Thursday, Mar. 13, 2003 - 4:00 pm
Tuesday, we all woke up bright and early to meet our tour guide out by the beach. He was taking the six of us on our own personal snorkeling �booze� cruise (which is how they sell them from the beach) around the Bay of Banderas.
The water temperature is around 75-80�. It was a nice change from the Northern Pacific waters, but it�s still too damn cold for me. On the way to our snorkeling spot, we were joined with some wild dolphins playing in our wake. Pacific bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphins, and spinner dolphins live in Banderas Bay year-round..but, who knows which ones we saw. It was amazing!
At the Northern end/beginning of our tour, the guide drove around and literally in between two of the rocks called, Los Arcos, to give us a little scare. I was impressed though, and felt much better about the fact that our guide knew what he was doing. He told us that the rocks provide a sanctuary for the fishies and the birds there (whales, dolphins, giant manta rays (that I MISSED!), tropical fish, and other tropical birds).
When we were all done snorkeling and exploring the aforementioned tropical fishies, we headed off for our afternoon �siesta�, on a beautiful, secluded beach, Las Animas. It was a very quiet, tiny beach inaccessible except by boat. We ate lunch at this rustic restaurant that sat right there on the coastline. The most amusing thing about this place is that they had a pet squirrel that was in the same cage as two birds. Our guide told us there were two types of squirrels, and out of the two they raise and eat one type. I had quesadillas con queso for obvious reasons.
Rumor has it that Las Animas, which means, the souls, was named for a pirate who was killed returning to his ship after he had buried his treasure somewhere along the beach. It was never found and legend has it his ghost protects the lost loot. That�s some SCARY SHIT.
After lunch, and some napping/reading, I decided that it was time to go on an exhilarating Parasailing tour of the bay. I wish I had thought to bring my camera up there with me. My father in-law-to-be took some shots of my lift off and while I was up there, so those should be interesting to see! Now I know why I would always choose bird as the animal I would want to be.
We headed back on our very wet ride home, and S.�s stomach started with the queasiness. The rest of the evening, we all sort of nursed father-in-law-to-be and S., as they took turns dealing with their various stomach issues. Thank GOD there were three bathrooms in our suite.
Wednesday was not so exciting as the guys were still sort of suffering. K. and B. hit the beach for the day. I hit the pool for an hour, checked my e-mail, read and continued nursing S. in between his naps.
By the end of the evening, they were both more or less cured, and we took B. to Le Bistro Jazz Cafe , since he had missed it Sat. night. After dinner, K., B. and I all ventured out on the town. It was our first night to actually hit a bar since we�d been there. We ended up choosing to buy a bucket of Coronas at a bar named, Kahlua. Their main marketing scheme is to get a spot at the Malecon side of the bar (which is open to the street) for girls that are wearing next to nothing and look about 16, and give them all crazy shots until they are dancing on the ledge. Liability doesn't exist there, obviously.
