A Sneak Peek

Here are a few of my favorites.

Remember, there are many more to come . . .

Cruise to Mexico . . . Towel Animals

This will be the last post about our cruise.

I promise.

You are probably getting fairly sick of reading about it by now, and I don't really blame you.

Plus, I know you are all waiting very patiently for some wedding pictures. They are coming, I promise.

Just give me a bit to try to figure out how to make them into a little video / slide show (I honestly have no idea what I'm doing). There are way too many to post one by one.

But, to hold you over, I wanted to share with you what was probably one of the coolest things about our cruise.

The towel animals.

Yes, I have heard from other people that we would be getting some.

And yes, I've heard that they are cool.

But I don't think pictures do them much justice.

We sat and watched the guy make one one night, and it literally took him 10 seconds to put it together. It's crazy how quickly they can make something so boring look so cool!

So here you go, our parade of towel animals . . .

Cruise to Mexico . . . Cabo

Our last stop was Cabo.

The city was beautiful. As I said before, we unfortunately weren't able to see much of it, as our excursion took up pretty much the entire day. I would definately like to go back sometime though!

The boat wasn't able to dock onto actual land, so we were "tendered" from the boat to the port on these:

We got onto the dock and were immediately put onto a bus. We had signed up for horseback riding for the day.

On a side note: Alongside with loving whales, I have a strange obsession with horseback riding. I've only been one other time in my life, but am always wanting to go. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone that owns a horse, so my only option is to pay to go. I will admit that it kind of scares me (yes, I manage to worry about everything), but love it at the same time!

So . . . we were on the bus for about an hour, honestly not sure where they were taking us. . .

. . . but finally came upon this place:

It was literally a little ranch in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by desert and cactus, and was a short distance from a beach at the same time.

We were put onto our horses, 'Tequila' and 'Fly' . . .

Then began in the desert.

We then randomly came up on this beautiful beach. The benefit of being in the middle of nowhere was that there was nobody there. . .

Once again, another great day!

Cruise to Mexico . . . Mazatlan

The next day we awoke to this:

We had reached Mazatlan.

We didn't have anything necessarily planned for the day, so we decided to get off the boat and explore a bit. We did some shopping near the port . . .

Then took a taxi into town. We went to an area called "The Golden Zone," which was essentially a bunch of shops, beaches, and resorts.

I do have to admit that the taxi ride there was a little . . . shall we say . . . interesting . . . but we managed to make it in one piece. Perhaps it was because our "taxi" had hardly any doors to hold us in?

Once we reached the "Golden Zone," our first stop was the beach. We figured that we couldn't possibly go to Mexico without going to a beach.

I honestly have no idea what beach it was, but the thing was covered with resorts, activities, and "vendors" trying to sell you everything you could possibly think of. It definately looked like a fun place, and was beautiful at the same time!



We then made our way towards the shops for some more shopping . . .

I came back wanting to barter with everyone I talked to for days.

My favorite was probably this pink pharmacy . . . there were pharmacy's everywhere with all sorts of drugs . . .

In the end, we got some great souviners, and I even managed to find myself some yummy vanilla that I'm excited to try sometime.

Then, before we knew it, we were back to the boat and moving on to the next adventure.

Cruise to Mexico . . . Puerto Vallarta

Our first stop in Mexico was to Puerto Vallarta.

A couple of days before we stopped, we explored our possibilities on the boat of shore excursions that we could do while we were there. We decided on a 6 hour day trip on a smaller boat through a bay, including whale watching and snorkeling.

We had a blast! I am so glad we chose to do it.

The ship pulled into port early in the morning, and we awoke to this:

The city was beautiful. Although we had an awesome time, the only downfall to doing the excursions were that we didn't have any time to explore the city. (We had the same issue in Cabo). I was glad that we had the opportunity to see and do what we did, but would love to go back sometime and explore the city some more.

But, like I say, we had a wonderful day!

We were brought to a smaller port very near to where our boat docked, and boarded this boat:

The crew was made up a group of guys probably around our age, and were great . . . they really made the tour that much more fun.

We began by heading out of the port. . .

. . . and began our day by seeing some whales right away.

On a side note, those of you that know me well know that I love whales. Weird, I know, but I think that they are so cool. I could sit and watch them for hours. I've even gone to the point to say that if I had to come back to this Earth as an animal, I would come as a whale. They are fascinating. Because of this, I think I was more excited to learn that were watching humpback whales, and was even more excited when we could actually hear them calling to eachother.

On another side note, I have to say that I am no photographer, and have a very hard time capturing a good picture while whale watching. They don't come out of the water too much, and only for a second or two when the do. I had this issue the last time we went as well. Pictures give it no justice . . . I would definately recommend going if you ever get the chance!

We were then headed to our destination, an island covered with birds. On the way, we were able to see some other sea animals, including sea turtles . . .

We finally reached the island with the birds (I honestly don't remember what it was called), and let me tell you that I call it the island with the birds for a reason . . .

At this point we were able to get off the boat for some snorkeling.

Although I have to admit that I was not a fan at first (it took me quite a while to even be willing to put my face in the water . . . I wasn't too big on the fact that those fish could actually touch me), it turned out to be pretty cool. I managed to get used to it, and we were able to see some pretty fish.

On the way back, we were treated to lunch, more whale watching, an open bar, some beautiful scenery, and even a little "show" (which was entertaining, to say the least).

Once we were back to land, we shopped for a bit around the port, then re-boarded the cruise ship.

All in all, a great way to spend our first time in Puerto Vallarta!