2009-12-9  Puerto Vallarta

 After 3 days of cruising at about 21 knotts, we arrived into Puerto Vallarta on Wed. morning. We had decided ahead of time that we would take a cab to the Malecon (boardwalk area) not too far from the ship. So when we got off the ship we found a taxi (not hard to do) and told him we'd give him $8 to take us to the Malecon.

Our taxi dropped us off at the far end and we walked our way back slowly.

The waterfront was beautiful. We even waded in the water a bit.

The water was quite warm and inviting.

All along the Malecon were some pretty interesting sculptures. It was sort of like walking through a sculpture park with an ocean next to it. And it was free!

I'm not sure what most of the sculptures are, but they made for an interesting walk. We got to spend about 20 minutes in this area last time Carolyn and I were here when we were on a city tour. I looked forward to going back here and spending more time along the beach.

We also spent time on the other side of the road running along the beach. There were lots of tourist shops and restaurants all along the way. We even stopped into Hard Rock Cafe to get a cold drink and share a nacho before heading back down the Malecon. They even had really good live entertainment while we were there.

When we'ld gone far enough, we caught another taxi back to Walmart across the street from the port. There we got a few things like bottles of soda, nose spray (getting ready for the head colds that plagued me the rest of Dec.), lip screen, post cards, ... . Note, they will take your American money but will only give you pecos back.

After going back into the secure area for boarding the ship, I noticed an internet cafe. Since the price of the internet on the ships is ridiculous, I found the port internet cafes a great place to spend about 15 minutes. After firing an email home, we were heading back onto the ship. We boarded too late for dinner in the main dining room, so settled for dinner in the Lido buffet.

I know Puerto Vallarta has been plagued with problems for visitors, but our day there was really nice.