My tan is already fading, but the memories will last forever... Okay, okay, I'll stop being cheesy. But seriously, our cruise to Mexico was amazing! I'm so glad Devin and I have opportunities to travel and vacation and explore the world together before we get too busy with life. So now.. let's get to the good stuff:
We left on Friday night right after Devin got off work at 7. We hit the road and drove until Devin was about to pass out and we found a weird random room in Barstow, California. We slept for a 8 hours and then left again in the morning. We found $5 a day parking which was super cheap for Long Beach. We got in a taxi and headed to the port and boarded the ship! And like that, we were off.
We went to dinner and a show the first night. During the show I was called up on stage and had to participate in this game show. There were 8 people in total on stage, and we were split into teams. There were 2 guys and 2 girls on each team. The guys had to loop a spoon with a long string on it through their pants and the girls had to pull it down through their shirt. (It sounds weird, I know. I don't really know how to explain it better). Well, I had on a long maxi dress-- not a shirt and pants. We were racing, and I was last. I went to pull the spoon up quickly and I accidentally pulled up half of my skirt--IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Even better, they filmed it, and replayed it over and over on the same channel throughout the entire cruise. I was mortified. Anyway, here's some pictures from the 1st day:
Signs like this one below are EVERYWHERE in Mexico. The boys had to take a picture of course
Selling watermelon alongside the road
There were beautiful flowers everywhere here, just growing on fences and alongside the road.
Random stores along the road.
Houses and restaurant on the left.
House convenience store
Bathroom behind the tarp
Making a thatch roof.
They sell Coke in all different sizes!
We left on Friday night right after Devin got off work at 7. We hit the road and drove until Devin was about to pass out and we found a weird random room in Barstow, California. We slept for a 8 hours and then left again in the morning. We found $5 a day parking which was super cheap for Long Beach. We got in a taxi and headed to the port and boarded the ship! And like that, we were off.
We went to dinner and a show the first night. During the show I was called up on stage and had to participate in this game show. There were 8 people in total on stage, and we were split into teams. There were 2 guys and 2 girls on each team. The guys had to loop a spoon with a long string on it through their pants and the girls had to pull it down through their shirt. (It sounds weird, I know. I don't really know how to explain it better). Well, I had on a long maxi dress-- not a shirt and pants. We were racing, and I was last. I went to pull the spoon up quickly and I accidentally pulled up half of my skirt--IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Even better, they filmed it, and replayed it over and over on the same channel throughout the entire cruise. I was mortified. Anyway, here's some pictures from the 1st day:
The next day we laid out in the sun all day! I got some wicked weird tan lines.... When Madi and I got back to our room after about 6 hours of tanning, we saw a note (see the pic below). We died laughing. The boys were pretty happy that there was a basketball court on the ship. That night was our "Elegant" night. I didn't get a picture of Mike and Madi, but they looked great. Madi wore a long black elegant dress, and Mike was in a suit. I wore a long blue dress and my tan and black suede heels. Devin wore a dark grey suit. We went to dinner and and had lobster.... YUM.
The next day, we were in CABO! It was great. We decided we wanted to hang out on the beach for the day, so we found a boat to take us out to lover's beach. It was really cute. We rented some snorkel gear and swam with the fishes. It was amazing. There were SO MANY fish! It was the biggest amount of fish I've ever swam with before, probably around 1000 just swimming together. They were swimming all around our bodies. I loved it. There was also a huge rock, which of course Devin and Mike had to jump off. It was cool.
We also walked around and found some authentic place to eat in the city. It was yummy. We had tacos with Mexican coke. I was in love. The tacos were made with meat that was grilled out front. They put a pineapple on top so the juices would run down as the heat cooked it. It was delicious.
The following day, we were still in Cabo. We found a place to exchange our American money for pesos. It's cheaper to buy things in Pesos than in American dollars in Mexico because they like to rip off tourists, and the ratio is 12.5 pesos to $1 US dollar. I was psyched to see Frida Kahlo's face on the 500 peso bill! As we were walking around, we also saw a Burger King "walk-up" instead of a drive through. Only in Mexico right? We ended up renting scooters and driving all along the coast. It was breathtaking. Also, we ended up going like 60 mph on the highway on scooters and almost dying. It was such an adventure.
As we were driving, we turned off the high way and found a private beach. It was still whale season there, and as we walked closer to the ocean we saw a whale breaching. It was amazing. We also chased crabs for an hour- I know we are little kids. But seriously, there were some huge crabs on that beach. Then we got back on the scooters and headed towards lower Cabo. We saw people selling cold pineapples on the side of the road and decided to try it. They literally just cut a hole in the pineapple and gave us some straws. We squeezed some lime into it. I'll be honest, it was good, but not my favorite. While we drank our coconut water, we sat overlooking the ocean. There was a bunch of surfers below us, and it was fun to see them catch waves.
On the way back, Mike and Madi ran out of gas. We pulled over to the side of the freeway and gave them our scooter so they could go get gas. We waited about half an hour and melted in the sun. Also, I was having an anxiety attack because our ship left in an hour and I wasn't sure we were going to have enough time to get back on it. But, we did. So it was okay :)
The next day, we were in Puerto Vallarta. It was my favorite place by far. There were so many mountains and it was so jungle-y. We saw amazing animals like this Tucan. (We also saw lions in Cabo!) When we got off the cruise ship, we shopped around in the flea market, where I bought a soup spoon and a wooden turtle for our collection of travel items. For this excursion, we rented a 4 person dune buggy and explored the city. We drove to place where we went on 14 ziplines down the mountain! So fun, but also really scary. The only way to slow down was to twist sideways... and I wasn't very good at it. So I ended up hitting the end of the rope really hard each time. Afterwards, we also jumped into a river off of a rope swing. Then we dried off and jumped in the buggy again. We also saw a lot of stores along the road.
We drove to a smaller street where we bought some food from a small family store. We saw an iguana hanging on the fence as we walked up to the store... so cool! Also, there were people making a roof on the store we were at with palm leaves. It was awesome. But, they were really poor. One of the most humbling parts of this trip was seeing how poor people were. You didn't see that near the port, but when we got scooters or the dune buggy and headed out into the middle of Mexico, we really saw the poor parts. Things weren't really clean, and often there wasn't running water.
Because of National Pi Month, we ended up buying food for a man that was diabetic and hadn't worked in 6 months. There is a video of it below. It was a great experience. As we were walking away, Devin felt the need to share the gospel with him, so we turned around and talked to him about the church. He was really interested, so we got his address and we are going to send him a Book of Mormon.
Afterwards, we drove the buggy back, took some great scenic pictures along the way, and took a bus back to port. I had been trying to practice my Spanish (in fact I had been speaking Spanish a lot!) so Devin told me to sit by myself on the bus and wait for someone to sit next to me and strike up a conversation. A lady sat down, and I tried to start talking to her, but she was actually deaf. So I began a conversation with her translator, which lasted an entire 20 minutes. It was awesome! She was really nice about it, and I even helped her practice her English. We watched the sun set as we walked along the beach. And a pirate ship set sail! It was awesome. There's pictures below.
Selling watermelon alongside the road
There were beautiful flowers everywhere here, just growing on fences and alongside the road.
Random stores along the road.
Houses and restaurant on the left.
House convenience store
Bathroom behind the tarp
Yummy Mexican sweets.
Making a thatch roof.
They sell Coke in all different sizes!
Almost everywhere we went there were older teens working to help their families (instead of being in school)
Devin driving the dune buggy
Incredible views
The next day was a sea day. We hung out on the ship, slept a whole lot, laid out, ate a ton of food, and went to shows. It was also the second "Elegant" night, so we dressed up. Here are pictures below. The last day was also a sea day. We pretty much did the same thing. It was awesome having a few days that just forced us to completely relax. We also left our awesome room steward a tip with the bottle of champagne I won on the first night.
The next day we disembarked the ship and headed home. We drove through Vegas and met up with the Chesneys. I love seeing them, they're the best! Devin was so happy to see his best friend for a little while. We ended up getting home by 2 AM because we spent so much time in Vegas, but it was worth it. And that was our awesome vacation, full of lots of laughter and fun.