Puerto Vallarta - Day 4

Monday, March 9, 2015

Since we had some sick people in our group, we decided to keep today pretty low key and close to home. Jeff and I took an early morning walk on the beach and then went to get massages. Cheap massages but still good I guess. I could barely walk after my massage, my lower back hurt soooo bad! Not sure why?! After the massage, Jeff said “That hour went by so fast!” The whole time I was thinking “How much longer until this is over?”

We made the kids some quesadillas for lunch then walked to the grocery store to get some Gatorade and ritz crackers for Jayson who was still feeling pretty sick. In the checkout, Jeff asked the lady for a good taco place. She told us that just around the block there was a very authentic muy rico taco stand we should try. So we headed over to try some lengua (tongue), cabeza (head), chicharones (crispy pork fat) and carne asada. I was super nervous to try it but decided to just go for it. Honestly, once the meat is chopped up super fine like that, it’s hard to tell what it is. So it was pretty good!

Later we hit the beach with Jacob and Calvin to swim and make sand carvings. Jeff rented a jet ski for 40 minutes so we took turns going out in pairs on the jet ski. Calvin got to drive all over the open bay for a good 15 minutes. We saw 6 sting rays swimming around the surface in different areas so we would stop and watch them for a few minutes. We could spot them because their wing tips would stick up out of the water. Calvin was nervous at first that it was a shark from far away because of the color and the pointed tip sticking out of the water. They weren't too big, maybe 2 1/2 feet across for the largest.

Then Jeff made arrangements to ride horses on the beach. It sounded exciting, right? Well, these poor horses were so old that they could barely walk. And we kept turning around every 15 minutes or so to keep walking back and forth in front of our condo. It became kind of funny. We tried so hard to get our horses to trot or run a little. They would kick it in gear for a minute or two then slow back down to a crawl. But we laughed and rode along together so it was still fun.

Dinner tonight was beachfront at a cool restaurant called La Palapa. Our toes were in the sand while we sat under a straw palapa with lights hanging under it while we watched the lightning and the sunset. It was a beautiful setting! And the food was fancy but delicious!