The previous day in Manzanillo we spent an hour sitting in the middle of the harbor waiting to dock the boat. They announced the delay was caused by more careful health inspections. This announcement was readily accepted by everybody as being totally reasonable. It was also a lie. This morning, at “Ask the Captain”, we learned that the delay was caused by trying to dock a boat on Saturday afternoon when everybody was on siesta. The captain was not pleased.
Yesterday (Sunday) we visited Puerto Vallarta. This is a large tourist area with new, modern attractions. Danita, I and 18 other brave souls skipped all of that and boarded military trucks to go back country. The tour was a blast. I was relieved to see a much wealthier area than we saw in Manzanillo. Everywhere we went, we saw good access to electricity and modern plumbing. We saw plenty of buildings with satellite dishes and even quite a few air conditioners.
Our first stop was at a chocolate museum. There were no glass cases here. They had cocoa trees. We opened a ripe cocoa pod and tasted the seeds (quite sweet). Plus there was the standard chocolate samples and discussion of chocolate (which is an Indian word that means “bitter water”). If you look at the pics, you will see an immature pod above a small white flower. The flowers are pollinated by a specific species of mosquito.
From there, we visited a back country village. Then we took off on dirt roads. We saw a modern Mexican cowboy leading a train of horses and mules, several examples of very healthy looking irrigation channels, etc. The pictures look a little rough because they were taken from a moving truck bouncing down a dirt road at a high rate of speed. (From where I sat, I could clearly see the speedometer was disconnected.) I was convinced the drivers were randomly driving around until we came to a fence. Instead of turning around, out guide opened the fence and we entered Vallejo Ranch.
This is owned by a family that is trying to preserve wildlife and especially the Camporno tree. This tree needs protection because its raw fruit is sweet and cows love eating it. Cows like it so much the tree can’t reproduce itself. Camporno fruit is much like coffee, but contains no caffeine. It makes a drink that tastes much like coffee but is 100% decaffeinated. The ranch also has a way cool tower. One of the other fruits we saw while at the ranch was Habillo. These beans look and taste like good food, but the cause severe diarrhea. High doses can cause convulsions. The story is that Montezuma added a good measure of Habillo to the water of the Spanish conquistadors, which is the origin of “Montezuma’s Revenge”.
We finished the tour at a Mexican grill at a lovely lake. The featured drink was tequila with hibiscus water. It goes down easier than sangria and it’s every bit as potent. It’s guaranteed to put you in the mood for a nice siesta.
This was our last tour and a great cap for the cruise. We are at sea today and tomorrow. We’ll disembark in San Diego Wednesday morning, where we will start the last week of our trip.
I hope this finds everybody doing well.
