Day 12 - Puerto Vallarta - Part 1

Getting on the boat to begin our adventure in Puerto Vallarta!

Quick tour of Puerto Vallarta Bay.















Beautiful rock formations in the bay.

The captain of our small boat thought it would be fun to take us through that small hole!

Base camp for our ADVENTURE!

Yes, I got my Mom to ride a MULE up the side of a mountain!







I think I will remember today for the rest of my life. I think outside of my wedding day, bringing my son home from the hospital and maybe a few horse shows, today will always stand out in my mind.
We began the day when we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. The crew was SO excited about this port because you can actually see a WAL-MART from the dock. :0) I guess everyone has their priorities.
We got Peyton up early and told him we would be gone most of the morning, but promised to get him as soon as we got back on the ship. I WISH he could have come with us, he would have had a great time.

My mom is such a good sport. I told her that I wanted to go zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta and she said 'she would do anything that I wanted'. She did not read the rest of the excursion description, but needless to say I think I cured her of that forever.

We started the day by getting off of our big ship and boarding a small zodiac (maybe 20ft in length). The boat was going to take us across Puerto Vallarta Bay (instead of taking a boring 2 hour bus ride). The trip was INCREDIBLY smooth and the boat handled great in all of the choppy water. I was really impressed. The driver gave us a great tour of the bay and we were deposited on a sandy beach soon after our trip. A short walk later, we boarded these old-time trucks that looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. They were open-aired and held 14 people along two benches in the back. Mom and I were the last to get on, so I sat on the row with seven large guys. This was all fine until the truck decided to go up a hill and all 1200lbs of guys crushed me against the door of the truck. Note to self - never sit on the end. :)

Once we got to the top of the mountain (OK foothills of the Sierra Madres), we got off the truck and into our zip gear. Mom then got the shock of her life when she found out that we were going to ride MULES to the top! I think she nearly killed me. It really wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. Her mule was well behaved and she let it do whatever it needed to do to get up the mountain. I was just happy to be on anything that even resembled a horse!

About 45 minutes later we were staring out at the beautiful view of the mountains around us. The guides told us that these foothills eventually connect to the Rocky Mountains. I don't know if that was true, but it sure was beautiful. We then had a quick introduction to zip-lining and the next thing you know we were off. I must say, if you are not afraid of heights, you HAVE to try zip-lining. It is SO much fun. The views are just incredible and you can't help but smile the entire time!

Now if we just zipped a bunch of lines, that would have been great. However, we also got to do a cliff rappel, a free rappel, zip over a waterfall and into a pool of water, several bridges including a commando bridge (which is basically two lines that you side step across) and hike though this beautiful scenery. I just loved every minute of it. If anyone is going anywhere near Puerto Vallarta, I HIGHLY recommend Vallarta Adventures company (http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/) for the time of your life!

After all of the fun, we hiked back to the based camp where they had chips and salsa and some fresh fruit and drinks. We had really worked up an appetite, but I was still bouncing from all the fun. I only wish my son and husband were with me, but this is a great excuse to take them on the next trip. I am not sure if I will get my Mom to go back, but to her credit, she finished the whole trip - which apparently not everyone does!