CABO SAN LUCAS
We used the company Ocean Riders and they were AWESOME!
Perfect for our trip, professional, nice equipment, easy going and nice.
Cruise ship in the background, and all geared up ready to speed across the ocean - literally, we went super fast and it was so much fun!!! We whooped and hollered the whole way.
On Lovers Beach with the engaged lovers, Maile and Michael. Beautiful rock formations, gorgeous water and perfect sunny, but not-so-hot weather! This beach connects with a beach on the other side of the island which faces the open sea and is more violent, hence the name Divorce Beach. We liked Lovers Beach better.
Our gang ready to swim around the rock behind us to go to another beach and caves.
Snorkeling! It was awesome!
They fed the fish from the boat and we saw SO MANY striking and strange fish. We snorkeled in a couple different places and it was beautiful, so peaceful and amazing. Our guide was so good to give us some instruction for the new snorkelers. It made me wish that I would have had known these pointers when we went snorkeling with the dolphins in Zanzibar. Now that I know, I'll be looking for more opportunities to snorkel in the future. I had always shied away from it before.
MAZATLAN
Parasailing, riding horses on the beach, shopping and sunning...
Mom and Briant and The Last Supper made of sand! Now THAT's a winner in the sand castle contest.
Riding our boat out to the play site. On the way we stopped to see some scenic white rocks off the coast, which happened to be white because of the amount of bird poop on them! Then we saw some seals all crowded on top of a big rock. The ride on this boat was SO rocky there were quite a few of us who felt entirely queasy toward the end. I think it didn't help that the guide was loud and kind of obnoxious. He had a megaphone that he talked/yelled into and he was difficult to understand. Plus, he kept saying things like: Who let the dogs out? arf, arf, arf, arf... They did play some fun music later on which was fun and reminded us we were on vacation.
Parasailing! I would have never done this had it not been for Briant first taking the plunge. This was quite thrilling and surprisingly peaceful to be soaring over the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking.
Riding horses on the beach. Beautiful experience and so funny when the horses decided to trot all of the sudden, and then more horses in the pack decided to follow suit. We loved it!
PUERTA VALLARTA
Riding several zip lines through the rain forest! Vallarta Adventures was the company we used and they were AWESOME! They were extremely professional, safe, fun and we had a great time...until at the very end when they wanted to charge us a million dollars for each photo. That was a downer which dampened the unbelievable experience.
"Shaken, not stirred" is how we arrived to the zip line starting point. We took a safari-like jeep/bus up to the top of the mountain and we were literally only held down by the seat belts we wore.
It was better than a ride at Disneyland!
All geared up and ready to go - a little surprised that all the gear was all wet, but it soon made perfect sense as some of the zip lines ended in pools of water. Our arms were all sore the next day. I didn't realize that you brake with your hand - hence the heavily padded leather gloves. There seemed to be a perfect balance of your hand hovering above the line, ready to break, and actually breaking. It seemed that I needed to 'rest' my hand on the line in order to 'fly' straight. That heated up my glove to a nice and toasty burn.
Riding mules up to the top - we were given instructions on how to ride the mules. Interesting fact, mules are a cross between a horse and a donkey, and they can't reproduce. They are incredibly stubborn and my mule protested the whole way up the trail. I started in the lead and ended in the rear of the pack. This was even despite my best efforts to nudge it into gear - kicking my heels in and making 'smooching' sounds with my mouth. They said it would work, but in the end, my mule went just as fast as it wanted to and my lip muscles were all tuckered out by the time we got to the top.
Yippeee, the exiliration after my fist real zip line! So much fun and what a rush! Mom's got to build a better zip line in the backyard now that we've all done the real thing. At one point, they had two parallel zip lines and I raced my sister Emily. She went flying at the beginning and I was going slow for some reason - I told myself 'no way!' and figured out how to go faster. I felt like a bullet sailing through the air. The speed was awesome! I ended up winning the race, but I also won a fat lip from hitting the end of the line so hard that it flipped me up and hit my face. No regrets.
Rappelling down a waterfall. I thought I was being cautious but quick. My sister Emily schooled me in what quick was : )
The free-fall drop from a ledge down into a pool of water. We had a blast! It was an incredible experience and so memorable. Now that I look back, I can't believe we did so much in a one-week timeframe.
