More vacation!!
October 10, 2007
What a day!!! It was hotter than you know what out there. And humid..not the kind of weather that I’m use to. We woke up at 7 and we were just backing into our dock.
Our tour was at 10 so we didn’t hurry to get off. We kind of hung around the ship. It was so hot, that the air conditioning felt really good.
We had booked a Swim with Dolphins so we got on a NOT airconditioned van and drove out to where the dolphins were. It was a nice clean place. They took us into an area where we all got down to our swim suits. Then we took showers and then got into life jackets. They split us into 4 groups of 10 and we all went to different parts of the pool which was 25 feet deep. After being introduced to the dolphins, we got into the water.
What amazing creatures they are. They seem to take a lot of joy in life and seemed to enjoy their new playmates. They love to be petted and especially on the tummy so they would roll over and swim around on their backs with the tummies up. They are soft, smooth and warm. And very gentle. Those tail fins would hurt if they hit you with them but as they swam around us, they were very careful not to knock into anyone. One by one we got to feed them, take a ride on them and get a “kiss and hug” from them. It was way more than we expected. We were in the water with them for 45 minutes.
Of course there were pictures and video taken. It was hard not to buy them all but we decided to buy the DVD and make screen caps. It was the cheapest thing to do.
We got back to the ship, came in the blessed air conditioning and changed out of our wet swim suits. We then went back out to explore some of the city. We hired a cab for 2 hours and she drove us around the city and into the area that was tourist. We got to go into a tequila “factory” and a few shops. Of course we had lots of tastes of the tequila. Quite nice.
The tourist areas are filled with McD, Burger King, KFC, Holiday Inns etc but the old city area is just as it always was and quite interesting.
We came back to the ship about supper time. The food on the ship is good and we figured we’d eat on the ship rather than spending money to buy a meal outside.
There was a show tonight but we got to talking with our table mates and missed the whole thing.
I got a bad sunburn on my shoulders so came back to the room to take some Advil and get a cool cloth on it.
Tomorrow Mazatlan and a 7 hour tour up in the Sierra Madres.
October 11, 2007
We got up about 7:30 this morning. Got dressed and went up for some breakfast. All the food has really gotten to me and I just couldn’t eat this morning. I just had some fruit sections and that was enough to get me through the morning.
Got off the ship and met the tour bus. We had a 7 hour tour planned up into the Sierra Madres. We left the city and drove up into the mountains.
It was quite eye opening. The villages up there were mostly build by the Spainards when the came in the mid 1500s. We saw some churches and the buildings in the villages were there from the beginnings. It’s amazing how poor the people are up in those villages and when a tour bus comes into town, they all get out their wares and start selling.
We saw them making brick the primitive way. We saw them making tiles which are quite beautiful. And furniture, old churches and town squares. Each of the villages we were in had pigs, chickens and dogs running loose in the street. Quite an eye opener. Very foreign to us.
We had lunch at a restaurant up in one of the villages. The food was typical Mexican and actually very good. I wasn’t too worried about eating it because the tour we were on was sanctioned by the cruise line and I don’t think they wanted any of us to get sick.
Back in Mazatlan we stopped for a margarita before going back to the ship. We were able to do some shopping but I have to say that I have had it with the shopping. I like that when you want something you can haggle with the shop owners but I hate that when you walk in they are all over you about everything. You can’t look at anything without them all over you to buy it. It’s uncomfortable for me because I feel like I’m constantly rude.
We got back on the ship an hour before we were suppose to be. Had a nice supper and we’ll go to a show in a little while but I’m going to do emails before that.
Tomorrow Cabo.