Our Outdoor Adventure In Puerta Vallarta

So as I promised in my last post (see below) I would tell you all about our OUTDOOR ADVENTURE excursion, which was awesome!

It was such a thrill and one of the best things (if not the best thing of our trip). So it says its an eco-tour, for the adventurous and outdoors type. PERFECT. It has Mexico's highest (yes I am scared of heights) and longest zip-lines. About 1,000 ft long and 250 ft. high!

So you start off on in true 007 style with an exhilarating speed boat ride whisking you to Boca de Tomatlan, a secluded beach at the edge of the jungle on the southern shores of Banderas Bay. Ned made fun of me the entire boat ride because I was giggling like a 5 yr old. I guess it wasn't as fun to others as it was so me...I loved going over the big ocean waves. (Ned almost lost his hat too, but Steve had a great catch).


Once on dry land, our 4x4 Mercedes Benz Unimogs (I guess they are old Swiss Army jeeps) take you on an off-road expedition 2,000 ft above sea level to our base camp deep into heart of the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Then the mule ride:


Then the real fun, and adrenalin rush begins. You go through a series of zip-lines, rappel down waterfalls, traverse jungle bridges and finally splash through streams and natural river pools. The guides were so super cool and fun too. They kept calling me "Kamikaze Heidi" because (truth be told) I was so afraid to be stuck out in the middle of the zip line that I wouldn't break before I came into the next platform. So I would run into my guide who had to catch me, or hit a tree... but it was fun and hilarious when I did it!





There were a few times when I SERIOUSLY freaked out and didn't think I could do it. Like when they told me to just sit down and sit back and THIS (what you see below) is the only thing below me...ahhhhh...but I did it and loved it. Who knew I'd rappel down a waterfall!

You get SOAKED too...it was cold and we had so much fun watching everyones face as they actually hit the water. I wish I had all those pictures! HILARIOUS!

All in all it was SUCH a BLAST and we had the best group and SO much fun! I'd recommend it to anyone going out that way.

OUR CRUISE: Mexican Riviera

One of the best and most memorable weeks of my life! We had so much fun, I was so grateful for this time with family and for the family who watched all of our kids.
(so forgive all the pictures, and these are just mine, probably more to come)...

Matt & Katie (Ned's sis), Mark & Lindsay, Steve & Amy (Ned's sis), and Ned & I.


The beaches of CABO SAN LUCAS were probably my most favorite beach port.

This is our ship from where we ate lunch, on top of a little restaurant. And with my cheapo camera, isn't it beautiful?

We rented sea doo's and had a BLAST! We saw sea lions right next to us, beautiful water, the iconic cliffs on the tip of Cabo. It was SO beautiful and SO fun!


Puerto Vallarta
This was probably our favorite destination of the three, mainly because we took an excursion to this beautiful little port town (see 1st picture below). It started with a boat ride in the ocean, a Swiss Mercedes army jeep ride, a mule ride, rappelling down waterfalls, jungle bridges and the longest and highest zip-lines in Mexico. It was AWESOME! I will do a separate post on this trip alone.



Mazatlan:
It was really windy the day we were in Mazatlan and so we basically had fun taking crazy taxi's all over town. They blasted their music for us and we danced and sang (I even got in trouble by local military, another story). I have a few videos but I don't know if I want to post them, or if my counterparts would appreciate it. REMEMBER we had no kids...we got a little silly/goofy/crazy...however you want to put it.
We ate yummy food (and got free shrimp from Virgina, remember guys? ha ha ha) and had tasty margarita's!

We also did some shopping and walked through a few markets and found a few interesting things you don't usually see in the US on the streets. It made us all vegetarians for about 1/2 a day.

Cruising:

We enjoyed so much while cruising on the ship! Eating to our hearts content (+10 times more) on delicious food. We had the BEST servers that were so fun, played trivia games with us every night at our table, and sang with and to us. We enjoyed all the entertainment (some GREAT and some not so great shows). Going to the CLUB. Eating at the buffet (cookies, pizza, etc.) at midnight EVERY NIGHT (yes I gained 5lbs!). The Climbing wall, ice skating "tag", diet coke for DAYS, laying by the pool, soaking in the hot tub, dying in the sauna and steam rooms.

The boys acting silly and dressed alike too...

Every night they would take a picture of the couples at the table and then the ladies ALONE. After the 3rd night I said really I don't want a picture by myself I wont ever buy it. So then my husband steps in and says "I'll take her photo"...so then he does his Uncle Rico pose (below) and I loved it so much I BOUGHT it! Sure enough every night after that they took pictures of all the men at our table too.

Eating escargot...

The climbing wall.

Amy and I even got on stage and did some karaoke. Which if anyone has heard me sing knows that is hilarious because I have the WORST voice ever, REALLY! We did Straight Up by Paula Abdul and you can see I even threw a few hot dance moves in there.

PS... Our cruise theme song is posted to the right. LOVE TODAY!

MY CRUISE

SO EXCITED FOR:

• all you can eat food
• basking in the sun
• 1 on 1 time with my hubby
• relaxation
• shopping
• excursions and shopping
• and more

WHAT I WILL GREATLY MISS: