are in front of the famous Puerto Vallarta sign on the boardwalk. We really had to be quick in taking these pictures because the Mexican police were very strict about no one parking along this street. We literally had to jump out of our van, take a couple of pictures, and then jump back into the van all while our driver was slowly driving down the road so that he wouldn't get yelled at by the police. We totally need the Puerto Vallarta police monitoring the school drop off zone at the elementary! There would never be any back ups or annoying parents that will not pull forward!
Anyway, the first thing we did when we got off the ship on this morning was go and find our driver. Last year, Klint and Lacie hired this driver for their tour around Puerto Vallarta and they were really impressed with him so they called him back to see if he was available to drive us around this trip. Luck for us, he was available and was willing to drive our crazy bunch around for the whole day.
We all piled into Alfonzo's van and we were off to explore the city of Puerto Vallarta. The first place he took us was the boardwalk where, like I explained above, we had to rush through. That was okay though because that sign was really all we wanted to see there. Then he drove us through the streets of the old part of Puerto Vallarta. This was definitely a different experience than driving in the US. The streets in this city were basically one lane roads but with two-way traffic. I knew we were going to hit the cars going the opposite way. Also on these narrow roads, there were cars parked randomly on the sides of the roads. So we were basically dodging parked cars and oncoming traffic throughout the city. The other scary thing about driving in this part of the city was that there were no street signs like stop signs. Alfonzo said that you just have to make really good eye contact with the cars coming from different directions in order to decide who will stop or slow down. It was so crazy!! I was glad he was driving and not me.
After driving through the down town, Alfonzo took us to some more open areas with better streets. From here he took us to some nice overlooks that gave us a good view of the city and the ocean.
Along the way, we got to stop and see the famous Puerto Vallarta iguana! This "Iguana Man" hangs out at the Banderas Bay and lets sucker tourists like us hold his iguanas for like 50 cents. I am sure he make a lot of money doing this. Yes, we were sucker tourists and had to hold his huge iguana.
The kids thought this was the greatest thing ever! They liked the baby iguana better than the big one just because it was more their size and they could hold it. It was so funny to watch their faces light up as they held this little lizard.
Emily was brave enough to wrap the big iguana around her neck. This thing was huge. When you held it, you had to really cradle it like a baby because it was so heavy. This was definitely a once in a lifetime thing because where else are we going to be able to hold a huge iguana?! These lizards were so tame because I am sure they get man handled all day everyday. The crazy thing about it was that they even seemed to know to look at the camera for a picture! The owner would hand you the big iguana and then while your hands were busy, he would just set the little one on your shoulder or shirt and the lizards would just sit there and pose. We loved it! It was definitely worth our $5.
Jacee, on the other hand, did not think it was that great. She had worked up enough courage to hold the big guy but was not sure about the little one. While she was holding the big one, the guy put the little one on her head without her knowing. As soon as she felt the little one on her head, she started freaking out! "Get it off! Get it off!" she kept saying until the guy took it off her head. We were all laughing at her but she did not think it was very funny.
After leaving the Iguana Man, we continued our way up into the Mexican Jungle. Well, it is technically not a jungle but a tropical forest. So we made our way up into the Mexican Tropical Forest. We stopped at Edenva, an Ecotourism Park.
This place was amazing. There were trees and flowers everywhere. As we walked into the park, there was this beautiful stream and wading pool with hammocks. It was like a little oasis in the jungle. But this stream and pond was not the reason we were here. We were here to do something crazy, Extreme Zip-lining!
The first thing we had to do was get suited up. We needed helmets, the right climbing gear, and our own pulley handle to ride on. Then it was time for safety training. The guides were so cool. They made us laugh the whole time we were there. Their personalities really added to the experience. I was really impressed with how smart they were too. The guides were fluent in Spanish and English and could switch back and forth so quickly that they wouldn't even miss a breath. He was explaining all of the safety and procedures to us in both English and Spanish (for some other guests) and I was so amazed at how well he could speak and how quickly he could speak. It really made me feel kind of inadequate like I needed to learn another language too.
Anyway, after the safety lesson, it was time to hit the ropes. Russell and I didn't really know how Colby and Logan were going to do. We knew Emily was big enough to be fine but we worried the boys would be too small. Well the guides told us they were just the right size and that they would love it. We trusted them and let the boys come along. Charlotte, of course, was too small so she got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and play in the stream. They got to watch us soar over their heads as we zipped down the lines.
When we got to the first line, I was getting worried that the kids would be scared. I mean these zip lines are not your typical zip line in the park, these lines were many feet in the area with nothing below you except trees. Well we didn't have to worry about the kids getting too scared because the guides didn't give them that chance. They just strapped them in and pushed them off the cliff! And away they went, screaming the whole way.
When we got to the other side, we asked the kids what they thought and they said they loved it! They wanted to go again and again! It was so fun to hear their excitement. So we did, we went again and again. We when on 11 different zip lines. On one of the zip lines, Russell got to let go and hang upside down. He said it was surreal! He loved every minute. I was too chicken to try it upside down but even hanging on up right was pretty amazing!
To get to each of the zip lines, we had to hike though the tropical forest. Despite how green and shady the trail was, it was still pretty hot and humid. One of our guides told us that when he first started working there, he lost a bunch of weight because he had to hike up and down this trail multiple times a day in the heat. The scenery was spectacular though. We could not believe how green and lush it was. In fact, it was so thick that our guides kept hiding in the trees and then jumping out to scare us. I won't lie, we did think something was coming out of the jungle to eat us a few times. The trail also took us near some old ruins. I don't know what the ruins were originally built for. This area was used to film the movie "Terminator" so the ruins were used as places to hold cameras and equipment during that time.
Throughout the hike, we did get to stop and rest for a few minutes. We had an absolute blast zip lining. The kids said this was their favorite part of the day and probably their favorite part of the whole cruise. I am so glad we decided to let them do it. They didn't even seem to care that they had to hike in the heat.
At the end, the guides found out that Logan's birthday was coming up in a week so they decided to have all of us sing Happy Birthday to him before we went on our last zip line. Logan was kind of embarrassed to have everyone sing to him but at the same time, he was trying not to love being the center of attention. The guide told Logan to save him a piece of birthday cake.
On the last zip line, we got to race with another person to the end. This line dropped us off where we started. We took off all of our gear and then headed to the stream to find Grandma, Grandpa, and Charlotte. The kids told them all about how fun it was and how it wasn't even scary! Then they saw the stream and begged to go wading to cool off. How could we say no because we wanted to do the same.
I did tell them to just wade and not get totally wet because we didn't have any other clothes. Well that lasted all of about five minutes when they tried to climb in the hammocks and got dumped out into the water... Oh well it was fun.
There was also this cool swing near a bridge and waterfall. This was Emily's favorite spot.
The kids loved these hammocks. They were so relaxing Colby told me. Well this was the last picture I took with my DSLR Camera... Unfortunately, cameras and water do not mix... I am usually really sure on my feet especially when I have my camera, well this was not one of those days. I was trying to get a picture of Emily on the swing so I thought if I stepped on this rock in the stream, I could get a better angle. Well the rock was a little more slippery than I expected and as soon as I stepped on it, I went down. Down and under the water, camera and all. In fact, I went down so fast that no one even saw me! No one even noticed until I came sputtering out of the water holding my camera up in the air. I yelled to Russell to come get it and try and dry it out. We dried it out as best we could with a towel but it was pretty much soaked and gone. We hoped once it fully dried, it would be okay but we didn't know. I was so sad because I love this camera.
This was a great topper to another unfortunate even that happened on the cruise. Yesterday, Russell took the kids swimming on the ship. When he jumped in the pool with them, he realized a little too late that he had his phone in his pocket. So not only did my camera go for a swim, Russell's phone did as well. Yeah we are winning with electronics
Well, anyway, after I got soaked, I had no excuse to not let the kids get wet too. As I was standing on the edge of the stream, Charlotte walked toward me in the water and said "Mom, I need to go potty!" She looked down as she said this and she had peed her pants. I said, well lets go for a swim... So I took her out and dunked her in the water. She thought that was pretty great. We were definitely having a great end of the zip-lining experience. Don't get me wrong, it was still a great day!
Before we left, we had to get a group photo on this awesome bridge. Thankfully everyone else had their cameras and I still had my phone to take pictures with. We were still able to capture memories.
As we were leaving Edenva and driving back toward town, we stopped at a roadside stand of a guy selling coconuts.
For $3 this guy would carve open a coconut for us and let us drink the coconut milk. Then he chopped up the coconut into pieces so we could eat the flesh. During the ride down, Charlotte fell asleep so I stayed in the van with her. Russell took the other kids so they could experience a fresh coconut. We thought the coconut milk was pretty good but the coconut flesh was a little hard. I don't think our coconut was quite ripe. Oh well the kids still thought it was okay so we kept it to eat throughout the day.
As we got back to the ship port, we still had an hour or so before we had to be back on the ship. We decided to use this time to check out another flea market for souvenirs. Logan and Charlotte wanted to go back on the ship with Grandma so it was just Emily and Colby with us. This was another fun experience for the kids to experience the culture and barter. We were able to get some fun things including authentic dresses for the girls, t-shirts, and big sun hats. Then Colby was a smooth negotiator and got a marble chess set for a really good price. The kids have loved learning how to play chess this week. Before heading to the ship, the guys got together and haggled for these huge sombrero hats.
Don't ask me what they are doing in this picture but whatever it is does not look right... Anyway they all had a good time sporting their huge hats all through dinner and the rest of the night. They thought they were so cool.
While the adults enjoyed some of the fun game shows in the Princess Live!, the kids had a great time at the Kid's Discovery place. This night they had a pirate night and got to learn about and pretend to be pirates. They loved getting their pirate hats, eye patches, treasure, and face painted.
After picking the kids up from the Kids Zone, we headed to the upper deck for the Mexican Fiesta deck party.
We all had a good time dancing the the Macarena and other songs along with the rest of the people. It was really fun just letting lose and enjoying the party. Russell and Emily really got into the dancing. Colby secretively did the Macarena on the side lines. Charlotte and Logan just loved dancing where ever they could find room. Then Russell pulled me onto the floor and we danced for a while too while the kids laughed at us.
This was such a fun and eventful day. We loved zip lining and visiting Puerto Vallarta. We could not believe how fast this cruise was going by. After leaving the Puerto Vallarta port, we started our journey back home. We were sad about that but still made the most of our time on the boat.
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