Grandchildren on his knee....

 Bouncing

Marietas Islands

The Marietas Islands were formed during the Cretaceous era by volcanic activity that created ragged formations, ideal places to shelter life.  The Marietas are one of the most important places for marine bird watching in México.  There is a wildlife refuge which is a protected natural zone, and its characteristics make it a unique place.  On our second day at Sayulita, we found a guy and a boat and paid him to take us out to the islands.

It was towards the end of the day, so we didn't have time to actually get out of the boat and explore the islands, but but saw some fabulous sights on the way out and while we cruised around the islands.

Oh, and we got to "fish".

It was an amazing boat ride (about an hour) out to the islands.

Captain Fidel.

He brought his young teenage daughter along with him, but every time I took a picture, she ducked.

Some more beautiful sights.

Now we are at the Marietas.

The islands are home to the blue-footed booby, which I found nearly impossible to photograph in a moving and bouncing boat.  But you can see his/her blue feet here.

We stopped here near a beach and Lydia and Fidel's daughter got out to snorkel.

Some other shots of the islands and surrounding area.

We were told before we left Sayulita that the boat could take us right to the marina in Nuevo Vallarta, saving us the cab ride back to the resort.

Weelllll.....that wasn't quite true.  We were left at Punta Mita which is a $31 cab ride back.
OK, no big deal.
Except ALL of the cabs in Punta Mita arte HUGE (Suburbans, etc.) and the cabbie charge $70 because "we have big cabs".
Sorry, pal - not my problem.
So we took a bus all the way back.
An experience everyone should have once.
But not twice.

Sayulita

Many thanks to Jeff and Niki for telling us about Sayulita!
They were there over Thanksgiving a couple years ago and loved it.
Sayulita is a small town (about 4,000 pop.) about 25 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. It is known as a surfing town with a laid back atmosphere. There are surf schools along with beachfront restaurants, bars and taco stands not to mention the omnipresent vendors.

We took a cab there to see what we could see, having no idea how long we would stay.  The cab driver said he would wait for us!  I told him we would probably be a couple hours.  He said he would wait and five hours later, there he was! Amazing.

He dropped us off at the beach.

Being hungry, we headed down to the beach, settled in some beach chairs and allowed people to bring us food and cervezas.

Oh yeah, there are lots of dogs in Mexico, even on the beach.  We were adopted by this fellow for the afternoon and he was quite interested in our lunch.  But he was perfectly behaved and never went after anything.  I suspect he was fed some chicken when I was not around. Just a suspicion.

A beautiful day at the beach.

 

That is not a real parachutist.  It's a miniature Spiderman doll on a parachute.  We saw them all over the place.

We loved Sayulita so much that we went back the next day to check out the town and the shops.

And we felt compelled to go back to the beach........

...to be serenaded.......

......and make another dog friend.

 Lydia absolutely loved this dog and definitely wanted to bring her home with us.  She was very sweet and happy to lie under our table.  I KNOW she got some chicken when I wasn't there.