The vacation started great and got better each day.  We ended up doing a time share presentation and got whale watching, zip line, city tour, and snorkeling.  The whale watching was fantastic.  The people were great and the whales were there almost on command and one even breached.  It was amazing to be so close to 50 tons of animal coming almost all the way out of the water.

The next on the agenda was the zip line.  Zip line was unreal and one of the most fun things we’ve ever done.  It was called canopy chicos and they were friendly and very fun.  The zip lines were upwards of 650 feet up and you got going as fast as 40 miles per hour.  It was amazing and the views were stellar.

Next up was the city tour which wasn’t bad.  It was mainly shopping at prearranged places where I’m sure the prices tripled when the bus showed up.  Lunch was not included, it was in the middle of the “country” south of Puerto Vallarta and it was a rip off.  The highlight of the tour was tequila tasting at the tequila factory.  Juan the guy there was hilarious, the tequila was fantastic and the almond tequila was unreal.

Finally was “snorkeling” which was more of a day cruise.  They dropped a handful of us into the ocean to snorkel and gave us 20 minutes so the other half could go.  There was virtually nothing to look at in the water and there were jellyfish in the area.  So we stop at our first, Quimixto, of two beaches for lunch and a waterfall hike.  We skipped the waterfall and waited for lunch.  Lunch was blah and we were so late leaving we missed our second stop.  Las Animas was supposed to be the reason to go, the most beautiful beach on the trip.  We chased some dolphins on the way back but it was boring.

After the tours we settled in for our first “boring” day at the pool.  This was Christmas day and quite a good time.  The weather in Puerto Vallarta was great and sitting at the pool in 80ish degree weather was even better.  Later that night we found what I’ll call the hands down best fajitas on the face of the earth.  Fajita Banana was amazing.  We’d been the night before and got a sampler platter and then fajitas for other people came out and we regretted our choice.  It was like they made the fajitas from pure goodness.  They were amazing and I can’t wait to go back.  All in all the food wasn’t stellar at the marina but it was good and there was a large variety.  Victors was always popular and Victor himself came out and did a shot of tequila when you ordered a beer.

What is obvious is there are many Mexicos.  There is the resort or multi-million dollars beachfront homes, there are the poor Mexicans in town just trying to earn a living, and then those in the very poor out in the more rural areas.  However, one thing we’ve seen first hand is each and every Mexican from any one of those areas are amazingly hospitable and exceedingly proud of their nation.  It may be the cab driver or the man riding the bus pointing us to downtown thinking we were lost.  Each and every person there was amazing and very gracious hosts.  We can both say we would love to go back soon.  Every time we’ve been to Mexico we’ve been very happy.

An photo linkage for those still reading