APRIL 4: PUERTO VALLARTA  9AM-9PM

I actually woke up to the alarm going off today and not on my own accord. That meant I missed the sunrise this morning. I guess my body needed the sleep from all the boogieing I did the night before. 

I headed out to the deck to see where we were at. 

As always, looking at the land nearby, it looked foggy. It felt warm outside and I was hopeful. The tv said it was 70 degrees outside so I had hoped the air would feel warmer as the day went on. 

I went back in and started packing for the day. Sakari is looking at me and asks "Are you in a hurry?"  I must have looked a little frantic because I always pack the night before so that everything will be ready for the next day. Then if I forgot something, I usually remember by the morning. Since we got in so late the night before and was so tired, I didn't pack anything. This was an important day, so yea, I must have looked a little frantic as I raced around the room throwing multiple things in the bag and double checking everything.

We headed up to breakfast at 7:20am and managed to get "our spot". This is where we always ate. This middle table or the exact location on the opposite side of this. This seems to be our thing when cruising. Sakari picks a spot and we try to stick to it. It's been like this since her first cruise at 3 years old. 

As you can tell, there didn't seem to be a lot of people up and at'em yet. I guess since it's a long port day, they had all day to figure out what to do and take their time. The bacon decided to come back from bacation with a bit of a sunburn today. Go figure...

After breakfast, we headed back to the room. I checked the time on the tv. Then I checked my phone after taking it off airplane mode. There definitely was a time difference. I had tried to figure all of this out prior to the cruise and see if others said if the ship changes their time to reflect the port time. You always get a mixture of answers that reflect both: yes they do, no they don't. Yea, that didn't help. 

I know we didn't get any notice to set our clocks ahead. I doubled checked the Fun Times, no mention of it. UGH! I really hate when they ships don't change the times. It causes so much confusion...and anxiety for me.

So what is the Mitsugirly family doing today? Oh...so many possibilities here and I wanted to do ALL of them. It was so hard to decide. It's like trying to decide do you want to take the Lamborghini today or do you want to take the Porsche? Because to me, they were equally important and all things I wanted to desperately do while here. 

So let's talk options. There's a REALLY neat place that you don't see people talk about on here (and I'm not sure why) and it is super unique...and beautiful. It was something I thought would really make the good people of cruise critic think "hmmm, that's a place I want to visit in the future". I like being a trend setter and showing people different places available to go to that you don't see them mention on here. It opens up their options. That place would be a place called Marietas Hidden Beach!! If you haven't heard of it, you should look it up. 

It is a protected National Park and a unique wonder of the world. They say it was created by bombs in the 1900's and the erosion afterwards caused the hole/beach it is today. The military used the island for target practice. It is an island of lush greenery and at this particular beach, the land opens up to a big hole that is a beach...in the middle of everything. Just this huge crater in the land. The water rushes in from the ocean  and you're on a beach in this hole with land surrounding you. The Marietas are made up of 2 uninhabited islands that was formed thousands of years ago by volcanic activity. The Hidden Beach is the only place within the Marietas National Park that visitors are allowed to set foot on land. In 1960 Jaques Cousteau began to fight to gain protection for this unique environment. It wouldn't be until 2005 it was granted National Park status. In 2016 Hidden Beach was gaining popularity on social media, along with environmental destruction of the islands, that it was actually closed down to tourists. Then a plan was put in place with many new restrictions that included only allowing 117 (where did they come up with that odd number???) visitors daily and tour boats were only allowed there from Wednesday to Sunday. You must wear a helmet and lifejacket to swim through the channel to get to the beach. Some days the water is too rough to swim through it at all. You are also limited to the time you are allowed to spend there. 

It looks majestic from the pictures. It is invisible from the outside and you can only access it through a long water tunnel you have to swim through. Of course this must be done during low tide. 

Here's a few pictures NOT MINE but off the internet to show you what I'm talking about if you've never seen it. 

Is that not the coolest thing you've ever seen???

However, it's not a beach you can just go to and hang out at all day. Since it is a popular place, and a National Park area, they only allow you to go in for a certain amount of time and then you have to come back out for the next group to go in.

We contacted several vendors that had tours there. Since it was a "short" visit, I knew we wanted to do other things popular to Puerto Vallarta. 

I started inquiring about the next popular thing... Los Arcos. Yes, another arch! The Mexican Riviera seems to be famous for arches. 

I would quickly find out that every tour guide I contacted said they couldn't take us to both because they were too far apart. I mean we had ALL DAY...why not?? I would also find that a lot of the tour companies were about an one hour drive away to get to their place and I wasn't so sure I wanted to do that. 

So let's talk about Los Arcos. Another popular destination for cruise ship passengers. This is in the Banderas Bay and where most people go for sightseeing or to snorkel or dive.   Wait, did someone say dive??? We always dive at least one port while cruising and this was our last opportunity. I knew I had to do something.

I started reaching out to different dive shops about going diving. I told them I was interested in Los Arcos. (I had seen a lot of pictures and videos of people snorkeling and diving here and almost every picture I found had TONS of fish...AND....DIFFERENT KINDS OF FISH. Fish we've never seen before while in the Caribbean. Yep, that's what I wanted to do. However, I did notice in most pictures and video's, it could be very cloudy or have green water. I was really unsure about deciding to dive there or not. I knew it wasn't going to be the same experience we've always had in the crystal clear Caribbean. I was really torn on this decision.

I did show the kids the Hidden Beach and they were super excited about it. However, after I told them that this would be the only option to scuba dive at, they immediately picked diving instead. Karl said he really wanted to try out diving. Now I ask Karl multiple times before the cruise..."You do know how to swim right?" I would get the same reply each time "Yeeeeaaa (said in a very long drawn out way) I know how to swim...." and it always sounded like there was more to it. Of course he would add that he's never swam in the ocean. Honestly it had me worried. I was responsible for this 6'2" human "child" and I didn't want anything to happen to him. But he insisted on wanting to dive. Alrighty then! We are GOING DIVING!  (***so if anyone ever decides to go to the Hidden Beach, I want to hear your story since we really wanted to do this and wasn't going to get a chance! I WILL BE BACK!***)

We spent many months of "coaching" him with the way the ocean is, all the hand signals used and what they meant, the equipment, how it felt to breathe under water, the things you might see...all the nitty gritty. He was super excited, but I think also super nervous...especially when I told him "If you are a part of this family and plan on vacationing with us, you must love the water and must learn to dive" LOL

I ended up booking with a place called ECO Explorer Vallarta. We would have to take an Uber from the port to their location, which they said was about 8 minutes away.

They were aware of our "dive status" but also knew that we had someone with us that had never done a Discover Scuba before. Since I knew we were going to Los Arcos, I had to ask...where do we do the class and the skills? They informed me that the class would be conducted on the boat ride to the dive spot...ok, we've done that before. Then once we get to the dive spot, we would go in the water and do the skills. Ok, this is where things get weird and anxiety gets high. They said that it would be in about 15 feet of water. Ok, I'm kinda worried for Karl now. Karl is calculating in his head...ok, I'm over 6 feet tall and down 15 feet would be a little over twice my height...I should be ok. Yea, you THINK you'll be ok but this is different. The cost of the dive was $149/pp.

So now that you all know what we are doing for the day...it's time to actually move along with the review...whew!

As I put my phone off airplane mode, I immediately get a message from Eco Explorer

"Hola Kim, we are waiting for you to do our dive tour. We are departing soon"

WAIT WHAT??? I told them the ship was just now pulling into port and that ship time is an hour behind PV. We haven't even docked yet! This is our current situation...

Then they tell me "We have a client here waiting for already 30 minutes. We will ask him if he is willing to wait. Please ask someone what time you will be getting off the cruise. Please let me know about what time you can be here."

I told them our ship is due to dock at 9 and docking now. We would be off as soon as they allow. They are docking a little early but still had to get clearance before we could get off the ship.

She informs me "We had your booking to be departing at 9:00 but is already 9:32. We will wait 30 more minutes. Maybe you can talk to the crew and let them know you have a tour right now."

Are you serious? Do you not know how cruise ships work? Even if we were on PV time we can't dock at 9am AND be there to departing for a dive at 9am! Seriously?? I'm sure there's plenty of people that have tours. Do you think they're going to let our special group off the ship before they have clearance or before anyone is allowed to get off just because we have an excursion now? How ridiculous is this sounding right now???? I told her you know we are on a cruise ship and I told you the times we were in port.  I can't do anything about what time they let us off the ship or dock. Of course at this point I'm not only shocked but I'm pretty sure my face was turning red and the anxiety was kicking in full force. I just had to throw in "Have you never had cruise ship passengers dive with you before??" I also told them that if they had someone there waiting for the dive then obviously it had to be someone staying there in PV and I wasn't quite sure why they would have them on the dive with us when there's time involved in docking and getting a ride there.

She continued to ask "How long for you to get off, just an idea so we know what to do"

I gave her updates...we are docked...waiting on port authority to give clearance...we are standing in line to get off (8:47am)...getting off now (8:51am)...walking to taxi (8:52am)...getting in taxi (8:53am)...in taxi and pulling out of port(8:55am)....(all with no response back from her during this process) My anxiety is on high and I'm getting pissed that they are even doing this to us. Think about it $600 paid for something they might decide to leave without us on.

My last text to them HERE!! (8:59am). Now let's talk taxi's....I had originally decided to take the Uber because we all know it's cheaper. But there was no time for that. It was a 4 MINUTE RIDE...IT COST US $25!!!! Such a total rip off. They knew they had us. They could probably tell by the frantic look on my face and the rushing we were doing to get a taxi that we were desperate. I promise you, next time I will tell any dive shop that we want a noon dive or something. I won't be put in this situation again!

We arrived to the dive shop and they immediately had us filling out the questionnaires for the dive. Then it was time to try on our gear. 

Thank goodness they had wet suits for us. My wetsuit was a little uncomfortable so they gave me a different size. I have put on an extra 10 pounds since our last cruise, I believe because I switched jobs where I used to walk 6-7 miles and work 12 hour days to one that I do hardly any walking other than to and from my car and into facilities. Then we won't mention the random cheating we do either. 😉 

I was given another wet suit. I was concerned because there was a huge tear in the neckline. I ask about this and said water was going to get in it. He said it would be fine...fine for who was my question.

The other guy that was diving with us came in the door. Honestly, he didn't look like he was worried about us being "late" or going out later. I think it was more the dive shop that was rushing.

Once we were geared up, we grabbed our things and headed down to the dock right in front of the shop and were on the boat pulling out by 9:16am.

Ok, I'm happy now and more relaxed. They had us put on life jackets and said they were required during the boat ride.

I didn't see any seals on the docks or in the marina. Isn't it weird how PV and Cabo are so close together but yet so different?

I spotted a Whale Tail...and it wasn't a Humpback either...

Thirty minutes into the boat ride (9:44am) the boat stops. The captain is looking around. 

Wait, what's going on? Then we spotted this:

WHALES!! It was a momma and her baby. They weren't putting on a show. They were relaxing and moving really slow. Our dive guide told us that yesterday there was a pod of 8 Orca's in the area and they were attacking the mother and baby. She was fiercely protecting the calf. He said it was lucky to be alive. You could see the battle scars every time they surfaced. He said they were relaxing and recuperating until they would go on their long swim out of the area.  You see all the white chunks out of their back and teeth marks?

How cool would it have been to see the Orca's the day before? I guess another bucket list item to be added...although I'm mad at them for doing this to the mother and baby.

Here's a video of them just floating at the surface and relaxing. You can really see the bite marks around marker 1:01. So sad. 

We stayed watching the mother and calf for 15 minutes and then headed back out. We were in the Los Arcos area by 10:11am. I could see it in the distance. 

Then the boat stopped and we were told to gear up...we're going in! Um...ok. I thought we would be closer to the arch. I was super confused but whatever.

We were geared up with our equipment. The hubby had the GoPro, Sakari had the "good-newer" camera and I had the exact same camera that was older. 

We were going to get to go off the boat by flipping backwards. We have only done this once before (I think) and I absolutely loved it! I was excited when they said we were doing it this time. 

Up first was the hubby:

Then Sakari:

Then it was my turn. Woo hoo...kerplunk. OH MY GOSH!! Did I just flip into Alaskan waters? It was FREEZING COLD! The guy that told me "It'll be ok" that I had a rip in my wet suit was totally wrong and it was not ok. That water was so cold. I wasn't really sure how this would work out...especially once we went deeper down. 

We were told to go over and hold onto a rope going down in the water. I immediately looked down and was surrounded by PUFFER FISH! Oh my gosh just look at all of them! They were everywhere...just hanging out and starring at us. They were so cute and curious. They would get real close and just stare. They were not scared at all.

That water though...it was so cloudy and a reminder that we were NOT in the Caribbean. I was beginning to wonder what exactly we would be able to see. I'm pretty sure I could see my breath underwater...if that would have been possible.

 Sakari also noticed the pufferfish surrounding us and was excited.

As we held onto the rope, Karl went off the boat. I was quite a ways away from there and had no idea what was going on. The hubby was over by him. He looked like he was struggling. He was just bobbing up and down. The hubby seen the problem...he had lost one of his fins. The instructor swam over to where they were and the hubby told him what had happened and pointed down at the fin. 

The instructor had them both go over to the line to hold on while he went down and retrieved Karl's fin.

Once everything was back to normal he told us to deflate our bcd and head down under the water. I always use the rope to go down. There's just something about the security of it until I get to the bottom. The hubby and Sakari just go down...show offs!

I was already down and exploring the bottom...then my camera stops working immediately. It turns off. I can't get it to turn back on. I'm trying everything. I knew that the battery was fully charged. What is going on?? It was useless. It just wasn't going to work. UGH!

Sakari was keeping her eye on Karl coming down.

We make it to the bottom and start exploring. Wait, I didn't even notice that we weren't doing any of the skills until actually AFTER the dive. I don't even know WHERE we would have done them. It was a rocky bottom. It definitely wasn't a place to try to sit on your knees and do skills. I was completely confused about this.

Immediately after getting down to the bottom we spotted a Tiger Snake Eel:

I spotted a different one right after that about 5' away but Sakari had moved on with the camera so she didn't get a picture. She was busy with the extra large big fish in the sea at the moment...Karl

The dive instructor had both Karl and the other diver and was holding onto both of them. Karl looked as if he was just floating and not knowing what to do. Just relax and kick your feet Karl. They are extra big feet, you should zoom right along! 

I did manage to get my camera to come back on but only for a split second and only long enough to take one picture. But I was excited about this picture. It was a starfish and one that we've never seen before. It had long tubular arms with a lavender to brownish base color and covered in yellow spots that left a clear line down the center of each arm. They are called Pharia Pyramidata...or The Yellow Spotted Star. They are found in the Tropical Eastern Pacific along the California Baja Sur. You won't find these in the Caribbean.

Here's a map for reference:

It was so pretty and I was glad we were able to see something different on this dive than we normally do. 

At some point the instructor swam over to me with Karl and took my hand and gave me Karl's hand. He wanted me to hang onto Karl as he went to ??? maybe get the other newbie that was with us?? I'm not sure. What I was sure of is that Karl was in full panic mode. His eyes were as wide as they possibly could go and he was shaking like crazy. I gave him a signal to look at me in the eyes and gave him a calm down motion and to breathe slowly (while I simulated taking deep breaths in and out as I moved my head up for a breath and down to release).  I felt so bad for him. I knew he was so scared...and the shaking was a big portion of that...the coldness was the other. Sakari was near by taking pictures and as she got close enough, I grabbed her and grabbed her hand to hold onto Karl. I don't think she even realized what was going on with him until that moment. 

The instructor came back and retrieved Karl and held onto him. He could see the panic in his eyes. He motioned for us to come and we started swimming. 

At some point a few minutes later, I think he knew that this just wasn't going to work out for Karl and he needed to take him back to the boat. He handed Sakari the dive line with  buoy on it and told us to stay put. She later said she felt so important to be the one holding our dive line notifying anyone above that we were down there. It was like she was a dive instructor now. 

He took Karl back to the boat and we waited around for him to return then off we went.

Now this is the first time I have ever seen a fish like this too. I wasn't quite sure what it was. I resembled some type of Damsel but it was HUGE and had really long fins. I haven't seen anything like this before. We would later see tons of these unique looking fish. They were everywhere down there. 

I would later find out they are called the Giant Damselfish and with good cause. They get over a foot long! That's big for a damselfish. Anyone who has swam with the damselfish in the Caribbean will notice how territorial they are and will chase you away from their home/rocks. I did NOT want to be chased by these monster damsels is all I can say.

They are also located along the Baja California Sur and down.

We would see tons of tiny little fish everywhere. They were black with yellow stripes and a pinkish color to their fins and tail end. I would later find out they were juvenile Cortez Rainbow Wrasse's, which are beautiful fish!

Hey this puffer photo bombed the picture of baby wrasse's.

For those wondering what the Cortez Rainbow Wrasse looks like (I don't see any pictures Sakari took of one) I'll show you a picture from a fish identifier book that the captain of the boat handed me after our dive. They are really pretty and with as many as we seen that day, I'm shocked there's not an adult around them. 

Juvenile Mexican Hogfish:

Again, when they are adult, they look pretty and totally different. They have the huge bump on their head and usually big teeth that can be seen. They even come in a bright red color. Notice the pucker lips above?

Another unique looking starfish: Phataria unifascialis in a tan/whitish color. These are sometimes blue.

Then we would come across a school of fish:

Another puffer...just because they were everywhere!! You can't begin to imagine just how many there were here. 

A large school of Razor Surgeonfish:

Now it's hard to tell in those pictures above, but Razor Surgeonfish are a new experience for us as well. They are actually light in color with a yellow tail. They have moderately large teeth that are close together with flattened serrated edges. The dorsal fin has 7-8 spines and the anal fin contains 3 spines. There are 3 bony plates along each side of the back of the fish, close to the tail, that stick out. They have black spots and a dark bar through the eye and through the shoulder. They can get close to 2' in length.

We started to head back up to the surface and I was kinda glad at this point. I was so cold and just wanted to wrap up in a towel and sit in the sun.

It wasn't the dive experience I had hoped for and we definitely didn't see the same things that I've seen in other videos. However, it was a new experience for us and tons of new fish and starfish that we've never seen in the past. That made the dive worth it I guess. $149/pp worth it...ehhh, I doubt that. But those puffer fish!!! Awww...so cute!

The time stamps from the beginning of the dive until the end show it was 30 minutes. However, it would be even longer if you add on from the time we went under and down and coming back up.

Over there is where I expected to be...

We found Karl sitting on the boat and embarrassed about not being able to go far in the dive. We know he made it to at least 22' according to the camera and picture we had taken of him being led along by the dive instructor. He was at least proud of that moment. 

He did inform us that he had been just hanging out on the boat while we were diving...and yep, you guessed it...his head was hanging over the side of the boat several times getting sick. 

We let him know it was not entirely his fault he wasn't able to do the dive. It wasn't really a good place for a beginner. The water was just too cold. The water was just too cloudy and greenish...visibility sucked unless you were right up on something. And going off a boat into deep water for your first time probably wasn't the best choice. We assured him that if he would have went from a beach, in the Caribbean, in warm water that was crystal clear and got a chance to get used to the breathing before just taking off (not to mention doing the skills) he probably would have done much better and not panicked. He said "Oh, I'm definitely going to try it again for sure! I will be able to do this!" I was glad it didn't scare him so bad that he would never try again. 

So, just a few more things before this dive is over with. 

I totally forgot to mention...when the hubby and Sakari got into the water first, I was still on the boat preparing to do my acrobatic dismount from the boat when the instructor goes LOOK DOWN!! I guess there was a large group of stingrays going by. Of course I missed it and Sakari looked down just in time to catch them going by. Now...since she had the camera (which I highly recommend NOT taking video's with it because video on the Olympus Tough is NOT great and very grainy, especially if you are far away) but...it's all that we got of them (included in my video). 

Here's a screen shot from the video of the stingrays going by.

I have taken a few other screen shots from the video I'm about to post, so not the greatest, but I wanted to share a few fish we seen. 

Here is a picture of that eel that I said I seen about 5' from the other eel that Sakari missed. We did get it on video. It was a Jewel Moray Eel. 

A Juvenile Queen Angelfish. I think I shared a picture of one already, but I'm doing it again because I just love the colors on them.

We also managed to see another new fish that we've never seen before: A King Angelfish!

A couple of Yellow Goatfish hanging out under the rock.

This must be one of the momma's to all those Mexican Hogfish we kept seeing. We did end up seeing several of them.

I did want to mention that it was really odd, first of all, to see SO MANY Porcupine Puffer Fish. It was also odd that many of them were EXTREMELY L-O-N-G and skinny. Usually they are big and fat but there were so many of them that were long and skinny. Are they not eating good? Dieting? Hibernating because they think it is winter in these freezing cold temps? I'm not sure.

I also forgot to mention, after I did all that I could with trying to get my camera back on when it went caput, I went over to the hubby and handed it to him and gave him the signal to give me the GoPro. He had no idea what was going on because I've been letting him take the video's every time we dive for quite some time now. I guess he thought I wanted to change things up. He would quickly learn, I pulled a fast one on him and he got the faulty equipment. 😄 I guess that meant he could just enjoy the dive and not have to worry about being in charge of anything. 

So here's a very short video of our dive. Remember, the water clarity was terrible and there was so much stuff floating in the water. Also, it was VERY green. I've tried to color correct a bunch of it so it's not so hideous to watch, but it still isn't the great work I've done before...just saying. Pats self on back for making it even visible You're gonna witness Karl's first flip off a boat into icy cold water, losing his fin and being led by the instructor. Ha ha...good times. 

A little information about Los Arcos: It is located 7 miles south of Puerto Vallarta in a Marine National Park. When we went diving, we were within the park, just not at the arch. It's the perfect depth for beginning divers and ranges from 10-90 feet. "El Acuario" (which is over by the arches) is a shallow site of 30-40 feet. It's a great place to see a variety of fish and especially schools of Angelfish, Pufferfish, Butterfly fish, Parrotfish, seahorses (wait...where were the seahorses???), Trumpetfish, Sea Turtles and large Manta Rays are usually spotted there. 

I just wanted to give you a few "stats" on the air and water this day. 

The air temps were 86° today, so yes, it did get nice out for us and the nicest it had been the entire cruise.

The water would be freezing cold, then you'd hit a warm area, then back to cold again. 

According to the camera's, the deepest we went in this area was only 23'. The coldest was 63°  and the warmest area was 72.1° 

Now as we sat on the boat and told Karl about the fish we seen down there I noticed our instructor was removing our tanks we used and putting new tanks on. Um...what are we doing? He said "We're going to switch out the tanks for your second dive".   Second dive? I had no idea we were doing a second dive. "Where are we going for the second dive?"

He points "over there"

Wait, we're actually going over there? That's where I wanted to dive in the first place! I was getting super excited now. I was hoping to see the things I've seen in pictures and video's. 

Sakari had already peeled off her wetsuit and was comforting Karl. The instructor told her to gear up. She looked at Karl and looked at me and said "I don't think I'm going to go."  I kept telling her "This is the place you DO want to go...so I've heard."  She just kept looking at Karl and I know she felt sorry for him. She's very caring and does not like people to feel left out and she did not want for him to feel left behind. She just kept saying no, she was staying behind. Well, I can't force her so...I guess it's just me and the hubs.

You didn't have to tell me twice, I double back flipped and stuck my landing into the water. First off the boat this time!!! The hubby followed. 

Back into the freezing cold water. UGH! Gosh it was cold. It was somewhat deep in this area, so of course all you could see was the green. We swam under the ropes and headed toward the arch. The roped off area is so that boats cannot go into that area because that's where the snorkelers area is located. 

As we swam, the water got warmer, then colder, then warmer, the colder. I'm not gonna lie, I found a way to warm myself up every time I got cold...I'll let you use your imagination on that one. I showed no shame in it either! Just saying...

So I will show you what kind of pictures you get in this type of water. No color correction done. They are horrid.

These are a few that I color corrected. Not the best...

The instructor was making bubble rings with his hands. Oh how I wished Sakari was here. She likes to do this.

Three Banded Butterfly fish:

This picture I was trying to get a photo of an eel that was hiding in the rocks. It was a Zebra Moray Eel (Another first for me). It was so pretty with the black and white stripes! I only wished that it would have came out enough to get a better picture. Can you see it to the left of the purple coral?

Then before long, we were at the rocks by the arch and IT WAS SUPER CLEAR!!! And it was WARM!!! Things got a lot more colorful in area's as well. However, you won't find all the pretty colors and coral you will find in the Caribbean.

Giant Damselfish:

Spottail Grunt:

LOOK AT THIS!!! Another new fish for us!  A Barberfish! It is a type of Butterfly fish. 

I managed to catch an adult CORTEZ RAINBOW FISH!! (toward the bottom of the picture) So pretty! Of course...another first for us.

A bunch of baby (initial phase) CHAMELEON WRASSE. (Another first). They are a pretty pink in color. 

The one color you did see a lot of is RED! (And purple)

PUFFERFISH

Finally a close up of the pretty RAZOR SURGEONFISH. You can now see the blade like spine at the tail. These are used for defense and are as sharp as a surgeons scalpel, which is why they are named surgeonfish. 

They usually swim in groups and there were A LOT of them. They were so pretty to watch. 

GIANT DAMSELFISH (I still cannot believe just how big these things are! I didn't even know they existed).

MEXICAN HOGFISH:

Then I spotted some ORANGE CUP CORAL. I get so excited when I see these because I've been told they are hard and rare to find (although they were not open or "blooming" like a flower). Also, right beside it was a black and white spotted fish (hard to see because of all the sediment floating around) and I have no idea what it was. 

KING ANGELFISH:

And another one:

BARBERFISH:

And more:

I have located YELLOW!

Here's another first for us...and it was a beauty!!! Just look at the markings on it.

CORTEZ ANGELFISH: 

KING ANGELFISH:

GROUPER

The amount of fish in this area was just amazing! So many of them. I was really wishing that I had made Sakari come with us. Karl would have gotten over her leaving him. She was really missing out! Not to mention...all the new fish we seen here as well. 

Now I want to say that we went under the arch rock, that is where we found the most fish. I honestly couldn't believe how much warmer it was under that area as well. Plus, the pictures turned out so much better too. It was so weird. Inside this cave area, the temps were 74.4° and it was usually between 8.2' to 12' deep in that area.

Then I seen my first SPOTTED BOXFISH! Oh my gosh so pretty and cute!

A little Boxfish facts for you: 

They protect themselves with a deadly poison on their skin when they feel threatened by a predator.

They lay lots of eggs and can lay every day for 1 month

They blow the sand in search for prey

There are 23 species of boxfish: These spotted boxfish are located in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico...which is why we have not seen them before. 

They are slow swimmers and like to hover

They can grow to 18" long

They live for around 4 years on average 

We seen quite a few of these too!

BANDED BUTTERFLY FISH:

There was an area that was like a swim through and the water was rushing in and it swayed back and forth. It was a little difficult to swim over to the other side, but in this area were quite a few of what I thought were Trumpet Fish at first.  They were pretty big. But I believe they ended up being PIPEFISH.

Ok, that black and white spotted boxfish I just showed you....well it's time to meet the male version of it. Absolutely gorgeous with the black and white spots on the top, blue and black spots along the side, and also orange mixed around the edges. We would see several of them during this dive.

Ready for something new yet? I was....so we found a WHITE SPOTTED PUFFERFISH now. There were a lot in the area.

LOOK!!! It's Gill from Finding Nemo!! OMGosh....another new fish for us. 

 MOORISH IDOL:

The Moorish Idol got their name from The Moors who thought they brought happiness. They have a maximum length of a little over 9".

Their extremely long dorsal fins actually shorten with age.

They can be found alone or in groups but most juveniles are more likely to swim in schools together.

Adults mate for life.

They are found from the Gulf of California down to Peru (and also other places like Japan, Hawaii and Africa).

They eat sponges, tunicates, invertebrates and algae. 

And most of all I loved them!!!! When I got back to the boat and showed Sakari my pictures she yells "You found Gill" Yep, I bet you now wished you had went with us. 

Here we have a SPOTFIN PORCUPINEFISH. A little different than the Long spine porcupinefish that you normally see. They have spots without the large spots.

SPOTTED BOXFISH

WHITE SPOTTED PUFFERFISH

Look at the guy on the left bottom corner photo bombing my picture of the SPOTTED BOXFISH

Ok, I'll get a picture of you too!

Ok, here's what I'm talking about with the Pufferfish. A lot of them would have very long skinny bodies. It looked weird. They reminded me of a tadpole. 

Wow this area was loaded with the Orange Cup Coral. I had really wished that Sakari would have been with us because she would have been getting all the macro shots of them. Her photography always turns out so good.

Then I spotted this large beauty: BLUE TRIGGERFISH

PANAMA PORKFISH:

SPOTTED BOXFISH

Well lookie there...I found another ZEBRA EEL! It had some friends (SPOTTED PUFFERS) with it.

This Damsel was getting in my way with everything I tried to take a picture of. First the eel and now it was blocking me trying to get a picture of these two Starry Groupers. Damsels are such a pain in the arse but I'm giving it a hall pass since the Damsels here in the Mexican Riviera are so pretty.

At least I managed to get a picture of this one as we headed back. 

Now that was a lot of BANDED BUTTERLY FISH! I have never seen them grouped together like this before. Usually you will find two to three of them swimming along, but this many???

As we headed back, the water got colder and greener. I was reminded that I was probably on the verge of hypothermia at this point, but I didn't care after everything we had just seen down there. I probably could have spent another 30 minutes down there and still been excited to see the same fish over and over. I will say that I did miss something.... the hubby told me him and the instructor found (in the video I will be doing) but I was busy off in my own little world. 

So my first picture that I took when we started this dive compared to the last picture I took before we surfaced...which was this picture:

We were down there around 37+ minutes. Not long enough AT ALL. Seriously...we could have stayed down so much longer. I REALLY wished that this would have been the only place they took us to and let us do 2 dives there. This should have been the place they took Karl to. If he's anything like me, seeing all the fish and unique things you would never get to see by snorkeling might have calmed him down enough to do the swim (or at least a little longer). I honestly don't even understand why they took us to the other dive area. There really wasn't much to see there and nothing that was like WOW (other than us saying we seen something new that we have never seen before).  Like this dive site was AMAZING! If I go back to PV, I would do it all again in a heartbeat! AND request that we ONLY go to this area. 

So once we surfaced Sakari was above to take our picture. She had said that since she was staying on the boat with Karl, "they" might get in and him try to snorkel. I told her if she did, take the other camera with her and see if she could get it to turn on and take some pictures of us diving below. When I ask her if she got in, she said "yes, only for a minute...I had to use the bathroom" 🤣 But he did not get in nor did they snorkel. 

So here's where things went downhill. She took the picture of me and the hubby. I climbed back onto the boat.

I look down and see the hubby. He didn't really have the excitement on his face of someone that just had an amazing dive and seen things we've never seen before as he did a few minutes ago. I had no idea what is going on.

He sat on the steps. He brings his hands up in the water and he's starring. Do you notice anything?

Do you see around his wrist the little black things that are fanned out? Well, our GoPro has a built in stand. You just flip them over and 3 little flaps come out and you can sit the GoPro down to take videos. Well....THAT'S ALL THAT'S AROUND HIS WRIST!! WHERE IS MY GOPRO???? OMG!! He's looking all over the place and looking really worried. He's showing our instructor.

He climbs out of the water and onto the boat in shame. He knows how much this GoPro means to me. It has all of our video on it...other that what was taken with the camera's. I wasn't sure if it had downloaded to our GoPro account or not yet. I was devastated. 

So after showing our dive instructor what had happened and explaining that the GoPro is somewhere in the area (he had hoped) and attached to a very long stick, the instructor said he would look around the area for it. Now the hubby had absolutely no idea at what point he no longer had it on his arm. I know that when I swim with it (or the camera's) I never let go of it. It never dangles from my arm trusting the arm brace. I'm always holding onto it even when swimming. I'm also constantly checking to make sure everything is still tightly screwed.  

The last video he had taken was all the way over by the rock/cave area with the abundance amount of fish. However, I do know that I seen him with it when we stopped to take a picture together (when I effectively cut his head out of the picture and didn't know it in the picture above). So, that meant it had to be fairly close to us? But, that water was really moving back and forth so there was no telling. 

Our instructor went down and I can tell you he was moving at a very fast pace. We could see his bubbles at the surface and we watched him go a pretty far distance and he was circling around, to the left, by the rocks, to the right and then through the middle and circled around again. When I seen him go around that second time, my heart sunk. I was losing hope. 

We could see him heading back toward the boat. The bubbles were getting closer and closer. He popped his head up. I held my breath. Then up came the GoPro on the stick. WHEW!!! OMG!! It was like Christmas to me! You would have thought I won a brand new car! I'm pretty sure I squealed and maybe even shed a tear.

He said it was "All the way over there!" as he pointed over to the rock mountain and to the right....but we weren't even over in the area he pointed to so we were very lucky he had found it because the water had carried it that far. 

It was time to head back now. The hubby and I couldn't stop talking about all the fish we had seen and showing pictures to Sakari and Karl. I really really wished she would have foregone her loving, caring status for at least this one time and been a mean girl and came with us. It was by far the best scuba I could have imagined!!!

On the ride back, we spotted a whale again. However, it went under and we never did see it come back up so that I could get a picture of it. 

It was the perfect opportunity to get some good pictures of this beauty we called transportation for 8 days. 

No sea lions, but there were plenty of pelicans. 

(Well, I'm finally back. My dogs got out the other day when the hubby opened up the back gates to mow and we went on a wild chase which resulted in my twisting my leg and a loud pop in my knee with swelling. I've been laying in bed with it in my artic ice machine that I used for my foot after surgeries, plenty of Aleve, leg elevated and on crutches because I have been unable to bear weight. Yep, you guess it, it is my bad leg too. Go figure...Karl, Sakari and the hubby have waited on me hand and foot and they are the best. It's been such a rough week (not only this incident) and Sakari and Karl made me a card, bought me flowers and some sugar free Keto candy and ice cream. They are such amazing kids. )

(See, he even signs his name Karl  LOL  and Sakari, well we've called her Kari since she was little off and on, so she decided to sign her name that way.)

I have a video from our dive that I'd like to share. You will be amazed at the amount of fish...like seriously amazed. (My pictures don't begin to show the amount of fish) I've never experienced this many fish before on a dive. At one point, the instructor took the GoPro and filmed the hubby alongside of all the fish. The instructor was so excited at the amount of fish that was seen today (watch his hand signals). He said he doesn't think he's ever seen this many there on any one dive before. It blew his mind. Make sure to have the video set to 4k for best quality.

Notice what the hubby seen and filmed that I did not get a picture of? The spotted eagle ray!! I totally missed it. I think I was just so fascinated with all the various types of puffers in the area. 

Also, you see how green the water is when we started? That's exactly what the water looked like. Then it cleared up once we got over by the rocks. Just an all around amazing dive!!!

I almost forgot, on the way back into the marina, they fed us subs and ....peanuts. LOL Sakari said "This is the best thing I've had all week"....her number one fast food restaurant is Subway and she had really been missing it...so this would have to do for now.

We returned back to the dive shop after docking and they offered to get us a taxi back if we wanted. We were really unsure what we wanted to do at this point (or what was around the area). 

I went in to have our dive book filled out that we keep for reference.

We walked to the end of the street to look around. I told the hubby I was going to bring up Uber and see what they charged to get back to port. I found that it was only going to be $5.63 (compared to the outrageous $25 the cab charged us to get here) for a ride back to the port but for SOME REASON the hubby pointed toward the ship and said "It's right there! We should just walk". Well, alrighty then. We had plenty of time still and we might find something along the way that we wanted to see and off we went. 

There are sidewalks all the way back to the port, so no worries about having to walk along the road with traffic. 

We kept going and going. It was a little more of a walk than "it's right there" but we were ok with it. 

We went over a bridge and found a few iguanas. 

Down by the water:

As we got closer to port, a very large and loud helicopter was coming in and over us. It said Marina on it and parked really close to the ship (picture taken from our balcony once we returned).

Once we got up to the port, we kept looking for a way in. Everywhere we turned, it was not an entrance. 

We came to a little area on the sidewalk and seen people going into this very small building. We got in line and it had an xray machine and they were showing them (what I thought) a ship card, which turned out to be maybe an ID? When we got up there, they said it was only for the workers. Oops. I thought it was really strange and it was even more strange that once these people showed their ID and scanned their items, they walked back out the other side and back onto the sidewalk where we continued to walk. Um, ok. 

By this time we had passed the ship and still no way into the port. This definitely wasn't the way we went out. They make it so difficult. I can't even imagine someone running late getting back to the ship...you would definitely be a pier runner and blasted all over the internet for sure. 

We continued walking...not only past our ship but past another ship (Princess) in port as well.

Finally we came to an area we could go in. But, there's no instructions on where to go and we had to walk all the way down to the end of the parking lot...of course. 

This was the building you enter...because everyone knows you can't just walk into a port and get on the ship. You have to walk around all the shops and spend all your money before returning...or at least they hope you do. 

It took us 29 minutes from the time we left the dive shop until we arrived at this building. Not a bad walk at all.

We stopped at the restrooms and then knew we needed something to drink after this walk.

The first store we came to wanted $7.50 for 2 bottles of pop. Um, nope. I'm not that thirsty.  We stopped at another store, they wanted $7.00 for 2 bottles. Hmm, I'm starting to see a pattern here. Let's keep going. 

They have an umbrella alley inside!!!

Finally we came across a place that charge $3.00 for 2 bottles of pop and I considered that a deal. I guess the closer you get to going out of this building, the better the deals get. They are making one last pitch to get you to buy something before leaving the building. 

Of course Karl was hungry so him and Sakari stopped for some ice cream and a drink. They are 5 minutes away from the ship, but needed something to tie him over with because by this time he was melting away with only eating a sub less than 1 hour ago.

As we continued to walk, there was an outside area I noticed the kids headed toward as I was inside taking pictures. Oh...look there, let's take a picture!

The hubby says "You know it's backwards right?"  "Wait, what do you mean? It's M, P" Wait...what's MP?   Why is this P backwards? Who designed this? We looked inside and on the other side of this was a "love swing". I guess you pay these people to sit in their love swing and the PM is behind it. But why isn't it PV? 🤷‍♀️ Wouldn't that make more sense? Oh well.

We made it out of the building and they had some people movers waiting on us to take us back to the ship.

I had to have the front seat. I told them I was driving this thing. They looked scared!

I bet this was the boat heading over to the Rhythms of the Night excursion. I really wanted to do this but wasn't sure if we would make it back in time. Maybe next time. I also considered going there for their day excursion because the place looks absolutely amazing and I know that Sakari would have loved to hang out there as well. Maybe next time. It sounds like there will be plenty of next times don't it?

After returning to the ship, we (and by we I mean mostly Karl) was hungry of course. So we headed upstairs to see what they had to offer. Our timing was off, of course, and the buffet was closed. We just decided to get in line for the deli. I decided on a grilled cheese and a hot dog and I won't admit to having any of the fries you see in the picture...just saying. Now I have to ask you all...when you make grilled cheese, do you put butter on the outside of the bread when you cook it? I always have and that's how my parents did it. Only on the cruise ship will I experience that they do not put butter on the outside. Is it just me?

We had so much time left in this port (remember we are here until 9pm) so we decided to get back off the ship and go outside the port. Sakari and Karl also wanted to do a little bit of shopping and we had noticed they had some shops set up right as you get off. We looked around but really didn't find anything we wanted so decided to go ahead and head out of the port. We hitched a ride with these two ladies in a golf cart. I don't know if they were there to transport people or what, but they said "sure we can take you". 

Princess had left by now and gave me the perfect opportunity to get a picture of the Panorama in port.

Once out of the building there is some type of area in the middle, like a courtyard....with some very short Mexican's.

There are plenty of vendors in this area. Think of every port you go to that you'll find the exact same thing in almost every shop and everyone willing to give you a deal. Now Karl has never been to a foreign country. He has never experienced anything like port shopping. HOWEVER...you would think he has done this all his life. He haggled with each and every vendor he came across. He was talking them down and down and walking away if he didn't like the price and they'd bring him back and agree to his price. This boy was on fire!! I honestly was shocked. But hey, I guess he knew what he was doing. 

There was only one time that both Sakari and I got onto him about his "deal". He was so excited about his mad skills for negotiating the price that it got the best of him. There was something he found that he wanted and he said "I'll give you $____ for it". They immediately said "YES!"  Both Sakari and I looked at each other and held our breath. As we walked away we told him, why would you make an offer before hearing how much they wanted for it? It could have been cheaper than what you thought. He took that deal way too quickly. Karl "Oh, I was just so excited on all the deals I've been able to talk them down to that I got carried away. But I'm ok with the price I paid"...and I guess that's all that mattered. 

Just for reference...here's a map of where the ship docks and the route over to the building where you go in and out and do some shopping (route in red). (The map must not be updated yet because the building is not even on google earth yet).

Then you can see from the building across the street and over to the shopping area (Flea Market). (Route in green) It's a very short distance and easy to find. 

So what do we do now??? There's still so much time left. I looked around and noticed a sign that said "beach". Hmm, let's go check that out.  

There was a fence up along this path with barbed wire. Hmmm, what was the need for that on a path to the beach? It went along a road and then down the side of a building.  

Once we made it to the beach, I found that it was called The Oro Beach.

There was something on fire in the distance. 

I guess if you wanted a free beach day, this would be the closest to the ship.  Those waves though...

There were area's along the beach that had a lot of rocks. They seem to be in patches here and there. 

Other places were sandy though:

The kids said they were thirsty and wanted to find a place to get a drink. We all headed up to a bar on the beach. We would wait and wait and wait and no one would even acknowledge us. They were busy helping everyone else that walked up. We finally gave up and walked away. We would notice as we walked away that everyone in that area had on wrist bands and probably staying at that hotel. The hubby did say he noticed everyone that got a drink didn't hand over any cash. So, maybe that's why. 

We decided to go ahead and head back to the ship.

No way to get out of this fence and cross the street unless you go all the way down to the end. Then finally we seen an open area.

The sun was starting to set and as much as I would have liked to get sunset pictures on the beach, I knew I didn't want to be out here after dark and walking back.

How close the beach is to the little Flea Market outside the port:

Here's a view from the other side where the path is located:

Look at this weird shaped tree...Karl was too tall for it and had to duck under.

We were back into the port and we caught a ride back over to the ship.  

When we returned back to our room, we had another towel animal.

Not only did we have a towel animal but we had this...

I have no idea what it was. No idea where it came from. But it was laying on the table. It was not ours. (It looked like a fancy top to maybe someone's perfume bottle??). This was not the first or last weird thing we found in our room/bathroom during this cruise either. Very strange. 

Karl was hungry A-G-A-I-N and we went back upstairs to the buffet. The kids didn't feel like going to the MDR to eat. 

They had some shrimp tonight that was good enough for me since I wasn't really hungry. 

Of course I will not pass up ice cream at any given time no matter how full I am. 

Sakari was excited for tonight because it was the White Party and we LOVE parties. 

Once we got back to the room, we watched some tv and then I went out to the balcony to watch us pull out of port. 

When I came back in, the kids were asleep. They must really be tired. They both go to bed fairly early back home and this late night partying was wearing them out. I did wake them up briefly to ask if they wanted to go to the party or sleep. Sakari jumped up and put on her white outfit, Karl stayed asleep, the hubby had fallen asleep and truth be known I was dead tired after all that swimming and walking afterwards. I looked at Sakari and said "Do you really want to go? Everyone looks tired" She said it really didn't matter to her because she was tired too and immediately went to take her dress off and climbed back in bed.  Zzzzzz