After another narrow entry into a harbor, we arrived at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at just after 7am, and were all secure by 8 am. This is our last port before arriving at San Diego to disembark on the 8th November (so 2 at sea days after this one).
Puerto Vallarta is a sizeable place, well set up for tourism. There are the usual handicraft markets and bars around the cruise port terminal, and a decent walk to get out of the secure area to where the tour buses are. Many of the Americans have been suffering Walmart withdrawal symptoms, and there is a Walmart within walking distance, so I suspect that will be their tour for the day.
We have opted for a bus tour to colonial San Sebastion, a small city that was built by the Spanish in the early 1600s. It is up in the mountains, and it takes about 90 minutes of winding road to get there. Apparently the road is now much improved and has taken several hours off the previous trip, mainly through the addition of a bridge across a deep gorge.
An interesting local tour bus
The roadway into San Sebastion is all cobble stones starting several km from the town itself. Our first stop, just at the entrance to town , is a coffee plantation, where we were given a good talk on coffee processing, a chance to taste their coffee, and a bit of a walk around to look at the many other plants (lots of fruit trees), and native birds they have in cages.
From now on the road is too narrow for the big buses, so we walk into town, and the less capable a ferried on a smaller bus.
It is a typical old colonial town, with a church, a plaza, city hall on the plaza etc. Old and nice, but nothing spectacular. If tourism is important to them, it is not obvious. Very few shops (what few there are), are open, and there are no people flogging handicrafts or other touristy goods on the streets. Most of the people on the streets are tourists !!
Our guide tries to make it interesting, and we go to a local restaurant for a very nice lunch, followed by a visit to a “museum” to learn about the history of the leading family of San Sebastion. David and I have a quick walk through and escape back into the plaza before the presentation, as it looked pretty uninspiring.
After a bit of a walk around it was back on the bus and back down the mountain heading towards the port. The highlight of the trip was a stop at a Tequila distillery (or backyard still), based in a restaurant. The owner was entertaining and we were given a taste of a few tequilas, before heading back to the ship.
We are sailing at 4pm, so we had to be on board by 3.30pm, not leaving much time to have a quick look around at the port. Kathy used her time wisely, unloading her remaining pesos, before we were back on board and on our way.
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