The mystery of the baby turtles

One evening, perhaps five days after our arrival in Nuevo Vallarta, Earl returned from his evening walk with exciting news.

"I saw hundreds of baby turtles making their way out to sea!" he gushed, barely able to contain his excitement. He then described in vivid detail how small they were and how they made their way out to sea, some with great energy and drive while others struggled. He said that a large crowd had gathered to enjoy the experience.

I felt left out. For several nights, Earl and I had gone out to the beach hoping to spot Mummy Turtle wading up to lay her eggs but our efforts were in vain. Now, I was getting a vicarious thrill from him reliving his experience but oh, how I wanted to see the baby turtles. I decided that I wasn't going to leave without seeing them.

A couple evenings later, Earl returned from his walk with more baby turtle news.

"Someone was putting the baby turtles into a bucket!" he said, barely concealing his indignation at the sight he'd witnessed. "People were gathered around the baby turtles and this guy, this beach police officer, was just putting them into a bucket. He said he was going to take them to a game preserve where they would release them."

I was shocked. What a terrible thing to do to baby turtles, I thought, dumping them unceremoniously into a bucket! These beautiful creatures, so tender, so tiny who'd grow up to live for hundreds of years. How could anyone just dump them into a bucket and take them away? What if they ended up in someone's soup? Earl said someone gathered around the turtles had voiced a similar concern.

We decided that we'd patrol the beach every evening to look for the baby turtles.

Bananas and a hummingbird

What do bananas and hummingbirds have in common? They're both plentiful in Nuevo Vallarta!

Picture on the left shows Earl posing beside a banana tree growing at the Paradise Resort near our hotel. Bananas are one of Earl's favorite fruits and he can quote their price per pound anytime (at present, they sell for 85 cents Canadian per pound or 65 cents US). Bananas sold in Winnipeg are imported from Mexico so it is fitting that we spotted this banana tree near our hotel, an interesting discovery for Earl, who had never in his life seen a banana tree.

Picture on the right shows a very exhausted and disoriented hummingbird. We spotted this wee fellow flying up and down against the glass. It was obvious that he did not realize he could not fly through the glass and it was also obvious that he couldn't see the glass. Finally, after an exhausting attempt to fly through the glass, he settled down to rest on the leaf of this ivy plant. We touched him and urged him to fly away from the glass. That's the closest we've ever been to a hummingbird.

Fun end to the whalewatching tour

VIDEO: Exercise time on the Kontiki

After a glorious day spotting whales and dolphins, we began to rest as the boat began making its way back to Puerto Vallarta.

"Dolphins!" the guide shouted but most of us were too busy resting to spot the dolphins so the guide and the crew of the Kontiki decided that it was time for some exercise and the video above shows us all exercising to some lively music.

The crew came up with a game. If we were caught napping during the game, we would have to entertain the entire boat with a dance. In the videoclip below, our new friend, Mario Jr was caught napping and is being put through his paces.

VIDEO: Mario's penalty for napping!

So as you can see, we all had a terrific time on the tour. The crew of the Kontiki were knowledgeable and loads of fun. We'd do this tour again in a heartbeat!

Whalewatching tour: Part 3 - Other sightings

The Kontiki had just started out after picking up thirty plus tourists at Puerto Vallarta when we spotted this cool sea turtle. The turtle was maybe 4-5 feet long and it gave us plenty of photo opportunities as it remained on the surface for a rather long time. Nowadays, spotting a large sea turtle is a rare opportunity because very few of them survive to get to this size. Later, we'll share our excitement with you with our discovery that our resort is only about a half mile from a baby turtle conservation area, another good reason for choosing Nuevo Vallarta over Puerto Vallarta.

On the tour, we also spotted a manta ray though we were unable to get any good photos of it.

VIDEO: Pelicans flying beside our boat

Whalewatching tour: Part 2 - Whales, whales, whales

A trip to Nuevo Vallarta is incomplete without taking in a whalewatching tour. During the winter, the waters of the Banderas Bay are filled with magic as the humpbacks migrate south from the Alaskan waters to breed and calve.

For this tour, we signed up with Kontiki and boy, did we have the time of our lives. We didn't expect to see so many whales on this tour but there they were, in pods of five or more, breaching (jumping) near our boat and slapping the water. They were incredibly acrobatic, considering their massive sizes (79,000 lbs) and appeared to be having the time of their lives in the warm waters of the bay.

VIDEO: A pair of humpbacks breaching near our boat.

VIDEO: Several whales breaching and spouting.

Meet our friends on the whalewatching tour!

Before we got on board the Kontiki for our whalewatching tour, we met the family of Mario and Ross at the dock in Nuevo Vallarta. They were visiting from Celaya in the state of Guanajuato. They were so friendly and warm (that's the case with almost every Mexican we met) that it was easy to strike up an immediate conversation and friendship with them.

When they learned that we were trying to learn Spanish, they became the most patient teachers and we quickly learned simple Spanish. Because of our friendship with them, the tour was even more enjoyable as we shared the wonders and joys of spotting dolphins (delphin in Spanish), a giant turtle (tortuga), a manta ray and whales (ballena).

Video: Mario's Spanish Lessons

Video: Mario and Mario Jr watches as flocks of pelicans (pelicano) fly by.

We will always remember the family of Mario and Ross and the wonderful time we shared on this awesome tour. Even though we're thousands of miles apart, we still communicate via email. We're continuing our Spanish lessons up here in Canada. Who knows? We may be able to converse fully with Mario and his family in Spanish someday!

Buenos Noches! Hasta Luego!

Banderas Bay Whalewatching Part 1: Dolphins

Last August, we had cruised Alaska's Inside Passage. We didn't sign up for a whale-watching excursion because of the exorbitant cost of such a tour and hoped to see whales from the ship but that didn't happen.

So when we learned that Alaska whales migrate to the Banderas Bay to breed and have their young, we jumped on the opportunity to see them. It's also costs a lot less to do this in Mexico and we had such a wonderful time with the funnest crew ever! We don't think you'll have
more fun whale-watching with anyone other than the Banderas Bay Kontiki crew.

We set sail from Nuevo Vallarta to Puerto Vallarta to pick up more tourists. This is a 45-minute ride and what a lot of fun that was with dolphins riding the bow-wave of our boat and frolicking in the sea. Unfortunately, I only had my Olympus all-weather camera with me and so I was unable to get the best photos and videoclips of the dolphins. The photo above was the best photo I could get of a dolphin close to our boat.

Video: A pod of dolphins

Video: A dolphin rides the bow-wave of our boat

Mark has a much better videoclip of frolicking dolphins in Banderas Bay. Please CLICK HERE for his videoclip.