Nothing better than an early alarm on vacation.
Today was our snorkeling trip. That meant an early Taxi from the lobby to Nuevo Vallarta – That was the marina where Vallarta Adventures is located. By coincidence, this was the same group that we had our Unimog adventure with years ago. This was going to be the Luxury Snorkeling. The big difference here was that we were on a nice boat with fewer people than the regular big boat snorkeling. Fewer people is 100% worth it.
The line at Vallarta Adventures to check in wasn’t bad. We were right on time – but unfortunately had we arrived earlier they had a really nice espresso stand and outdoor cafe. That would have been perfect since there was nothing at the resort when we left. We had just enough time to get some coffee and had to load up on the boat. It was a power catamaran, and about 50 feet. Pretty nice and there were maybe 12 people on the boat with us. We had one more stop in Puerto Vallarta to pick up a few more people.
The Capitan took us out of the marina and cruised at maybe 9-10 knots. The catamaran was a really smooth ride, and there were several sea turtles floating out in the bay. They dove under the boat as we approached, and schools of needlefish raced along in our wake. After a bit we pulled into the Cruise Ship terminal It hadn’t changed much since the last time we were in Port – except missing all the vendors that come out for the ships. A couple more families jumped on and we were off.
The boat took a slow run along the coast. It was a nice ride and we got to view how much PV has grown over the years. I remember taking this boat ride before, and things got pretty sparse after the downtown – not the city has spread further and further up the coast. It took a lot longer to run out of hotels, then smaller condos, then homes dotting the rocky shore. Some of there were pretty old and had weathered a few storms. There were also several half-completed houses. Not sure if they were damaged and not fixed, or just started and never finished.
We pulled up to some huge rocks in the sea. These were The Arches (Los Arcos) and the rock formations were all bird sanctuaries and covered in nesting birds. We drove through slowly so we could get photos of the birds, and see that each of the big rocks had an arch through it – thus the name.
Past this we went through an area with some smaller villages – and the water had a distinct line in it where the water turned from blue to brown. With all the rain the rivers were washing a ton of mud out to see, and it didn’t mix right away – so you could see the separation of the sea and river water clearly. It was kind gross looking. So brown it looked like Elon Musk dissolved into the water right there back into his component molecules.
The boat pulled up to another inlet and stopped. The crew came around an asked for some space at the front of the boat. At this point I was expecting the crew to do some cheesy thing – but just a minute later a FREAKING HARBOR SEAL comes up on deck. This was a local rescue organization and the seal was part of their group. He was there to introduce their animal rescue, and of course get some pictures. It was pretty amazing – the seal basically acted like a big dog. It was super friendly and seemed to love the attention. Once pictures were done the seal walked off the boat into their waiting skiff and we headed to the snorkeling area.
The snorkeling was alright. The water was a little murky, so the guides tossed a bit of fish food out to wake up the locals. It wasn’t too bad, and we swam off to once side with a rockier bottom and clearer water to see the fish better. It was good but we’ve been spoiled with so much amazing snorkeling that I wasn’t looking to be amazed – just have a good time. We got back to the boat and hosed the salt off. Yulia struck up a conversation with a woman who had a teenage sone that was not feeling great.dug through our kit and gave him some tums and electrolytes, and he started feeling better .
The boat moved to another beach – this was a rest stop where we could paddleboard, swim, and get a few drinks. The whole beach had sitting areas with outdoor couches, tables, and tarps for shade. It was really fantastic. We could stay on a beach like this all day. I cleaned up and grabbed a beer to relax. everyone else went to swim, and I saw that Yulia was with her new friend. I grabbed them a couple of margaritas, and learned that her name was Erinn and their family was from Newark. They were great and we pretty much floated about ignoring the calls to go do events – just doing nothing with a few drinks was the best.
We got called back to the boat after what seemed like way too short of a time. It looked like the evening storms were coming in early, so the boat headed back to port. The boat went faster on the way back, and the crew came out service a light lunch. Everything was top notch – shrimp ceviche, some cheeses and Prosciutto. Our only complaint was that it was a bit light for all the exercise and time out. The water was also getting a bit rough some some folks went inside for the run back. I stayed out and was able to see several Flying Fish and even a baby sea turtle. The boat made it to Puerto Vallarta, dropped the first group, then headed out to Nuevo Vallarta. The wind had really picked up at this point and there was a fair amount of sea spray hitting us on deck.
We all got back to port in once piece, traded contact info with our new friends, and caught another small taxi back to the resort. We wanted to grab a bite and get a later dinner – but were told the only available reservation was at 6. That was a little early but fine. We rested and cleaned up, then headed to dinner.
We were the only ones there.
Dinner was fine but we were really confused why they had us make a reservation so early at an empty place. Sometimes The concierge gets bad data I assume, but at that point we were beat and just didn’t care. We made it an early night and tried to get some rest.
Cognitive Dissonance 