Puerto Vallarta (w) is also on the Pacific coast of Mexico, but further south, in the state of Jalisco. Here's a map:
Today's adventure was something I've wanted to do for a long time - swimming with dolphins!
After getting off the ship, all of us (except for Robert and Aisha) boarded a tender which took us a little ways up the coast to the dolphin facility. After getting ready for the water:
...we got into the pool and were introduced to our dolphin, Tlaloc:
We spent some time getting acquainted:
...and we discovered that dolphins, like dogs, enjoy belly rubs:
And then came the fun part. Tlaloc lay on his back, and Terry held on to his flippers, and he took her for a ride around the pool.
Terry and Tlaloc then danced together. She held on to his flippers, and they bobbed up and down in the water, while he made squaeky dolphin noises.
Tlaloc enjoyed the dance so much that he rewarded Terry with a kiss on the cheek:
...and then it was my turn:
Tlaloc then impressed us all with a dive up out of the water and back down (expand your browser to full screen for the best view):
At the end of our visit, Tlaloc waved bye-bye to us... with his tail:
We got out of the pool, got showered and dressed, and went to have a buffet lunch. Again, it was not impressive. But the lunchroom was interesting:
I took a picture of some local wildlife:
The tender took us back to Puerto Vallarta. Since the ship wasn't due to leave port until 9:00 PM, we all decided to stay ashore for dinner. As we walked past the ship on the way into town, I took this picture, just because I thought it looked interesting.
We took taxis into town, and walked along the Malecón, a walkway along the beach with a number of sculptures. At one point, I took this picture of a church:
...which I found out later was La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe).
We wandered a while, and eventually found a small seafood restaurant where we had a very good dinner. And then we wandered around some more, and some of us did some shopping, and then we all took cabs back to the ship.
And that was the end of the day's adventure in Puerto Vallarta. And that's the end of this trip log.