Crocs! PV, Mexico: Day Numero Seis

Tuesday Ammon wanted us to check out this neighboring town of Punta Mita. Again from the map, we thought it would be really close and ended up being about 2 hours away, one way. So, we just enjoyed the scenic drive.

View from the road.

I love how the trees arch over the road making this lovely canopy. This is how the whole drive looked. It is tropical down here after all. In fact, my Fodor's guidebook even told me Puerto Vallarta (abbreviated as "PV" from here on out) even said it's on the same latitude as Hawaii! No wonder it's so lush.I saw these beautiful flowers along the road and made Ammon stop. When Ammon got out to take the picture he commented how my shirt matched the flowers- I hadn't even noticed. Makes for a lovely effect, don't you think? Ok, so going to Punta Mita was pretty much a bust (it was all under construction and you couldn't get out to the beach). So, on the way back we stopped by this place that's not listed in any guidebook but I found online. It's the University of Guadalajara Ixtapa campus reptile estuary. The grounds were quite lovely.

Here we are under some banana trees.

On the bridge leading into the reptile grounds.

There were tons of turtles swimming around their own little island.

There were different sizes of crocodiles that we saw. These are the smallest, the "babies."

Here's the next size, the "children."

Here are the "teens."

And here's the daddy of them all, aptly named "Goliath." He was huge!

Outside the art museum just next door. It was locked so the boys stood at the window feigning great fear at the sight of this crocodile statue.

Crocodile hunted?: Ok, a note about crocodiles and it has to do with running. Just about every morning we were there in Mexico, Ammon and I went running. We would take turns of course so as to always have one of us with dear Connor. Since I wasn't with Ammon, I can only speak of my own experience. I ran through town the first day and didn't really like to be running past lots of people waiting for the bus and inhaling all those fumes. So the next day I found a golf course and, it being early, I figured no one would mind me running along the golf cart path. I was loving it- no one around, quiet, beautiful green grass. Then I started crossing several foot bridges that were over a series of lakes. As I was approaching another bridge, I saw a sign warning to beware of crocodiles!! I was absolutely mortified. I immediately turned around and booked it back the other way, frantically looking around for any approaching crocs. I recalled the Worst Case Scenario game question about how to escape an alligator/crocodile attack. You run in a zigzag fashion. I was all prepared to zigzag it up if I were being pursued! I was probably sweating more from the fear of that prospect than from my run. Needless to say, I stuck to the downtown streets the next day. The following day, however, I decided to run along the beach. That was kindof hard for various reasons including the uneven ground, dodging waves, crossing from one beach area to the next (most were separated by jettis, bridges, washes, rocks, debris, etc). I kept going though and eventually headed to a very remote area where I finally turned around- again, a bit scared because it was too quiet. As I was heading back, I saw that same warning sign about crocodiles!! I didn't see it on my way out because it was facing the other way. Man that really scared me and thankfully I didn't see any crocodiles. So, it was back to the streets for the last few days. No more seeking out peace and quiet nor clean air. Oh well, at least I didn't have to perform my zig zag.

As we were driving out of the University, we saw an army-like truck open in the back painted yellow, easily identifiable as a Sierra Madres tour jeep. Ammon and I, having been on one of their tour on our honeymoon, decided to follow the jeep to see where the hiking spot was they took us to. We had forgotten how far out it was. We kept telling ourselves that we've come this far, let's just keep going until they turn off. Finally, after an hour, they turned into the "Canopy." It's even nicely labeled (and we took a picture) so we can find it again next time. Talk about a rutted out road- I'm not sure if we could get up there, even if we wanted to, to go hike in there next time.

We saw this prison along the way and we remembered what the Sierra Madres tour guides had said about this as we drove by on our tour. Something about it being a "gated community" with "24-hour security," "daily massage," "all-inclusive" experience. Quite funny.

On our way back, we saw this landslide, still mostly covering the road. Ammon wanted a picture to show how back the road was..and that no one cleaned it up.

In the evening, we headed downtown for some family-friendly nightlife. We saw a mexican clown. It was neat to the mexican townfolk out with their families. They were really laughing hard at this goofy clown. Ammon said it was a lot of local jokes and a different sense of humor than we would think is funny.

We went down along the famous "Malecon" boardwalk. There are dozens of beautiful bronze statues all along it. Here is the famous seahorse statue which is the symbol of PV. (Sorry it turned out so blurry.)

A beautiful colored bronze statue of traditional dancing. I think it's cool how Connor is leaning into the statue getting a better look at it.

And here is the guardian angel statue. To the left you can see the outline of the pirate ship tour. Nightly they do a fireworks display. Quite enchanting.