Curtis, Emilie, & Eliott: September 2010

Our first stop was Puerta Vallarta. Boy was I excited to get off that boat! I had been pretty sea sick the first two days and finally stepping onto land was so nice!

Beautiful Puerta Vallarta (notice the pirate ship and Mexican navy)

The first thing I noticed when I got up that day was that it was so humid. So humid, in fact, that my hair curled itself into a little ringlet!

The city was beautiful, and I felt right at home when I stepped outside and saw a Wal-Mart.

Puerta Vallarta was the stop I was most excited for, because we had planned an excursion to go swimming with some dolphins. Now, we got off the boat and there was this little walk way all set up for us, guarded by scary Mexican army men with big guns (I didn't take any pictures for fear they might shoot me!).

Set up along the walkway were all these people trying to sell things. I stopped at one to look at some sunglasses because I had forgotten mine. When one of the pairs fell off the rack some lady ran over, inspected them, then told me, "It's okay. There's no scratches. You don't have to buy." GEEZ! I decided not to touch anything else. There was one little shop that I stood at for a good 30 minutes. This man, Jorge Lopez (ha), was painting these amazing pictures, with his fingers! At first I thought, "There's no way he's really doing that!" but sure enough, I sat and watched it happen, right before my eyes!

First he tapes off the tile

Paints the sky

Fills in ocean

The trees and the birds

Rips off the tape and

Voila, it is done!

I was so impressed I had to buy one for my house.

Anyway, off to the dolphin encounter we went. We rode in this boat taxi to another city across the muddy water. It was really disgusting and I was glad we hadn't planned to go swimming or snorkeling that day. Apparently it had been really rainy, and when it rains all the mud from a river above the city flows into their little bay and really makes things gross.

Nasty Ocean