Curious facts: trip started on the palindrome date 02-02-2020 , first time this date has appeared in 900 years. This was also Super Bowl 54 Sunday
02-03 Monday Nuevo Vallarta
We have arrived to rain & humidity. Such a huge resort we need maps to get
around! Had one free beer & headed out to eat at La Cantina.
02-04 Tuesday Nuevo Vallarta
This resort, the Grand Mayan, is so huge & luxurious it is beyond anywhere
we’ve ever stayed. You would think unlimited amenities. Wrong! You are charged
for bottled water in the room, in room coffee (what?!), any extra shampoo. I didn’t
bring any of my own, either. I did bring some Starbucks Via instant coffee &
a few teabags. We just finished breakfast buffet OMG!! & are headed on a
walking tour of the grounds.
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La Plaza, restaurant & shopping complex
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Boardwalks around complex
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Iguana
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Red-necked slider
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Just spent about $50 on groceries
at the Plaza, an on-site shopping center. “Gourmet shopping”, that is! Got
beer, tequila, soda, juice, coffee, sandwich makings, & gallon of water!
After resting up we will choose one of the pools or the beach. What a
life!
We are “going with the flow” & enjoying. Ate at restaurant on the beach (one
of 40!). I had octopus & squid & local fish tostada with chipotle-
whew, hot! Kind of had enough octopus (pulpo) for life! We enjoyed happy hour
in the room. We have our own personal plunge pool on the balcony. Tomorrow we
will float on inner tubes around the resort on the artificial waves Lazy River. We saw people floating it today & it
looked fun.
02-05 Wednesday Nuevo Vallarta to San Blas
This was one long wonderful day. Started at 4am, we got back 6pm.
Our guide
picked us up after getting lost on the way to the complex. We then picked up another
woman (a midwife from Boston) along the way. Our guide, Luis, is mid-forties,
has 3 kids ranging in age from 3 to 14. His wife is also a midwife, small world.
Luis spent time in Oregon learning bird banding in Klamath Falls. He has a
master’s degree in marine biology. Excellent birder, quite the talker, very
intelligent.
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Luis Morales
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We birded before breakfast alongside a river emptying into the
ocean. The morning started with thunderstorms. It took two hours to get to San Blas, north of Nuevo Vallarta, passing from Central to Mountain time. Ate breakfast (chorizo scrambled eggs) dockside in San
Blas. Watched the fishermen bringing in their oyster catch.
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| Oyster boats |
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Dockside restaurant
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Then we went on a
boat ride up the river, through the mangroves, passed by crocodiles, turtles,
iguanas, & many beautiful herons. The river ended miles upstream at a
natural bubbling spring. There were some young tourists swimming & jumping
off a high rope swing. The sun finally came out & it was very pleasant. . We ate lunch at another fine family
restaurant. The food was simple, beautiful presentation & fresh ingredients.
Long drive back home. It was too cool to use our balcony soaking pool. Supposed
to be nicer tomorrow. Luis is picking us up
Friday morning for another outing.
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| Leftover from a movie filmed here |
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Boat-billed heron
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02-06 Thursday Nuevo Vallarta
Today was our “off” day, no commitments. Slept in, ate at the amazing breakfast
buffet, relaxed, walked, shopped, relaxed, tubed down the “Lazy River”, swam,
relaxed....you get the gist.
Friday in the Sun
Today was a lazy day for me. Our guide had to cancel, well, postpone until
tomorrow. That was ok with us as Ron got sick yesterday afternoon. Seems to be a
stomach virus. Good thing we travel with
Azithromycin. He spent a lot of time
in bed & carefully sipping water & OJ. I commandeered a lounge chair by
the pool. I finished one book & started another. I floated the Lazy River numerous times, swam in various pools. I’m currently sitting at a cafe on
the beach waiting for my nachos. Too bad Ron missed out on a blissful day We
meet our guide at 7am for our day at the botanical gardens & a macaw
sanctuary.
Mexican Saturday
Hola amigos!
Okay that’s really corny!
Ron felt well enough to join in our
tour today. Not eating yet, but drinking water & an electrolyte drink ( I
tasted it & it is gross, reminds me of colonoscopy prep!).
We drove south
of Puerto Vallarta (which by the way is on Banderas Bay, like Antonio Banderas
who is from Malaga, Spain) to a village for breakfast. It was in the mountains,
about 2500 feet elevation, & very chilly. We were in short sleeve t-shirts, long pants
& hiking boots. All the locals were in down jackets & fur hoods! Had
the best coffee & a beef dish called
Machaca. It was very tasty, served with fresh warm tortillas.
We then drove up a steep mountain road with huge
drainage cracks. We arrived at a privately owned & managed military macaw
preserve. It was awesome with all the birds patrolling & screaming &
displaying. We hiked a few miles around there, sitting in a great bird blind
& climbing up a 4-story observation tower. Luis heard a jaguar call from a fair distance. From there we toured the
botanical gardens. Lots of bougainvillea blooming. We ate lunch in the
restaurant 3 floors above the ground. We were able to photograph hummers &
lots of other showy birds from our perch.
By this time Ron was dragging
& it was hot, so back to the hotel. I’m currently reading by the pool. The
Lazy River is closed today, something about bees. I’m disappointed as I was
looking forward to a nice relaxing float.
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Bano
 | Military macaw house
Military macaw
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 | Lesser nighthawk
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 | Local wildlife
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Yellow grosbeak
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Yellow grosbeak
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San Blas jay
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Yellow-winged cacique
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Yellow-winged cacique
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Watermelon juice
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| Jicama, lime juice, chili pepper |
Sunday on the Sea
Well, another gorgeous day in this paradise. The full Snow Moon was still up at
dawn. What a sight to behold. The sunrise was as beautiful.
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"Snow Moon"
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We were joined by
our guide Luis’ 14 year old son , Quetzel. We hiked to the ocean along side of a
mangrove swamp. This is part of the Ameca River which flows from the Sierra
Madre range. Lots of surfers use the trail to get to the beach. They all wanted
to know what we were looking at! The birds were out in full morning joy. We had
breakfast on the beach: homemade empanadas, sliced plantains & apples,
& juicy& coffee. Ron only had water. Luis told us about guiding
California governor Jerry Brown to this very spot, eating the same breakfast! I
had to tell about a restaurant in Milwaukee that President Obama ate at. Ginny & I ate at the same place, ordered the same meal as he did. Next, we drove to a small fishing village, Punta de
Mita. There we waded through the surf & hopped aboard our boat for the tour out to the islands. Room for 11
passengers, but there were only the 4 of us & 2 crew. We motored out to a federally
protected group of rock islands. No access to the beaches or rocks except for hopping off the side of the boat and swimming to shore, only snorkeling & diving. It was
very cool, as our “Captain” took us under the rock arches.
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Coming up to the Federal Park
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Brown pelican
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| Under the arch |
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Brown booby
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Heerman's gull
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Blue-footed booby
 | Blue-footed booby
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Anhinga
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Bare-throated tiger heron
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Thick-billed kingbird
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Just a small unassuming boat
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We also saw several
families of hump-backed whales. Got back around 1. Ron is relaxing &
recovering in the room. He will use the soaking pool on our balcony. I
managed two passes down the Lazy River. Ron came down & joined me on the
River for two more laps. We pack up tonight, check out of the room at 10am
tomorrow. Then we can use all the facilities (pool, eateries, etc) until we
leave for the airport around 2pm Monday. Guess we’ll just stuff our wet suits in
our bags!
