Happy New Year in the Mexican Riviera

A bunch of us decided to give ourselves a Cruise to the Mexican Riviera this year as a Christmas gift.  We cruised on this ship "the Oosterdam" on the Holland American Cruise Lines. 

Our cruise ship left from the port of San Diego, California on Dec 30.

We all stayed over in San Diego the evening before departure.

After a nice dinner out in San Diego we watched the sunset over the skyline.

We boarded our ship first thing in the morning on New Year's Eve - this is our Stateroom.

The best thing about our staterooms was the veranda - our rooms were all joined and so were our verandas which was great fun to all sit outside together as the ship cruised along the ocean.

Every night we all watched beautiful sunsets from our verandas together.

 

New Year's Eve we celebrated on the ship in the Vista Restaurant - one of the 4 restaurants on board.

The food was terrific - we all had different appetizers - mine was a seafood cocktail.

And we all finished our meals with a different desert - Cheryl's was this Chocolate Tuxedo Mouse.

Yes silly hats and noise makers of course.

The ship was beautifully decorated for the holidays so we explored every inch of it.

We sailed the entire next day making our way down along the Mexican Baja Peninsula

Sunrise the following day found us in the port of Porta Vallarta.

The waterfront area was very busy with other tour boats - here you see a Pirate Ship tour boat.

A few of us decided to wander on our own through some of the areas or Porta Vallarta - along the Malecon where we found this angel outside one of the popular discos.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of this Mexican town and this is her church. (note the beautiful crown on top).

We walked along the boardwalk where many of the popular sights were and of course the beautiful green ocean.

This is one of the many pantomime actors along the boardwalk.  This angel appeared to be suspended in air (don't ask me how he did it - I was mystified).

The Diamonds International store is where I bought a beautiful new watch.

And a few of us enjoyed great Margaritas & a yummy Mexican lunch here in Porta Vallarta.

On our 2nd day in Porta Vallarta we hired a driver to take us all around the island.  His name is 'Ricky-Ricardo'.  He was great! He took us to many small neighborhoods that we wouldn't see on a regular tour.

Ricky took us to the homes of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  Unfortunately because of the poverty here - the homes have been left to decay as there is no money to rehab the properties.  Liz Taylor named her home Kimberley.

They build this bridge that connected both homes because when they lived here Liz was still married to Eddie Fisher.  So they would visit each other via the bridge - and when they had their terrible fights they would tear the bridge down and then rebuild it when they made up.  Money!!

As Ricky-Ricardo drove us through the various little neighborhoods we would see the little businesses there - this is a tile maker's shop.

And one of the homes on our drive through another little neighborhood.

From our drive we could see the beach where Hollywood shot "The Night of the Iguana"

And rightly so our tour guide found someone that just happened to have an Iguana.

We took turns touching it's leather hide - but Flo was the only one brave enough to hold it for a photo

Ricky our driver took us down to the beach so that we could take some fun pics with our 2012 NewYear's Eve Hats and signs.

As in most places that we visited the Pelicans came to visit us at the 'Iguana Beach'.

We all wished that we had an extra day to spend swimming and boating here at this beach - the water was so nice and warm and the waves were not too high at all.

Next we went to a location within the rain forests where there was a great restaurant (shown here behind us).  This location also had 5 great Zip-Lines and a whole crew to hook you up and help you if you had never done it before.  If we had more time I would have signed up to ride the zip-lines.  They didn't look too high and looked pretty easy - and it was only $30 for all 5 zip-lines.

The other thing they had here was tons of beautiful parrots.

Next Ricky took us to a Tequila Factory.  This was a family own business in the mountain area.  These folks used all natural original ways of making tequila.

They grow this Blue Agave plant on their farms in Guadalajara, Mexico.  And then they harvest the plants and ship the Agave 'Pods' here to the factory for processing.

The higher end tequila will age in these American Oak barrels 1 to 10 years.

These are the "pods" from the blue agave plant all ready for pressing to become tequila.

Our host and owner of  El Baston Del Key Tequila factory was ready to pour us samples to taste.

Though Flo & Co are not tequila drinkers - they were great sports and tasted everything that was poured for us.  They enjoyed the flavoured 'after dinner' sipping tequilas - and bought that.

Cheryl enjoyed everything our host poured - but we decided to buy a bottle of the Reposado Tequila to make Margaritas with.

Our tour would not be complete without a little shopping - yes we all bought some of these colorful bowls to take home.

A great choice of hats were available.

Of course I bought one.

And all of the pottery that is made here is so beautiful and colorful. Not enough room in the suitcase.

 

Driving down from the mountain area - we saw this man working on the gravestones for the local cemetery.

We got out to visit the local cemetery which was just beautiful.  Most of the bodies here are buried above ground with very ornate grave markers and statues.

Like all of Mexico it was very crowded - but ornate.

After a long day we came back to our ship to watch the sunset over the water.

As most evenings the setting sun was beautiful over the rolling ocean.

As our ship pulled away  - we bid Porta Vallarta a fond farewell.

We woke up the next morning in the port of Cabo San Lucas.  It seemed as though the Pelicans had followed us Purto Vallarta to Cabo.

We had to be taken to shore by smaller boats as the port was too shallow for our ship to come in close.  So we saw many of our Pelican friends up close.

This Parrot greeted us as we came off the ship.

Cheryl was a little nervous to have this guy on her shoulder.

But not our Flo - she let this guy nibble her eyebrow even.

The waterfront area in Cabo is all about the shopping - lots of jewelry stores

Anyone remember wearing high heels this high?  Pretty but deadly for me.

We visited the Mission San Lucas a lovely little church.

The interior of Mission San Lucas.

While in Cabo we hired a boat and skipper to "The Arch" - Los Archos and other rock formations.

No only was Edwardo a great skipper - he took our cameras and snapped photos of us as well.  The rock formation behind us looks like the Baja Peninsula.

And of course 'Los Archos' within that beautiful green ocean water.

Our skipper took our boat around the other side of the Arch for a different look at it.

And of course our friend followed us ......

Back on land we dropped into the local pub to have a cool Margarita and listen to Mexican music.

Once back on the ship we went to our verandas and kept watch over The Arch and the waterfront.

As the sun set our ship pulled away from Cabo San Lucas.

And our friends the Pelicans flew along side our ship to say goodbye as we puled out of port.

After the sunset over the Baja Peninsula our ship headed out to sea again to go back home.

The ship had a Mexican Fiesta to celebrate our time in Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas complete with a roasted pig..... eyeeeeeeeeeee

Even the ship's staff enjoyed dressing the part.

We had a wonderful time on our cruise and hope you enjoyed sharing some of it with us.