Vision ports 3/28/04

[therbst]

Cabo San Lucas

Even though we were ticketed to take the 4th tender, we found ourselves on the first because the tenders loaded early, and not everyone was prepared to board. Another couple from our table joined us, and we hired a cab to take us to the glass factory across town (about 2 miles). The cab was $3/person each way plus $6 for waiting about an hour. We were the first tourists at the factory. It had a showroom with thousands of hand-blown vases, glasses, and decorative works. Connected to the showroom was the work area where the workers gladly demonstrate their techniques for anyone interested. We were fascinated by the skill and precision demonstrated by the glass blowers, and they encouraged us to take a turn blowing glass bubbles. Tip jars were placed throughout the work area. Note: as we have often experienced on our travels outside the U.S., OSHA does not exist at the glass factory. Although we didn't purchase anything, we found the prices were reasonable.

We wandered through the main part of town, then through the shops at the pier before returning to the ship a little after noon. Prices in Cabo are generally a little higher than we've seen in other places in Mexico, probably due to its remote location at the end of Baja.

 

Mazatlan

We hired an open-air taxi to take us to the golden zone for $14 (you can ask to be let out of the large wooden doors and on to the main street to find cheaper taxis) where we wandered around the shops and markets for a while before we headed over to the beach. We had an authentic and very pleasant lunch at Panchos while watching the vendors and parasailers, then walked down the beach, doing our best to fend off the many offers to buy hats, scarves, kites, and etc. The vendors were not obnoxious; they were just everywhere. We found another open-air cab for our return to the ship for $12. We found the selection and prices at the markets at the piers at both Cabo and Mazatlan were about equivalent to what we saw in the towns.

 

Puerto Vallarta

I had an 11:00 reservation for the cable tour through the trees. We walked out of the gates at the pier and found a cab ($5) to take us across town to the canopy tours office. Since we were a half hour early, we walked around the art gallery section (Romantic Zone) and down to the beach before returning for the ride into the hills. We arranged the tour on the internet (canopytours-vallarta.com) and received a 10% discount. Diane paid $12 for the ride up and I paid $63 for the full 13 cable rides. Although I am not terribly comfortable with heights and have not been on a roller coaster in many, many years, I thought I should give this a try. It was well worth the anxiety and the cost. Most of the cables either began or ended on the ground, though some had take-offs or landings from/to platforms built up in the trees. Four of the cables crossed a river valley, the longest being 1/4 of a mile at about 150 feet up in the air. Riders were strapped into a harness which allowed them to sit suspended by a nylon strap attached to a pulley which slid along the cable. Handles at the sides of the pulleys were used to "steer" the pulley Holding the pulley wheel straight meant picking up speed and turning the pulley to the side slowed it down. Although everything seemed reasonably safe, it was evident OSHA has not been here, either, but we were very well cared for by our guides who clipped us onto the pulleys, sent us on our way, and caught us at each landing. The truck ride up to the tour area and back was probably the most dangerous part of the experience. The 13 cables took our group of about 15 (the youngest was 6 1/2; I was probably the oldest) about 2 hours to complete. There is a similar tour available through the ship excursions which, I believe, does only tree-to-tree slides.

The Malecon area is not far from the tour office - about 8 blocks downhill. We crossed some rickety swinging walkways over a pair of streams along the way and found a mall of merchants with fairly good prices on souvenir stuff (their sales pitch - "Good stuff for your next garage sale"). We had lunch at Pipis where they made guacamole at the table and served huge margaritas and very large portioned meals. After looking through some of the more expensive stores on along the Malecon Boardwalk, we found a cab back to the ship ($5).

Of the 3 stops, Puerto Vallarta was, by far, our favorite. We didn't find anyplace there where we felt uncomfortable walking and we didn't have a lot of people in our faces trying to sell us stuff.

There is a Walmart and Sam's Club about 1/4 mile from the pier. It's easy to see from the ship.

[momdebomb]

Wow, therbst, thanks for all the great info! This is the cruise we're going to take in August. RCI only allows 18 and up and under 250 pounds on the canopy excursion so in our group of 9 we only had one person who could do it. :">