On Monday 23rd October, after 3 days at sea we came to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. This was our substitute port after our visit to Nicaragua had been cancelled.
Our cruise through the Panama Canal started in Fort Lauderdale and would take us to Aruba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and finally San Francisco and then onto Monterey.
Morning in Puerto Vallarta
I went out onto the balcony at 6 am and I could see that the ship was already docked. Looking out from our balcony I could see lights on apartment blocks over what I thought was the harbour.
I picked up a coffee and a tea from the International Cafe. The sun was now rising and as I looked out over the balcony, what I thought was the harbour was in fact the quayside. Below us there were people setting up stalls and having to use torches to find their way about and coaches had begun to arrive.
As daylight came the road at the end of the quay became busier and busier…
… and we could now see across to the apartments and the marina.
Before we left for breakfast we listened to the Mariachi band playing on the quayside.
As there was no rush to get off the ship, we went down to the Bordeaux restaurant. Our table was again a combination of Australians and Americans. From our conversations I learnt about the spread of alien species in both Australia and the USA.
Back on our balcony we could see a parade of sailors in the Naval Base just across from the ship.
