Sixth Port on the 15 Day Celebrity Millennium Cruise:
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Snorkeling in the Frigid Cold Waters of the Sea of Cortez
Excuse the shakiness por favor.
Remember how I said that one of the wonderful aspects of a Mexican excursion is an open bar, beautiful weather and lovely scenery? Well, that's mostly true concerning Cabo San Lucas. It is absolutely gorgeous, with a lovely open bar on board our catamaran.The weather though was a bit on the chilly side but that certainly didn't compare to the temperature of the water. I'm guessing this mainly had to do with our arriving in late May and a tropical depression south of us, but the water temperature that we were to go snorkeling in was a balmy 60 degrees. . .
There was no easy way to get in that water. You could use a ladder, jump in or use the water slide. It didn't matter though because whichever way you chose to go, as soon as your body hit that water, it was enough to make your heart stop and produce a high pitched squeal you didn't know you were capable of doing. The few burly men in our group attempted a bit of bravado before jumping in but once their torso hit those chilled waters they were reduced to whimpering little girls; it was indeed that cold.
Although every ounce of me wanted to jump out of the salted Sea of Cortez I managed to stay in and add some new sea creatures to my snorkeling expeditions list, including some sea urchins and a needle fish. Overall it was a great excursion, minus the bone-chilling waters, and the town of Cabo San Lucas is a beautiful and fantastic place to visit. My only advice is to get ready to turn on those blinders because once you walk off your tendered boat and get off the dock there are quite a few of two-legged sharks all lined up ready to hock their own excursions.
Fifth Port on the 15 Day Celebrity Millennium Cruise:
Puerta Vallarta, Mexico
Snorkeling and the Beautiful Village of Yelapa
I thought this was rather funny, our tour guide from Costa Rica told us that Bimbo is a bread company in Central America, nonetheless from an American slang standpoint it's rather amusing.
From the beach on Yelapa we were transported back to our boat via a smaller speedboat, which was an interesting experience, especially trying to get in.
One of the wonderful aspects of a Mexican exursion is an open bar, beautiful weather and lovely scenery; this was definitely the case concerning Puerto Vallarta. The only hiccup concerning this port is was what I can only assume was a typo or misunderstanding from the cruise line, who said according to our tickets, that we were to be on the dock at 7am in order to meet our guide. Other than having to get up an ungodly hour whilst on vacation, the problem was that our ship wasn't scheduled to be in port until 7am and docked and ready for passengers to leave somewhere between 7:15-7:30am. By the time everything was ready and we got off the ship it was roughly 7:30am which left me a little perturbed, that however changed as we made our way to the boat and had beautiful sunrise was before us.
Our crew was great, friendly, knowledgeable and entertaining as we made our way to our first stop before snorkeling at the beautiful town of Yelapa. Yelapa is unique in that it's a town without cars, so the only way to get around is by foot or horse, although I do believe that I saw a quad roll through one of the streets. As we got off the boat and made our way to a waterfall, we made a small pit stop to our guide David's mothers house where he showed us how locals such as his mother grow orchids via a coconut shell. He also brought out his mother for all of us to meet and showed us a photo of him and his niece at her quinceanera - it was adorable. We then proceeded back on our way to the waterfall, or rather a trickle of waterfall since Yelapa's rainy season was just around the corner.
As you pass through on your way to the beach, you'll suddenly notice an influx of street vendors, although these quiet vendors aren't the loud in your face walking sharks of Columbia, which was quite refreshing. However once you make your way across the sand and find your perfect beach chair prepare for the obnoxious vendors who will not leave you alone, even if you're sleeping. I had two different men with a tray of the exact same jewelry tell me that they made it and that I will not find another like it, one even began to fake cry so that I would hopefully buy something. I didn't. There was also another man who was obnoxious on a whole other level, you see he had a rather large iguana (not a euphemism) which he would walk up to you and say for a certain price you could have your picture taken with the iguana. That in itself isn't too bad, but inbetween fresh meat to ask, he would literally fling the iguana into the ocean and the iguana would hastily swim its way back to shore only to have the process repeated. Although my favorite instance of being hassled while relaxing on the beach was by an old woman who would walk around and ask for a dollar, when she came to me though and I said no (I only had enough money to tip our guides) she called me a brat and walked away; how flattering.
Soon enough it was time to go back to our boat, however the only way to do that from our current location was via a speed boat. Trying to get into said speed boat was a bit of an awkward experience, but we all managed nonetheless.
Then after about a 5 minute ride we found our snorkeling spot and were warned about an influx of jellyfish in the area. The water was warm and pretty clear and an abundance of fish swam below our feet as we floated just above the surface. Every once in awhile one of the guides paddling around us in a kayak would find something interesting and would give us information about what kinds of fish were swimming below us. They'd even throw some bate in to coax the fish ever closer to our underwater cameras so we could hopefully get that one great shot. Sadly though before we knew it, it was time to head back on to the boat and make our way back to the ship, although the sting of leaving was lessened by the onslaught of wonderful mixed drinks.
We got back to the dock with just minutes to spare before the Millennium started packing up her gangway, on the plus side no waiting in line to get on!
**The reason for the title, I'm from New York is because I was asked by about 7 different crew members and guides where I'm from, which if you can't tell is New York. Which I should also add is also a state as everyone seems to think NYC when I respond.
Fourth Port on the 15 Day Celebrity Millennium Cruise:
Puerto Quetzal,Guatemala
Pacaya Volcano Climb
Not the taxi in question when concerning Pacaya, but I just wanted to show what public transportation looks like all along Central America. Although not the greatest shot, each school bus from Panama to Guatemala is uniquely painted and decorated and relatively cheap compared to the price of public transportation around the states.
Parking spaces as defined by white stones on lush green grass as opposed to blacktop and fading white painted lines.
The caldera of a former volcano located near Pacaya.
Looks like a weed, tastes like lemon.
My horse, Champion.
Let me preface this by saying that Guatemala is a beautiful country with green mountains and fields of green as far as the eye can see, but the further away you go from the major tourist destinations it's clear that the country is reeling from economic strife. The latter is all the more reason why more people should get out and come to Guatemala, the people are friendly (at least where we visited in San Vicente Pacaya) and the country is beautiful.
Our trip to the base of Pacaya was simple enough, once we got off the bus however, we were bombarded with the local Mayan population insisting that you ride their "taxi" (aka a horse) for $40 round trip instead of hiking up the volcano. We were also greeted and encircled by the malnourished street dogs who were very friendly, but broke your heart due to their gaunt bodies - the next time I go to Guatemala, I'll be bringing a bag of kibbles n' bits.
Once you begin your ascent at a rather brisk pace you realize what you're in for, a steep walk that never levels out and at a clip that will tire you out rather quickly. You do get an occasional pit stop, but not really long enough to fully catch your breath and if you stand still long enough, you'll slowly be encircled by horses and men asking if you want a taxi. I should also add that no matter how many times you say no, they will not falter, and when you say yes, be prepared because before you finish the word you'll be rather forcibly whisked onto your horse by your eager guide. About a quarter of our group ended up on horse back sooner or later and I was one of those who pansied out about half way through the hike - I overheated and the world was a spinning. Although my guide barely spoke English and I had vague recollection of my high school Spanish lessons we understood one another well enough. My guide/ horse wrangler even taught me about some local flora and fauna along the way including one interesting plant that looked like a weed, but apparently when you split back the stem, it tastes like lemon and helps to soothe an upset stomach.
Once we got to the summit, it was time to pay the man if you were only going one way and walk up to the base of Pacaya's cone. Unfortunately on the day that we went there was no lava spewing forth to roast some marshmallows over, but there was plenty of steam rising and an absolutely beautiful vista to look out on. There were also some steam vents were tourists could plop down in for an interesting photo op. We were allotted a decent amount of time to explore the accessible areas, take photos, peruse the Lava Store and look for some pieces of pumice, which littered the ground.
The descent was easy and fast enough and this is where my only complaint with this excursion comes in, as we were told it was time to head back down to the bus, our guides were the first ones down the hill and our group was vastly spread apart. You'd walk and see no one else except for the occasional gruff looking locals in a dilapidated shack. Then once you're down to where you boarded the bus again, the dogs and local children engulfed our group, the dogs looking for food (which I readily gave up some extra turkey jerky I had) and the kids looking for candy bars (we were given them to help keep up energy on the hike) and dollar bills.
Overall it was one of the best excursions, I just wish that we could've hiked up Pacaya at a less brisk pace and that our guide made sure that the whole group was ready to descend at once instead of a long spread out trail of people. I should also add that the lunch offered at a restaurant called Sarita was delicious and definitely try the Jamican Flower drink they offer!
