Puerto Villarta

Puerto--When we disembarked in Puerto Villarta, our first port adventure, I was disappointed to look across the street and see Walmart and Sam’s Club.  We didn’t sail a thousand miles from home for that.  But our tour guide kept us moving down the street and soon we were on a catamaran at sea.

We sailed along the coast which was green, lush, tropical, and beautiful.  The ride was rough but that just made it more fun.  The crew stood on the bow singing and dancing for us and I was sure that any minute one of them would fall overboard, but they never did.

The most exciting that happened on that boat ride is when our tour guide announced that we had a whale ahead.  I was so excited.  There it was, waving its fin out of the water at us!  We sat watching its fin waving and occasionally seeing a bit of its back come out of the water.  Then our tour guide told us all to think hard in our minds to make the whale jump.  Within seconds after his suggestion, the whale jumped out of the water. That was its first and last jump, but it had jumped and we were elated.

After we passed the whale, and after some quick instructions, they stopped the boat and we got to jump off the back and go snorkeling.  Brian and I had so much fun holding hands and swimming around looking at schools of fish and reef and stuff.  We were very close to the beautiful shore and a sea cave that we wished we could explore, but it wasn’t worth the risk of getting dashed on the rocks by the waves to do it.  I did hit my knee on a rock but it didn’t hurt much even though it bled.