Cruising to Mexico- Part III

We had two Sea days to get back to Long Beach. We just chilled and enjoyed the festivities on board the ship. We saw a couple of more shows and danced the night away at Frankenstein's Club. One night we jumped in with the older folks dancing to generational music from this amazing Philippino band and it was much funner. Those old folks could actually dance. The ship does a good job having lots of different things going to entertain everyone.

The funny little animal towel decorations our room steward would leave for us.

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We had an inside room  ( no windows) and it was in the middle of the ship. We quite enjoyed it.

Los banos

 
Long hallway

Eccentric Decorations- Dining room decorated in upside down wine glasses and grape vineyard motif? Must need to be drunk to appreciate?  Our table was on the very back of the boat and we swayed a bit, but got used to it. You could see the water and waves behind the ship.

 

 

Ice sculpting: this guy was good. In just minutes -an Indian Chief.

Wonder if he carved the watermelon at the buffet?

 

We got to know a nice couple from San Diego. They were our same age, had kids, liked backyard fowl, and believe it or not had TWO vans too! It was fun to visit with them.

We just relaxed! Napped in the sun, watched the Masters, read books, worked on Jessie's stocking and just held each other tight.

We knew that everything was being taken care of at home and the kids were having a great time with grandma and grandpa.What a relaxing vacation!

 

 

Simultaneously?:Yes this was how most on the cruise went!

Cruising to Mexico -Part II

Thursday: Christian's 4th Birthday!!!


While eating breakfast on deck we watched the ship pull into port in Puerta Vallarta and dock. Like a glove! It was a preety amazing thing to watch.







Disembarking







We took a taxi into the city center. We just strolled along the shore and shops. There was a guy building these amazing sand castle creations. Lots of sculptures. The town was very clean and taken care of.






The famous arches


Iglesia de Guadalupe- took 50 years to build. Was beautiful inside, but couldn't take pictures.


We took a city bus back to the ship for our excurison.


Ixtapa

We drove in a van for about an hour up into the mountains to go zip lining. Sadly no pictures really. These business have marketing down to a fine art. No cameras allowed because of course, they want you to buy the pictures THEY take of you for a million dollars. ( I tried to copy a picture from their website and they have all that pretoected to.Ahh!)
It is too fuzzy to see, but Mike and I will remember how we had the choice to walk up a trail or climb this ladder. We chose to climb the shaky ladder, but they didn't really explain that you had to cross this suspended rope to get to the next platform. Not for the faint of heart ! We went on 9 or so different zip lines through the canopy, repelled a couple of times and went on this crazy board swing. I was first to go and the guide had me stand backwards; I couldn't see where I was swinging to, all the time I am several feet from the ground. Scary! So glad we did it!




This guy told us there were two stakes in the Puerto Vallarta area. On our drive we saw a church house.


Mexican Sunset

We had sometime before we had to board the ship to head home and I am a sucker for catching a good sunset. We could see the water and this is what we found at first. Restricting us from beach access! Grrr... then we saw a walk way over to the side and found the beach access.

Playa de Oro: Gold Beach -The sand was golden and a little coarse.


I was trying to get a romantic sunset picture , but Mike was being too goofy. Love this guy!

Perfect ending to a great day!

Cruising to Mexico - Part I

Early Sunday morning we flew to LAX and then that afternoon we boarded the Carnival Miracle in Long Beach.

We got on board and were famished from our long day of traveling so of course we headed right to the buffet.

This was an Indian Chief carved from a watermelon. Amazing! Tons of food and it was pretty good too.



The ship was delayed in disembarking so we got to know the ship and its amenities and eccentric decor.

We headed down to our room to check it out, took a nap in our dark, dark room and just about missed the emergency drills up to the muster deck. We had a good laugh about that! We made it to our first dinner in the dining room after seeing a fantastic show in the theatre.

Monday was a sea day and so we worked out to try to make balance with all the good food we were eating and we hid in our room to finish watching Breaking Bad. Our room was down near the bottom of the boat on deck 1. We met the guy that was taking care of our room. His name was Richard and he was from Peru. I was so curious about their employment arrangements. He told us he had two sons and a wife that were back in Peru and he worked 6 months on board and then had two months off.
We had an inside room so no windows and it was nice and dark. You couldn't really feel any movement of the ship either. Once in a while we could feel that we were moving. First night in a long time with no sleep interruptions!

Tuesday began with a short workout! We did okay with the whole sea sick thing, but it was a little nauseating to run on a tread mill, on a boat and then get your legs under you after. We had a couple's massage and just relaxed till we could get off the boat around noon. Our first stop was in Cabo San Lucas. Just at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula. Here is a pic of their famous rock formations named Land's End. To the right is "the only beach in the world where two seas meet" the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean.

We left the ship on ferry boats that took us into Cabo.

We thought we would get our shopping done on our first day!




We went through the town and all its shops to search for the perfect treats for the kids.

Mi amour!

You gotta hand it to these peddling Mexicans and their haggling of gringos.
"Best price! Best Price" "Come inside! We have exactly what you look for mi amiga!" "For you my friend!"  "Come inside! Special price for honeymooners!"

Luchadors!


Stopped at a restaurant with free Wifi so Mike could check in with work and the kiddles and munched on some yummy chips and salsa.




Lots of Pelicans


I could not believe how clear the water was. This pic was taken from me just standing on the pier.



We had a later dining time so we got all cleaned up for dinner, caught a bit of a comedy show and then headed to dinner. Our waiter was a really nice guy, Adam from Haiti. We tried some French on him and told him about all the Haitians in Florida that we had known. He had been working for Carnival for 11 years!

Wednesday: On our second day in Cabo we got a water taxi out to the best snorkeling area around Pelican Rock.


The water was so clear and the fish were amazing. The Sea of Cortez has a rich and unique ecosystem which support hundreds of different kinds of fish. Mike had I had never seen so many fish in one place and so many different kinds of fish!


There was a seal colony near the Land's End. Fun to see them swimming around all the boats.


Walking to the calm beautiful Lover's Beach which is on the Sea of Cortez side and then we went over to rough, turbulent Divorce Beach on the Pacific side.



Scooby Do rock there in the middle.



This is Pelican Rock where we did our snorkeling. The crazy thing about this area in the bay and the Sea of Cortez  is right on the San Andreas fault line. Around 11 million years ago there was a lot of plate tectonics and these huge canyon walls of granite were jetted up and a canyon was created. Granite! I have never been on a beach and picked up shells and little bits of granite. The deepest part of the Sea of Cortez is over 3,000 meters. There is a huge canyon below the water surface.
The ginormous cruise ships can just pull into the bay with no problem! Crazy and very scary to me!

There is this one map that shows the sea floor dropping down to 30-60 ft deep just 25 ft from the shore line. I was so scared of the depths below. Mike headed out with no fear wanting to see the drop off. He convinced me of how amazing it was and he was right!!! Amazing! I have never snorkeled where scuba diver's bubbles were coming up underneath me.



After snorkeling we took a water taxi to "Gringo Beach" a warmed up for a bit. The water had been really cold and we were shivering. Then we walked back through the town to the cruise ship. The ship was leaving early in the evening to travel all night to our next port. We went up and sat in the hot tub for a bit and watched the landscape as the ship pulled out of port. We got all cleaned up and went to dinner.