So today was our last port of call, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. For this stop we signed up for the “Mini Jeep Adventure and Ranch Visit.” At this port we are tendered rather than right up at the dock so we met in the theatre per usual after breakfast (and saw Derrick and Nicci at breakfast and they said since their kayaking trip had been cancelled they opted for our excursion) and then made our way to the tenders. Once onshore, we were met by a guide who brought us to a tour bus that took us through town and out towards the desert area where the ranch was. We offroaded a bit in the bus on the way to the ranch (both a standard highway detour and the “driveway” to the ranch which went past a few homes, both fancy and plain) and came up to the staging area where the folks that were on the horseback riding tour split with those of us going on the offroad tour. We were then brought over to our vehicles, the tour guide called them Rhinos, they were open air (no windshield) automatic transmission vehicles with rollbars, two seats, and a little flatbed in the back. I drove first and Jeremy said he would take the second leg back. We were told our rough itinerary, shown the basics of how to operate the vehicle, given a helmet, goggles and a bandana to wear over our mouths and nose and we were off.

It was a blast driving, up dunes and down ravines, we went through cacti and various flowering scrub brush (where thee were lots and lots of little yellow butterflies), then through a dry river bed and along the Pacific coast. We took a break for photos and water at the coast and it was beautiful. The coast was pretty rocky so the waves crashed rather spectacularly, I got a little too close to one and got my shorts half soaked but it was fun anyway. We then swapped drivers for the ride back along the course. It was fun to practice getting out of fish tailing and handling a rather loosely controlled vehicle (both the steering wheel and accelerator/breaks were very…forgiving). When we arrived back at the ranch we sat in the shade and were given water and granola bars and could purchase Coronas if we chose (Jeremy and I both did). The whole way Derrick and Nicci were behind us so it was fun to get to do an excursion with folks we “know,” as it was fun to get to share the experience with folks.

The show tonight is a broadway medley but we won’t see Derrick and Nicci there as they have been invited to sit at the captain’s table at dinner tonight (fancy!) and they don’t eat until 8:45 (the show we were planning to go to is at 8:45). On the way back to the ship we went through the inevitable and ever present souvenir shops next to the dock and picked up a last few souvenirs. We cleaned up (we were so dusty! My black shirt was brown by the end) grabbed some lunch, and are now watching the last 2pm tender come back before we head out for our last sea day and San Diego.

So today was our first of two stops in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta. The city is rather large and has a big port so we met our tour group on the pier, weaved our way through the opening tourist and souvenir shops and came to our rides for the day, 2 door soft top Jeep Wranglers. Jeremy and I were paired with a younger couple (she rather significantly younger than him) who were from the UK and Australia but currently live in Switzerland. Both she and Jeremy volunteered to drive so Jeremy took the first leg. We were given a red Jeep and set off in our caravan of 7 cars out of the city (past rather disappointingly a Walmart, KFC, Outback, Dominoes, McDonalds and a bunch of other American chain restaurants, along with a bunch of hotels along the beach) towards what our guide Jose Pepe called “real Mexico.”

We drove through some agricultural areas that were growing corn and squash, forded a rather deep ravine and “off roaded” a bit along a dirt road (granted the secondary roads in Mexico are in pretty rough shape so that was almost more offroading than the actual course) along with some smaller villages (thankfully none with McDonald’s) and stopped near a local elementary school to hear about what we had driven past. The kids in the schools were just emerging for their gym class and one of the middle aged guests who spoke Spanish talked to the kids, asking what grade they were in and seeing if they knew how to say “my name is” in English. We were brought through a “real” Mexican house which was very likely someone’s home but was also set up for folks to walk through the living/kitchen area through to the back yard where they had various fruit trees growing (they also sold bottled water and soda). There were a bunch of stray dogs of various shapes and sizes and some free ranging chickens, but oddly I have only seen one cat this whole trip, not sure why that is.

We then drove another 15 minutes to a tequila factory and little souvenir market, we forgot to bring cash with us on the excursion so even though I was tempted by an agave weave bag and some jewelry I wasn’t able to get anything as they didn’t accept credit cards.

The tequila tour and tasting were fun. To make tequila they use rather similar methods to winemaking for a lot of the process, after they pressure cook the heart of the agave plant it is crushed/juiced and then put into tanks to age and then is distilled or aged longer in oak barrels. We did a tasting of “silver” (unaged) as well as tequila aged for 6 months and 18 months (each increasing in price, although the flavor I found was best to me in the unaged). They also had three flavored tequilas, peach, almond and coffee/chocolate, these were very sweet and didn’t really taste much like tequila but were tasty nonetheless. We opted to buy a little variety pack of the regular tequilas and then after being given 10 minutes to shop the little market we were off back to town towards the beach to enjoy a “traditional Mexican snack.”

On the way back the Australian woman drove, she got stuck with a bit more traffic and city driving than we did on the way out and ended up being rather frazzled by the time we reached the beach, but we made it just the same. We parked in a side garage/alley (and all the cars were thankfully turned around when we came back to leave) and walked to the beachfront to the “Burros Restaurant” for our snack, thick tortilla chips and fresh pico de gallo, then a plate with a sampling of quesadillas, a chicken taquito, fresh guacamole and refried beans. We also ordered drinks, a margarita for Jeremy and a Pacifico beer for myself (quite a tasty beer, by the way). We only had 45 minutes at the beach so after our snack we had just enough time to dip our feet in the ocean (we were expecting a bit more time than that at the beach, but oh well), and then we headed back through the early afternoon traffic to the ship.

Since we were already in our bathing suits and had wanted to try out the pools on the ship Jeremy and I stopped back by the room, dropped off our stuff and put on sunscreen and went to try out each of the saltwater pools they have on the ship, two outside (one four feet deep, one five to six feet) as well as the “therapeutic” pool which was warmer and had various jets and bubbles. We saw Nicci and Derrick in one of the regular pools and chatted with them for a while, as well as one of our fellow hikers from the volcano climb in the therapeutic pool (the guy who in fact was the high altitude climber who got us permission to do the farther/higher hike). It’s been fun to start seeing and recognizing various folks on the ship, too bad we only have 2 full days left!

We had another tasty dinner and after dessert our waiter Adi came out with a “complements of the chef” Grand Marnier soufflé which was amazing, I could have had two. We also had our cookbook from the chefs table delivered tonight, it’s huge and has lots of beautiful photos of the food we have had on the ship along with a general overview of Celebrity cruise ships. Tomorrow we have another Jeep tour, we may have convinced Nicci and Derrick to come along as their kayaking tour was cancelled, so we will find out tomorrow.

Today was a pretty quiet day, even though I had a bit of a rush of a start. The entire cruise we have been going west and setting our clocks back an hour but for whatever reason Puerto Vallarta is actually an hour ahead, not back. So not realizing that the night before we set our clocks back and when I woke up and checked the tv I saw it was 8:35, not 6:35 so I rushed off to my watercolor class while Jeremy stayed behind and had breakfast. I’m working on a painting of a bird of paradise flower, and I’m pretty proud of it actually. Linda Lee Curtis, the instructor, let us use some of her higher quality paints and they really make a big difference in color and application. I’m tempted to buy some more paints and paper when we get home, may be a fun relaxing thing to do on weekends and such.

After class I met up with Jeremy (who saw a sea turtle go by as he was reading out on our balcony) and we went to a talk by the first navigation officer in the theatre about how they do navigation and itinerary planning on the ship. After that, also in the theatre, was bingo. I bought one strip of cards and Jeremy managed to tolerate watching for about half of the games, then he headed back to the room while I and Felicia and Chad finished out our games (none of us had any luck, one guy behind us however won two games in a row). I met up with Jeremy for lunch then we went to the pool deck, planning to read, but ended up watching the officers vs guests pool volleyball game instead. We happened to be standing by Derrick and Nicci at the bar we were watching from so we chatted a bit with them and then headed back to the room.

Our plan had been to take just a short nap but we ended up sleeping until 5:35 so when we woke up we had to rush to get ready for dinner. After dinner with John and Karen we met up with Derrick and Nicci at the martini bar where we joined them for a drink and then we all headed to the evening show. I was quite excited for this one, it was a performance by Dale Kristian, who played Christine in Phantom of the Opera, both on Broadway (with the original Phantom, Michael Crawford) and in LA. She sang a lot of Phantom songs as well as “Memory” from Cats, “Don’t cry for me Argentina” from Evita, and to our great surprise, our first dance song, “It Had to Be You.” So overall a very enjoyable evening, even if we didn’t do so great with the waking up on time parts of the day.