the Mexican Riviera- by cruise ship: a truly excellent adventure!

So we get a call from our friends Donna and Dick...seems there is a really good deal on a 7 night cruise to Mexico.  They were going with their friends Ed and Peggy, who we are acquainted with.  Never ones to pass up on a deal, we say "YES".   The cruise line is Holland America, which we like, and the cruise was going to Cabo San Lucas; Mazatlan- my least favorite city on the planet; and Puerto Vallarta- one of my favorites!  We were really excited!

This made our 4th cruise- virgin by everyone's standard, and our second time to this area.  First a little background: for years, Rich wanted to go on a cruise.  I said "No!, we are back packers and we DON'T cruise!"  Once you hit 50, that whole "bathroom down the hall" thing gets old, so I said yes, and off we went with our friend Bart and Cody to Mexico.  Needless to say, we loved it.

So lets review why we love cruises: comfortable bed; you can order breakfast and have it delivered; tons of stuff to do on the ship, including nothing; great shows- including musicians, comics, theater; food you only dream of in either a dining room or buffet; easy transport to different ports; planned excursions if you want (we usually don't); happy hour in lots of different bars; great vistas and sunsets; down time!  All this for a VERY affordable price, as long as you are flexible and watch prices.

Some pictures of our ship, etc:

the name of our ship: Veendam

as we sail outside San Diego Bay, the bouys are bathing spots for the sea lions

Of course, laying on the desk with wine and friends is always a top activity!

The 6 of us: Rich, Ed, Peggy, Dick, Donna, me

Sunsets on the ship are always incredible!

One of the many activities: hot tubs!

On this trip, we had an ocean view room!  Usually, we have an interior cabin low in the ship.  We often joke that we have rooms next to the engines, and follow the rats to the kitchen:-).  We were happy because we were above the water line:-)

Something fairly new: towel animals!  The room stewards add one of these creative animals to the bed every night. 

Always looking forward to the trip!

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas, a tiny town at the tip of the Baja penninsula.  Known for spring break parties, beaches, whale watching, and condos, there is very little that is authentically Mexican here.  But that is no reason not to visit!  We had about 6 hours off-ship, so our choice of activities: whale watching and margaritas on the beach!

The Cabo arch is a world famous landmark!

 Me on the fishing boat as we go out to see whales.  The captain said "no whales, no tip".  Tip..who said anything about a tip?  LOL- they are so wrong about us!

 We saw a mother and baby whale!  They splashed around for almost 1/2 hour!  It was incredible.  Here is the tail....

 and here she is breaching the sea.......we tipped VERY well.  It was so worth it!  But hard to photograph.

 Spring break!

 Some old guy who can't hold his tequila")

 Ed and Peggy at the cantina

 The arch as we sail out.

 Rich as a wanna-be fisherman:-)

Mazatlan

Mazatlan was my least favorite city in the world.  Our last trip, 2003, had a boring, dirty city with merchants eager to screw you our of your money.  I didn't look forward to it, and actually thought of just staying on the ship.  So glad I didn't!  What a change in 12 years!!!  It is a colorful, safe, interesting beach city that we really liked!!!   The city has a whole crew of American Ex-patriots who live here part and full time, called blue-shirts, who provide tons of tourist information and assistance.  Plus, because of the news about the violence in Sinoloa State, there were more police out than you can imagine.  And they were nice!

The city has a great historic core, complete with cathedral, and a boardwalk along the coast filled with art and interesting things.  There are really good restaurants, and very interesting taxis, called Pulmonia.  They are essentially large golf carts that take you all over for a very good price.

Cathedral from the park

 interior view

 cathedral from the plaza

 another interior view

 Rich and I on the coast

 Dragons are everywhere!  Here is one of the lights outside the cathedral

 cliff divers!

 monument to the Pulmonia

 column on the boardwalk

 mermaid on the boardwalk

 symbol of Mazatlan

 The buildings are very colorful!  Here is on example.  There is every color you can think of.  Really perks up the place!

 The beach

Rich paying our Pulmonia guide

 Donna, Dick and I at sunset

 The wonderful sky!

Puerta Vallarta

Puerta Vallarta- beautiful, quaint, tropical, artsy, this is the city to visit!  Truly beautiful, with an interesting church, hills to explore, a board walk, and huge ex-patriot community: Gringo Gulch and Canada Canyon.  This is truly a city worthy of your time!

the symbol of Puerta Vallarta!

 a sand sculpture!

 Beachwalk art- an interesting "person" watching two other interesting "persons" climbing a ladder

Huichol Indians were in town singing and dancing

Puerta Vallarta is known for its beach- as you can see, it is deserved!

The church is very interesting!  It is not a cathedral as there are no relics.  It is a parish church.  That doesn't take away from its beauty!

Interior

 Iron work over the front entrance

 Steeple 

 detail of the steeple

 view of the church from the plaza

 steeple

 steeple, again (I know there are alot, but it is so beautiful!)

 another view from the plaza

Rich and I at the coast

 Dragon light

 Dragon street light

No visit to Mexico is complete without a tequila tour.  Here Rich and I are at Mr. Tequila!

 Beach art

 boardwalk tourists:-)

 colorful buildings with colorful tourists:-)

 the boardwalk arches!

 boardwalk art

 street art

Every trip must end (tears).  Good bye....for now....

Epilogue

So.... our adventure is over.  We went on the plane kicking and screaming, not really wanting to go home; Patrick actually cried when the plane took off.  But we have been home now for about 4 months and have finally, somewhat, gone back into a regular routine.  

One of my favorite travel bloggers, NomadicMatt, wrote an entire blog on what we call Post-Vacation Depression (http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/coming-home-blues/).  Check it out- this is something I have always thought about.

Soon after coming home, Rich's sister and brother in law came to Fresno to visit for a few days to buffer our landing; we had a wonderful Halloween with Cody; visited friends in Temecula; Rich went to Carson City to visit his mother; and I went to Minnesota to celebrate my aunts 94th birthday, and reconnect with about 10,000 cousins, and bond with 3 of my bro's, my sister, and nieces; to top it all off, we had great family and friend get-together's for the holidays.  Coming home in the fall was actually a good idea.

My brothers Dennis, Mike and Tom with our Aunt Helen, age 94!

My brothers Dennis and Tom, sister Sally, and two of her 3 daughters: Stacy and Kim

We are trying to figure out how to wrap up our trip in a blog entry.  Truthfully, it was the adventure of a life time!  We are so very blessed to have had the opportunity and the where-with-all to actually take this on!  During our trip, we constantly talked about our hope that people didn't think we were being uppity about sharing this trip, and we really didn't want to come across as having too much hubris.  We wanted to share the trip and our excitement and love for everyplace we went and every person we met.  Hopefully, no one thought of us a braggarts..... or worse.  As I said, we always felt blessed that we could actually do this.

The one thing we really loved and looked forward to, were comments- either on Facebook or e-mail- from everyone!  You all made us feel a part of life at home, even when we were away.  

We saw so many sights, city's, museums, country's, castles and palaces; ate in so many restaurants and tried so many different foods (but nothing weird, we are not that adventurous); drank so many different types of coffee, beer, and wine; slept is such a variety of hotels, from very basic to very nice, to the dump in Paris- all at budget pricing.  But even with almost 7 months, there was never enough time to do everything we wanted to do or see.  Perhaps that is what life is about- never experiencing it all so that the door to returning is always open. 

It was not the sights, the art, or the food that made our trip; it was the people we met along the way.  When we think of the cruise over to Europe, we think of the entire group of people we met; when we think of Seville, we will always think of staying at Sofia and Alex's apartment; or meeting Margherita in Rome; Antonella and Umberto made us feel so welcome in Florence, all the wonderful people in Montenegro and Belgrade, and of course little Emma in Berlin!  The list of people we met- from the cruise to each of the cities, was astounding!   And I was doubly blessed to meet up with so many awesome people I met on the Camino de Santiago, and had the chance to spend time with them and introduce them to Rich.  What was really unexpected is that everyone of them took so much time to show us their homes!  The days in Dobeln, Germany and Eindhoven, Netherlands were incredible!  Again, proof that the Camino de Santiago is a life-changing adventure and I was blessed to be a part of it. We were truly blessed to meet up with everyone.  Each person represented their country, and the human race, with such grace and humanity, and the fun we had with everyone is nothing short of astounding! There was only one disappointment for me- I did not get to meet up with Ivan- next time Ivan!  

Future travels will, of course, be part of our lives.  We do not think we will ever travel for an extended period again, but 6 weeks is not out of the question:-). Right now, we have no specific plans, but 2015 will be the start of putting together new adventures:-).

This blog took on a life of its own during this trip!  But what to do with it in the future is something we have been talking about.  Our lives are too boring to have regular entries, so we decided that when we do travel, we will make entries......  The entries will not be regular, and right now we have no idea of where we will specifically be going, so we will just have to wait and see:-).  We hope everyone will share with us.

To close, we want to thank everyone for caring enough to follow our travels. We hope we gave you both excitement for travel and a glimpse into the world.  As we always say, the world is a wonderful place!  It is just begging to be explored and experienced, and all the people are open and are ready to be met and become friends!  People really are amazing, and we all do amazing things- let's share it!

Happy Travels to everyone!