Mexican Cruise Sea Day 3

Today is marks the end of Mexixan Cruise and it's time to start making plans to move onto our next leg.

So this morning we attended an info session on the process.

Then it was time to do some housework.

Some family time playing cards.

Admiring the view.

Watching the bean tossing activity.

Today's towel animal is a frog.

There is no time to yourself when traveling.  While lying on the bed I took this photo of Emma hanging off the end of her bunk bed.

Hayley is having an afternoon snack?

We just had to spend our last night eating in the Bacchus Restaurant even though we were totally full from eating all week.

All week we were severed by these wonderful people.  Nothing was too much trouble.  They work away from home for so many months of the year and they still have a smile on their face.

Mexican Cruise Sea Day 2

After a busy 3 days on shore we deserved a good sleepin today and I would say 9.30 was a good one.  The Bacchus restaurant has a special seaday brunch menu so that is where we headed at 10am.

We had probably the roughed night last night and today doesn't seem to be much better.

After breakfast we just had to play mini golf and Hayley celebrated her first hole-in-one, after Emma got 2 yesterday, and I just happened to be there for this one.

Just miles and miles of ocean around us.

Wandering around the ship taking in the ambiance and the swell at the back of the boat always captures my attention.

Taking some time to catch up on my blogging.

After the magic show we headed back to our cabin to find the stewards had been and today towel animal maybe a sumo??

It's swim time and a lounge around the pool.

There's lots of artwork around the ship this is one that is near our cabin.

And of course here is an artwork right here near our door.

Sunset on day 6.

Just Emma and I off to see the show in the Phantom Lounge.

Great show singing and dancing with music from the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper and Spanda Ballet.  We both really enjoyed it and Emma said she didn't know if she should feel embarrassed or proud that she knew most of the songs.

Mexican Cruise - Puerto Vallarta

Today I had originally planned to just catch a cab from the Marina to downtown Puerto Vallarta.  But yesterday I chickened out and settled for a tour instead.  Our tour was "The Best of Puerto Vallarta and Shopping Tour".

We jumped on our coach at about 9.30am and our tour guide Migel told us how PV was no longer a remote mexican place that it once was.  Population 350,000, 3 Walmarts, 1 Costco and all the takeaways you can name, Burger King and KFC that delivers.

Puerto Vallarta's main form of income is from Tourism.  This is the Sheraton. 

Due to tourism, construction is the second income producer.

We had a very quick stop at the Malecon which was where I would have like to spend my time.

The tourist then took us to the Lady ______ church just a short walk from the water.

This is the secondary school come trade school.

Just Cruising around the city and taking photos of the buildings and streets.

We then ventured a little out of the city to a local restaurant popular with Honeymooners.  Spectacular coastal views.

We didn't have lunch but soaked up the ambiance with the singers.

After lunch we headed back PV Centro and stopped to look at the flea markets located by this river that runs through the centre of town and divides the North from the South.

On returning to the ship I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed in the tour and I think PV itself.  Maybe I should have stayed with my first plans.

We always wonder what towel animal our stewards have left for us today and today it's a rabbit I think.

After skipping lunch it was straight to the outside grill for a cheeseburger lunch On the Lido deck.  A little after lunch snack was in order and we found this coffee shop we hadn't been too before, while looking for the library,  so I enjoyed afternoon tea with my girls.

To fill in the time and to have some family bonding time with some cards that we got from customer service.

Our day is not complete without shots, from the top deck, of the port where we are docked.

And of course the sunset.

Mexican Cruise - Mazatlan

We arrived in Mazatlan port at 8.00am.  We had a tour to the Colonial Villages of Sierra Madre booked for 8.30 and had to assemble in the Phantom Room at 8am, so we were unable to get any photos of arriving in port.

When the tour group was all there we made our way out to the Peir where there were coaches waiting to take us on our adventure.  We were directed to coach 21H by our soon to be tour guide Alma T.

Alma T was a bright and very funny local who just loved her home town.  She said the Mazatlans very all full of life, they had their troubles but they didn't care.  They work 8 months of the year and then have 4 months off.  The children go to school all day and have a siesta in the middle of the day and have 4 months off like their parents.

In no time we were heading through this beautiful seaport city.  We where even taken past the famous cliff driving area and got a quick glimpse of the activities.

We sat in 2 seats either side of the bus and I wasn't on the seaside so Hayley took some photos for me.

First we had a shopping tour at a jewellery store which didn't interest us at all.  We had a quick look then headed back to the bus.

We were soon on our way again heading to our first village where we able to buy some freshly baked baked made by the locals in a wood fired oven $1usd for two pieces.  It was more like a finger bun bread, sweet.  

There was also a local man making handmade tiles on a press.  I only took photos with the big camera for this activity.  It was very fascinating and so artistic.

Throughout the whole tour I was feeling like I was in the quintessential Mexico from the cobbled stone streets to the old men sitting around with there hats on with nothing to do but listen to music.

Back on the bus we were heading to our next village of Concordia.  This was a biggest of the 3 villages.  We had lunch at this restaurant, Chicken and Beef fajitas.

We then ventured into the city centre to explore.  Most Mexicans are Catholic and this church, St. Sebastian's, was great.

Everything is so festive and displays the colours of the Mexican flag.

Back on the bus again we headed to the village of Copala.  This village used to be a thriving one but I'm not sure what happened but the tourist stopped coming for awhile but they are starting to come back now.  It was a very traditional village with this beautiful church St Joesph.

The local school boys met our bus and tried to sell us the little wood carving they had made.  Unfortunately we would not have been able to bring them home.

We saw many brightly building we saw throughout our days travel.

We also had a police escort for the whole day.  Most of the time they were inconspicuous, until the end of the trip, when they wave us off.  

The bus dropped us off at the cruise ship terminal and we had a wander through the markets then headed back to the ship.

These special shuttle trolleys took us across the dock and let us off at the loading dock.

This was our trowel animal waiting for us today.

At 5pm we went up to the top deck and watched the ship leave the port of Mazatlan.  

And that's a sunset wrap of the day at the Port of Mazatlan.