Puerto Vallarta

When going on a cruise, the ship "pushes" excursions as a way of excitement when visiting different ports. Last cruise, I was pregnant with Lexi and not allowed to do any excursions except the tequila tasting. Go figure! I skipped that one but we did take a tour of Puerto.

We have been to Puerto probably at least 1/2 dozen times, so we wanted to do something we had never done. We found it! Extreme Canopy! BTW, special thanks to the Rasmussen Family for buying all the pictures and sending us a disc. The EC won't let you take your own pics they want you to buy theirs. He paid $160 bucks and nicely sent us a CD.

We found our tour group and out of the 30 people at least 1/2 of us were Mo's...Mormon's. It was fun to meet other LDS's on board some were even from Lehi and knew Mike's parents. The Rasmussen's live in Cali but once lived in Draper.

Here we are leaving the Port of Puerto Vallarta.

First up on the EC was a speed boat across the bay.

Suddenly the boat stopped and we saw a dozen dolphins jumping. We had our crappy camera so this is the best we got.

When we arrived on land, we were put into a army truck and then taken up into the mountains.

 

Nick, Tia, Mike, Kinz in the army truck heading to the mountains.

 

BTW the humidity and temperature was so HOT in Puerto, the mountains were the perfect temperature!

 We arrived at EC and were given an intro on how to zip line and canopy.

We were all suited up with helmets, bandanas, and our gear and then given our trusty mule to take us up the mountain.

 

Nick

Tia

Mike & Ray

Kinzee and Piemento (pepper)

 

Then we meet our destiny. I'll admit I was a little nervous but it was so much fun! I'd do it again in a heart beat. Even with the price tag! In fact, the Rasmussen's loved it so much this was their 2nd time and this time they brought their kids to enjoy it.

The first was the longest. Hard to see but we went down the mountain.

After many zip lines it was time to repel and of course repel down the water fall. Yep, that's why we were in our bathing suits.

It was slippery. Like my ghetto aqua socks. Hey they worked perfect, I'm not complaining.

I think after I got wet this is when the no-see-ems came out. I say I think because you really can't see them or feel them biting you. When we got back to the ship, I looked like I had the chicken pox. The rest had some also except the girl who the leaders told her she wouldn't need bug repellent or sunscreen because they were in the jungle. Ya, I should have used some repellent. 2 weeks later I still have red marks everywhere. Itch is finally gone and they were so itchy!!

 

Here's our group and our trusty tour guides.

After repelling down the water fall, we had a zip line into a pool of water. The water was cool. Some of us didn't want to get as wet as others did.

Eek!

Mike wanted to get wet!

The last zip line we were able to race. Mike thinks the zip lines were different but I say the best zip liner won!!

Here's a video of a free fall repel. It's me.

All together we did 10 zip lines, 2 repels, bridges, and had so much fun!

It was the highlight of my trip even with all the bug bites!

We then had to do take the army truck back, get in the speed boat and speed across the bay. We arrived back on ship just in time for dinner. We were starved! Here is Puerto Vallarta as we were leaving late that night.

 So what did the rest of our group do in Puerto you might ask? Poor Taylor was sick really from leaving Utah a week prior. No one was sure what was the problem.He tried everything and was in so much pain, Wednesday night went to the ship doc and they gave him some pain meds to ease the pain they thought was nerve damage. But by Thursday, Thanksgiving Day the ship dr said you need to go to the hospital. So Steve, Tif and Tay went to the hospital and Taylor had a Mexican root canal. This is Tay all numbed up and on morphine. He said the pressure was instantly removed when the drilling started and then the puss and blood came oozing out. Poor guy suffering with that while on vacation!

 Chad, Brody and Anna took a taxi to the canopy...not to be confused by extreme canopy apparently its different.

Our speed boat arrived just at 6pm, dinner time. We threw on some clothes and raced up to dinner. We were starved, all we got on the extreme canopy was crackers and a pear.

 Josh is hiding the cell phone. He texted his g-friend back at home. It was a constant joke, who is on a cruise and texting a girl? Yep, that would be Josh! He's whipped what can we say.

And then at bed time we had a friendly dog in my new Ray Bons to greet us for bed.

 We went to the pool and they had dozens of other towel creations. This elephant was one of my favorites!

Phew, what a Thanksgiving day for us!