Our Trip to Nuevo Vallarta
November 11-18, 2004

This is a quick tour of our trip to Mexico.
From the sunset, going clockwise.
Vallarta is known for it's beautiful sunsets, this one is from the
first evening when we arrived. (there were plenty more).
Myrna and Casey are enjoying the that first sunset along with the first
batch of many margueritas (no salt)
The seahorse is very popular in Mexico. This particular statue can be
seen in a few spaces. The speck of dust in the hand of the rider is
actually a sliver of the moon.
What can I say about Air Transat? The flight was over 5 hours. We did
not have Club Transat so the seats were a little cramped. The ride was
pretty smooth (both ways).
Here is Ron on the Mayan
Palace Golf Club's signature hole (par 3- 141 yard,14th). Go right
you are in the lake. Go left you are on the beach. 
Ron picked going left on two occasions. The second time he was closer
to the waves.
The Corona bottle was on display at the golf course on Saturday. The
final round of a big pro-am golf tournament was being held. They
started at noon and we were the only foursome allowed on the course (at
7:20). We played in the usual 4 hours but with nobody around except at
the clubhouse.
Stan has just picked a wild lime during our Sierra
Madre 'Jeep' Expedition. This was a 9 hours trip through the
Nayarit's back country topped how with finishing a bottle of Tequila on
the trip back. This was a great trip with our guide Brad from British
Columbia.
Finally the background picture is Myrna parasailing on our beach. She
was first to go although we (Stan Casey and I) went up just after. As
you can see there is not a cloud in the sky like most of the time we
were there.

Above is a composite
picture of the beach to the north of the hotel. You could walk for
miles along its uninterrupted shore. One of the highlights of the trip
was the 'liberacion' of the turtles from a turtle 'hatchery' about 10
minutes from our hotel. Every night around 9:00pm they release about
400 turtles hatchlings from that day so they would have a better
chance of making it alive as turtles are a good snack for birds. We
assisted the release for two evenings by sending off two turtles each.
Only 1 to 2 % of the turtles will make it to maturity. We have heard
from Tia and Maria (Myrna's Tuesday release) and they are both doing
well. My two from Monday's release (Dumb and Dumber) unfortunately
didn't fare out so well as they refused to ask for directions.
Below is one turtle that either got washed back ashore from the
previous evening or more likely one from a wild nest about 100 feet
from the hatchery that 'erupted' early the morning we were coming back.
He was still alive and we gave another chance by putting him out in the
surf. I am sure he too will beat the odds. NOT!

This is an Olive Ridley Turtle. To learn more about the turtle
release program this is a link
to a similar program about 10 miles north of our hotel in San Francisco.
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