Cruisin' Mexico

Saturday December 4th we headed off for a much needed vacation. We drove into San Diego, spent the night at my parent's house and then boarded the Holland America cruise ship. This was our first cruise so everything felt new! The ship took off at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and we were at sea until Tuesday morning, arriving in Mazatlan.

 Mazatlan was probably the most rural of our three destinations but it was different and beautiful. We first took a tour of the city with a crazy taxi driver and then got dropped off at a "ferry terminal" to take a boat to Stone Island where we heard we could find the best beach. The "ferry terminal" was nothing but a little stand and tiny boats where NO ONE spoke a bit of English. We get onto the boat and the person managing the boat says something in Spanish followed by everyone immediately putting life jackets on. We followed suit and prayed that the tiny boat would not sink! Stone Island was even more rural and as soon as we stepped onto the island we felt as though we were on a mission.

                                                 Mmmmmm coconuts!
                                                       

The day ended with shrimp tacos and enchiladas and we didn't even get sick!

On Wednesday we arrived in Puerta Vallarta. It felt like Spain with all the art work and cobblestone streets. We spent the first half of the day walking around old town and going to the Cathedral, which was gorgeous! We went through a little market where tons of people tried to sell to us with every line you could think of. We bought fresh Vanilla and a cute little baby girl dress. Haggling became a team effort!

The second half of our day is such a long story that it would take up pages and pages to tell but to give a quick synopsis: We were tricked into going to a nice resort where we were pressured to buy a time share and given disgusting food. A big waste of three hours but lesson learned!

On Thursday we arrived in Cabo San Lucas, our favorite place! This is where we spent our honeymoon 3 1/2 years ago! It was so fun to go back here. It was nice because we knew the town and no one could trick us into anything! When we arrived we walked over to the beach in the heat and plopped ourselves at a restaurant on the beach where we got to lay out under umbrellas and have virgin pina coladas and fresh guacamole. The best part for Matthew was that he got free wireless internet and was able to download school lectures! After finishing up there we went swimming in the perfect water; not too cold and not too hot. Matthew was in a panic the whole time because there were little fish following his feet and he was afraid they were going to bite him. I fell in love with swimming while pregnant! We ended the day at our favorite restaurant, Squid Roe. We loved going back to the fun restaurant that we enjoyed so much 3 1/2 years earlier!