Sun, Oct 1 –Puerto Vallarta is a beautiful, relaxed tourist town nestled on the southern shores of Banderas Bay, one of the largest natural bays in the world. Behind the town, the Sierra Madre Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop to the south and east of the city. Puerto Vallarta has around 300,000 inhabitants.  Its economy is largely based on tourism and construction, along with agriculture, such as mangos, papayas, watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe and bananas.  It has a tropical climate--warm and humid year round. The Dry Season (winter) lasts from November through mid-June, and the Rainy Season (summer) extends from late June to October.

Puerto Vallarta came into existence pretty much in the middle of the 19th century. It was in 1851 that a permanent settlement was created on Banderas Bay.   The settlement was called Puerto de Las Penas, and it was both a fishing village and a shipping destination for salt used in the refining of silver, which was being mined up in the Sierra Madre mountains.  In 1918, the town was renamed Puerto Vallarta. In the 1950s, an expatriate community started up, along with the building of roads and an airport connecting the city to the rest of Mexico.  In the 1960s land reform was allowed for building of luxury hotels and resorts and Puerto Vallarta suddenly was in the tourist trade.

We didn't arrive into port until 10 a.m. and we were off and running about 1030 a.m.  We took the free taxi to the "diamond exchange" and meandered around there, and then took off and just wandered the town on our own.  We walked down to old town to see how the locals lived - how these places don't burn down is amazing - the wires that are strewn all overhead in a tangled mess is just unreal.

The beach of Puerto Villarta is beautiful, but we had no desire to play in the sand - the town and the beaches were packed with locals and tourists alike, so we just kept walking - it was quite pretty and very interesting - you see the poor and the rich sitting side by side in the building of this city; high-rises sit right next to shacks - amazing.  One of the things we have learned is that a building is pretty much never completed, because if they complete the building then they are taxed on it; so a mass majority of buildings in Mexico are not finished off.

We took a taxi back to the ship and stopped over at the Mall - I am in a desperate search for sandals, as that was one of the things I took out of the luggage before leaving because "I wasn't going to need sandals", huh!  I won't ever leave home without them again.  We didn't find anything at the mall in the way of comfortable shoes - these women must have really, really sore feet - everything was super high heels and very pointed and uncomfortable looking - good thing I no longer wear shoes like that!!!

We were back on board before the require boarding time, and planned on getting in the pool, but we were wiped so we just kicked back and watched the world go by on the sundeck.

We got our third couple for our dining table this evening.  Donna and Jerry from Tacoma, Washington.  They will be staying with us until San Antonio, Chili, where they will depart and head for home as Donna is still the "giver" in the family.  She is still working, while Jerry is retired.  A very nice couple.  I think we have been lucky in the people we are having dinner with.

A walk around the deck and enjoying the evening show - a Pianist from Puerto Rico who is now residing in NYC - and we call it a night.