Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – June 11 – 17, 2011

I left the resort in Cancun at 11 a.m. to go to the airport for a 1:10 flight.  It was delayed by about half an hour and arrived in Mexico City just slightly late.   I was worried about my connecting flight to Puerto Vallarta but it was also delayed so it all worked out.  Both flights were great except that getting into and out of Mexico City was rather bumpy as they had several storms in the area.  I arrived in Puerto Vallarta around 6 p.m. and caught a taxi to the resort.  I haven’t been here for many years and things have certainly changed as there has been a lot of development in the area. 

The actual resort looked just the same and after I checked into my room I wandered down to the nearby plaza for dinner and then to buy groceries.  It was after 8 p.m. when I was walking back and it still wasn’t dark, which was quite a change from Cancun.  It was an equal surprise when I got up the next morning and wondered why there wasn’t any light in my room waking me up before 7 a.m.  I then sat on my balcony and watched the sun rise just after 7:30 a.m.  The birds were singing and flying around and there was no one else around at the time so it was very peaceful.  I had my bowl of cereal on the balcony while I enjoyed the view.  I’m on the 8^th floor so have a great view of the Marina in front of me, the countryside and mountains to the left or east, and the beach and ocean to the right or west.

I went down to the Members Services desk and got lots of reading material on what to do this week, although I really don’t plan on doing anything.  I then went and had my picture taken for my photo ID and got my towel and eventually made it to the beach to read all the material.  It was hot and sunny but there was a bit of a breeze so that definitely helped cool things down.  Unfortunately on the beach that also means that you get a lot of sand blown at you.  I noticed it in my eyes first.  It’s so fine you don’t really feel it on your skin until you go to get up and find you are covered in a fine powder.  Regardless it is a nice beach and I plan to spend a fair amount of time on over the next few days.

I went back up to the condo for lunch, which I again ate on my patio.  It was now in the shade but certainly a lot hotter than early in the morning.  After that I went down to another meeting with Member Services to see what was new at the resort and what they wanted to sell me this time.  For a mere $49,000 I could have lots of new privileges.  Like that was going to happen!  The normal visit is about two hours with lunch and/or drinks and a tour and a talk.  I was in and out in less than 15 minutes, which was exactly how long I said I’d give them to present their spiel.  Then I went to the pool, found a bit of shade and read for another couple hours.  At 5 p.m. I went back to the room and changed into something a bit more respectable and then at 6 p.m. I went down to the welcome party for some free munchies and some entertainment. 

The welcome party is actually quite entertaining.  It’s held in a theatre that’s right outside my window.  If it weren’t for the palm trees I could have enjoyed the action from my patio.  The dancers, supposedly doing ancient Mayan dancer, were fantastic.  The audience members who went up to dance in another part of the show were not so fantastic but they were entertaining none the less.  The music was good.  The emcee was good.  The staff intros were quick and yet still entertaining.  The food was good – basically just munchies (taco chips and salsa, popcorn, etc.) and some wonderful bread with a chunk of cheese and tomato and spices that were fantastic.  The whole event only lasts about an hour and the temperature was lovely so it was very enjoyable.

I then changed again and went for a walk on the beach.  Ii thought I’d be gone for about an hour and back shortly after 8 before it got too dark.  Because I wasn’t going to be gone long I didn’t take my camera.  By the time I got back it was about 9:30 p.m. and definitely getting dark.  The sun didn’t set until about 8:40 and it wasn’t a spectacular sunset so I certainly didn’t need my camera for that.  However, the walk was really quite wonderful.  Yes, the sand was nice and easy to walk on barefoot.  And yes the breeze of the ocean was cool and refreshing.  But better than that, I saw three sea turtles.  I had gone specifically to other places and on other tours to see them but they weren’t anywhere in sight.  Now they were right in front of me and it was still daylight so I could see them perfectly.  I could also have taken some fantastic pictures of them had I had my camera with me.  I will take with me on future walks and I probably won’t see any turtles.

Anyway, the first one I spotted because I noticed the tracks from the water up on to the sand and there up by volleyball net at one of the resorts was the turtle.  She was just making her way down to the water so I just stood and watched.  The sand is pretty loose and deep so it was slow progress.  She would put her head up, raise her body and take about twenty steps and then lower herself back down again to rest.  It definitely looked like hard work.  Eventually she made it to the edge of the water and with the first wave that washed over her she was gone.  It was obviously a lot easier for her to move in the water.

The second turtle I must have walked right past on my way out.  There were people sitting and standing around at a certain spot and I just thought it was a family enjoying the beach so I walked around them.  They were still there when I came back down the beach and I finally realized why.  There was a turtle right near the water digging a nest.  That too looked like really hard work.  These are big turtles and very heavy.  In order to dig a nest they have to dig with their back feet (probably not the right word but I’m not sure what else to call them) while keeping the rest of their body stationary on the sand.  The sand was pretty wet where she was digging so it was also very heavy.  After four to six swipes with her back feet, she would let herself down and relax for a while.  This went on for some time and eventually she just relaxed and went very quiet.  Apparently they go into a trance as soon as they start laying eggs.  That’s when the naturalists move in.  The one guy got behind the turtle and started scooping out sand so there was a big hole about three feet deep when he was done.  The eggs would fall into the hole one by one and he would scoop them up and put them into a plastic bag to be transported to the safe site.  In total he collected 86 eggs.  At this stage the eggs have a soft rubbery shell and are easy to transport.  Shortly after the last egg had been laid and collected, the turtle began to start moving to fill in the hole.  The naturalist quickly slid all the sand back in that he had hauled out at the back of the nest and then let the turtle do the rest.  She seemed none the wiser about the fact that the eggs she had just laid were no longer in the nest.  Either that or she was quite happy to have the eggs taken away to safety.  She also didn’t seem to mind having all of us standing around watching her.  After several minutes of throwing sand back into the nest, including some dry sand which was really ending up about six feet away and missing the nest entirely, she finally headed toward the sea and we all cheered her on her way.

The naturalists left as soon as the eggs had been collected and the sand shoved back into the nest.  They were busy chasing down the next turtle that had come up on shore just as the last one came out of her trance and only about thirty feet away.  I didn’t stay around to watch this new turtle and neither did they.  They had an ATV and an entire beach to patrol so they had to do a run up and down the beach to see what else was happening.  They knew they had lots of time before they had to be back with this specific turtle.  The other naturalist, by the way, was busy measuring the size of the turtle while the guy was gathering the eggs.  She had a clip board where they recorded the location of the turtle, the size, the number of eggs, etc.  She said they didn’t have any of the turtles tagged.  From what I saw on the sheet this appeared to be about the fifth or sixth turtle already this evening and normally they are busiest after dark.   As the girl said when she left, obviously it was going to be a busy night for them.  

I spent Monday at the pool reading in the morning, had lunch, did some blogging, had a quick evening stroll on the beach and then had dinner while watching the hockey game.  Now I have to stop there and say that while walking on the beach that night I did not see any turtles but it was earlier than the previous night because I had to be back to watch the hockey game.  However, I did see lots of sting rays surfing the waves right at the shoreline.  They were pretty impressive to see.  One of them wasn’t too bright though.  He obviously got a bit too close to shore and ended up on the sand upside down flapping around trying to get back into the water.  Luckily a larger wave came along and he was saved.

The other thing I saw on the shore in the wet sand was something blue and jelly like.  That did not impress me as it looked like a jelly fish.  By the time the evening was through I had seen three of them and after talking to a lifeguard down the beach, he confirmed that they did have jelly fish here but only the blue ones, but he hadn’t heard of any today.  I told him there were some on the beach and he said they would sting if they got wrapped around your leg but they wouldn’t sting if you just stepped on them.  So for the walk back I definitely watched where I was stepping and made sure I was just a bit higher than the water as it came in. 

Now the reason I’m telling you all this is because on the walk out I stepped on something and it really hurt.  It felt like a nail or pin going in as it was really sharp.  But at the same time it felt like a hard sharp rock that really hurt your whole foot.  Ii couldn’t see any puncture wound or hole or cut on my foot and I couldn’t see anything on the ground.  It really hurt but I kept walking – didn’t really have any choice about that.  The next day when I got up my foot was swollen a bit and still sore but there was still no apparent injury to the skin.  By noon my foot was so big I couldn’t even get flip-flops on and it was really red and itchy.  That’s when I decided I probably had to go to the medical centre.  That took a while. 

I had to get approval from the insurance company first and they had to fax that to me.  I ended up calling them three times to say nothing had arrived yet.  Eventually 8 hours later, they e-mailed me what I needed so I could go see the doctor.  I’m glad I wasn’t bleeding to death.  Anyway, the hotel gave me a lift to the medical centre and the doctor said I definitely had a problem but she agreed there was no point of entry or anything so she thought it must be just an allergic reaction to whatever I had stepped on.  She gave me some medication and it now, two days later, does seem much better.

What all of that means is that I had no more walks on the beach daytime or nighttime so definitely no chance to see any more sea turtles and get pictures.  I made it as far as the pool each day, as I limped along, and that was it.  However, I’d rather have this type of foot injury at this point in my travels than the kind of foot injury I had on my last year off.  This one was a whole lot easier to get through.  Now I just have to hope that the flight home doesn’t affect it in any way.

And that ends my travels for this trip.  I am off shortly to the airport to start my journey back home.  I still have many blogs to complete but they definitely won’t be done until after I get back.