Since we were having such a great time hanging out in Sayulita with our new friends, we decided to stay on a few days longer. On Sunday Witt and Quinn took a bus to the water park in Puerto Vallarta and spent the day sliding on water slides and playing in the pools. We even got to get in the pool with some dolphins and play with them!

We charged the kids 2 pesos each for entry into the “youtube theater”

The next day, Monday, we decided to splurge on a day trip to the nearby Marietas Islands. It was on a sailing catamaran with probably 20 guests on board, including our Canadian friends the Rempels and their 3 kids. The 1.5 hour trip out to the islands was the most amazing whale watching trip Jen and I have ever been on. We saw pods of 6-8 humpback whales, whales slapping their tails in the water, whales mating, and two breaches (where they leap all 50 tons of themselves almost completely out of the water).

Quinn on board the Ally Cat

The kids quickly took their posts on the trampoline at the bow

I used to think tail shots were rare.

Here’s a short movie of some of the whale antics.

At the islands we went snorkeling and kayaking, then headed back to the boat for lunch and the trip home. The whole trip was open bar and the crew kept walking around the boat taking drink orders. It’s a wonder we didn’t get completely wasted, but we were glad that the company provided a taxi back to Sayulita from the marina.

Q didn’t want to snorkel, but we paddled around for a bit

Enjoying (one of many) fine beverages on the way back to port

On Tuesday we reluctantly packed away our camp and said goodbye to our friends, who will be heading back to cold Manitoba in a couple of short weeks. We headed inland toward Guanajuato where our next Spanish class is due to begin in a week. Along the way, we stopped for the night at a small crater lake and drove 16km up a cobblestone road to the top of a volcano for a short hike.

Laguna de Maria del Oro

The very bumpy road up the volcano

One can’t drive through Tequila, Mexico, without stopping. On a whim we picked the La Cofradia distillery which neither of us had ever even heard of. But it just seemed wrong to go to Jose Cuervo! The distillery was amazing and provided an excellent English-speaking tour guide. We learned a lot about how tequila is made (not too much of a stretch when you start from zero) and some of the history of the drink and the region it comes from. We got to taste 8 different types of tequila and they made us an amazing margarita in their underground restaurant.

The blue plants that look like Yucca are blue agave.

A mural depicting the making of tequila. Notice that the Virgin Mary oversees the process, presumably to ensure quality.

It takes the agave 6-8 years to mature, at which time the leaves are hacked off, leaving the “piña” which is baked to extract the raw agave nectar. The nectar is fermented and distilled to make tequila.

The aging cellar and tasting room