Excursion Versions

Mexico is not really the place to go if you want to wander around and find your own fun.  It is more of a “stay with the pack” (of tourists, that is.)  I would have loved to see where the locals shopped and ate and lived, but my gun-less companion would not comply.  We opted for Princess Cruiseline coordinated excursions to entertain us on land.

They had offered many different cooking oriented options.  Many of them included tequila drinking.  We figured the prices on those excursions reflected the drinks, so the most bang for our non-drinking buck would be the one that did not advertise the alcohol.  We were wrong.  In Puerta Vallarta we rode a tour bus from port into town where the guide pointed out every large hotel and American business. While I looked the other direction and saw empty store fronts with bashed windows, covered in graffiti.  The tour guide was rambling about how Puerta Vallarta was such a paradise and declared there was no crime.  I wondered who was doing all the vandalism, Jarom guessed it was the tourists.  

Unnerving...

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We were dumped off in down town, where thousands of tour buses drop off.  It felt like Sun City more than Mexico.  We tried to haggle in the shops to no avail and paid American prices on sunglasses, a bottle of vanilla and souvenirs for the kids.

Then we were led to a restaurant for out cooking “class.”  It was an upscale tourist restaurant similar to our Café Lorado.  The tables were set up with a small assortment of ingredients, a cutting board and a bread knife.  We were instructed to chop the small amounts of ingredients and mix them together to make pico de gallo and guacamole.  Next, two tortillas, a bowl of mole sauce and a chunk of cold chicken.  Cut the chicken, put it on the tortillas and spoon cold mole sauce over it.  No recipes.  The tour guide told us to make the mole sauce you by a can of it from Wal-Mart and add water. 

That night Jarom looked for an excursion to sign up for in Mazatlan, rather than going off of the alcohol promotions he found one with a recommendation from previous Princess passengers.  This proved to be better criteria since we had a blast.

We took a catamaran to a small island, laid on the beach, played some sand volleyball, rode some horses and had lunch at a clean but very rustic restaurant.  The horseback riding on the beach was such a good time.  The guide only spoke Spanish, so it was fun trying to communicate and having Jarom to clue me in. He got off and took pictures for everyone and had a great sense of humor.  It was a short walk on the beach and the guide let us run back. The horses were so engrained with the route that there was no steering that they would adhere to.   It was a beautiful day and we were having so much fun that we lost track of how much sun we were getting.  We both got a terrible sunburn that was hurting for the rest of the trip.

The next day at Cabo we had to stay out of the sun because of out stupidity, so we didn’t do an excursion.  We got off the boat for a short time trying to find a phone to call home and got to do some haggling in the shops.  By then were so done with the men on the streets trying to get us to ride on their boat that we just went back to the ship.  It was a beautiful place, and we could see that just as well from the ship’s deck.